During the second half of the seventeenth century, when the kingdom was at its height, it extended from Arabian Sea on the west coast to the Bay of Bengal on the east coast. 

         This magnum opus recaptures the sublime spirit of the opulent oriental life and culture as rendered by its aesthetic carved architecture, art, pulsating lush paintings, customes, jewellery, arms, armour and scores of other antiquities, which are brought to light and most of them published for the first time. Being secular rulers they patronized Muslims, Hindus, and Christians alike. The Hindus occupied high positions in administration and the army and were recruited at all levels. Europeans too were employed and were given extra-ordinary concessions to establish factories within the kingdom. They patronized Persian, Marathi, Kannada, Urdu and Arabic languages. Some of the royal orders or farmans were bilingual. Some of them were inscribed on stone slabs and have survived. It represented unity in diversity. The Composite civilization that evolved at the highly cosmopolitan Bijapur was known as "Deccani".