No More Learning

'Alā-ud-din Ahmad Bahmani was in no position to supply a large
contingent for the prosecution of this campaign.
1


## p. 494 (#544) ############################################

494
[CH
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
part of the kingdom. Having thus consolidated his position he
marched into the southern possessions of Orissa and gradually
pushed the invaders back so that when the attention of Muhammad
Shāh Bahmani III was drawn to the political condition of the
Telingāna coast about 1476, he found Sāluva Narasimha posted in
great strength on the banks of the Godāvari at Rājahmundry.
Muhammad's efforts to dislodge him do not appear to have been
attended with success, and he had to content himself merely by
carrying a raid across his territory as far south as Kānchi'. While
Narasimha was opposing the Bahmani king, a change had taken
place in the kingdom of Vijayanagar ; either Mallikārjuna died, or
was put to death by a younger brother, by name Virūpāksha. This
latter, whether guilty of his brother's death or no, put to death all
who could dispute his possession of the throne, and carried on the
administration so inefficiently and oppressively that the eastern
and southern provinces transferred their allegiance to Narasimha.
On the west coast his maladministration caused the Arab horse-
traders who had settlements on the west coast to transfer their
places of business from the ports of the kingdom to those beyond
the Vijayanagar frontier. Sāluva Narasimha decided that the only
way of saving the kingdom was to depose Virūpāksha and seize the
throne for himself, and in 1487 Narasa, who commanded his troops,
deposed the tyrant and assumed the government of the kingdom
on behalf of his master. This was the first usurpation in the king-
dom, and Narasimha found his justification in the perils which
menaced it. Virūpāksha's reign corresponded with the reign of
Purushottama Gajapati of Orissa. Purushottama's records assert
that he penetrated as far south as Kānchi, carried off a princess of
Kānchi, and married her in peculiarly romantic circumstances. .
Narasimha ruled as king for six years, during which period he
recovered most of the revolted provinces, but failed to conquer the
Rāichūr Doāb, which was retained by the Bahmani kingdom, or to
recover Udayagiri, which remained in the possession of the raja
of Orissa. On his death-bed he entrusted the kingdom and his two
sons to Narasa, begging him to carry on the administration, to
enthrone whichever of his two sons should prove the fitter for rule,
and to recover Rāichūr, Umagal, and Udayagiri. Narasa placed
one of Narasimha's young sons on the throne, but this prince died
as the result of wounds that he received in an expedition into the
Rāichūr Doāb. Narasa circumvented court intrigues, placed the
second son of Narasimha upon the throne, and carried on the
1 Şee pp. 417. 419,


## p. 495 (#545) ############################################

xvu)
KRISHNADEVARAYA
495
administration as before. He died in 1505, and it was his son, Vira
Narasimha, that deposed the Sāluva ruler Narasimha II.
This second usurpation caused widespread rebellion and Nara-
simha was engaged during the four or five years of his reign in
attempting to recover the revolted provinces. He was successful
on the whole, but the enterprising Gangarāja Ummattūr remained
in rebellion, in the territory round Kānchi. Vira Narasimha leſt
some infant sons and three grown up brothers, and charged his
faithful minister Säluva Timma, as Nuniz records, to put out the
eyes of the ablest of his grown-up brothers, and place on the throne
one of his sons. The minister proved false to the dying sovereign
and remained true to the interests of the kingdom; and placed
the youngest brother, marked for mutilation, upon the throne in
1509. Thus ascended the throne the great king Krishnadevarāya of
Vijayanagar.
Krishna ascended the throne at a critical moment in the history
of South India. The Portuguese had landed in India eleven years
beſore, and, just as he was settling himself on the throne at Vija-
yanagar, had taken possession of Goa, which has remained in their
possession since. The entry of this European nautical power created
an unsettling factor in the commercial relations of the kingdom
with the outer world. The kingdom itself was disturbed, and the
very heart of it was in the hands of a rebellious vassal. Although
the Bahmani kingdom had broken up into five separate states there
was considerable activity on that frontier, chiefly from the direction
of Bījāpur. The rajas of Orissa sill held the east coast as far as
Nellore, and were in possession of the most important fortresses
in the Telugu country, extending north-westward from Udayagiri
in the Nellore District. Krishna came to the throne between May
and Novembr of the year 1509, and his coronation did not take
place until the following January. The delay seems to have been
due to a circumstance recorded by Nuniz. The young king's elder
brother ordered the Brāhman minister, Sāluva Timma, to bind
him, and the minister was inclined to obey the order until his pity
was moved by his master's entreaties. Sāluva Timma remained in
power, treated almost with deference by Krishnadevarāya, who
used to style him Āppāji (ʻreverend father'), and the relations
between the two gave rise to the stories of Rāyar and Āppājī
which are current in Southern India and resemble those related of
Hārūn-ur-Rashid and Ghafür, and of Vikramāditya and Bhatti.
Krishna remained at his capital for a few months after his
accession and there received the Portuguese embassy from Affonso
>


## p. 496 (#546) ############################################

496
[CH
.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
a
de Albuquerque, who desired to enter into a commercial treaty and
sought aid against the Zamorin of Calicut. Krishna detained the
embassy at the capital while he suppressed the rebellion in the
region about Kānchi. Marching from Penukonda he reduced to
obedience all the petty chieftains whose lands lay on his way,
attacked the Raja of Ummattūr, defeated him in the field, and
laid siege to his stronghold, the fortress of Sivasamudram. He
drained off the Kāverī, which flowed round it, and captured it with
all the treasure which it contained. He then marched to Sriran-
gapatam, thence to Ikkēri, and thence to the frontiers of Bijāpur.
These operations were completed by the year 1512. He then
marched along his northern frontier strengthening the garrisons in
the fortresses, particularly in Mudgal, Rāichūr and Adoni.
Resolving wisely, on the advice of Sāluva Timma, to leave the
Muslim Sultans alone for the time, he made preparations for an
invasion of the territories of Orissa with a view to detaching the
Gajapatiking from the alliance with the Muhammadans, and coming
to terms with him if possible. He sent Sāluva Timma to the capital
to make the necessary preparations, and himself went on a visit to
the shrines of Tirupti and Srisailam. When the minister had
completed his preparations Krishna marched to invade the king.
dom of Orissa. He first marched against Udayagiri, the southern-
most fortress in the occupations of the Gaja pati monarch, and
took it after a protracted siege. This war occupied the years 1512
and 1513, and he carried back with him, together with much
treasure and prisoners belonging to the royal family of Orissa, the
image of Bālākrishna which he set up in a temple constructed for
the deity, the ward of Vijayanagar in which the temple was built
being named Krishnāpuram from this temple of Krishnasvāmi.
This was completed in March 1514,
Krishna next attacked the fortress of Kondavidu (Kondavir)
and a number of fortified places of lesser importance held for the
Raja of Orissa in the neighbourhood. These he reduced in spite of
the assistance which they received from the Sultans of Bīdar and
Golconda, and he finally carried the fortress of Kondavidu itself
by storm. Here he took prisoner the Gajapati prince Virabhadra
and a number of Orissa noblemen of high rank. All this took place
in the first half of the year 1515. After a raid into the kingdom of
Golconda he broke up his camp at Bezwada and besieged and took
Kondapalli, capturing the officers who held it for the Raja of Orissa.
He then inarched north-eastwards as far as Simhāchalam in the
Vizaga patam district, taking severa! fortresses on his way. Here


## p. 497 (#547) ############################################

XVIII ]
RECOVERY OF EASTERN PROVINCES
497
he halted and opened negotiations with the raja of Orissa, who
gave him a daughter in marriage and accepted the Krishna as the
boundary between the kingdoms of Orissa and Vijayanagar, the
retrocession of the territory to the south of that river being effected
under the form of bestowing it on the princess as her dowry.
Krishna's achievement was meagre. He had fulfilled only part of
his father's behest, and had but recovered a province which had
formerly belonged to the kingdom which he ruled : yet he was
not ashamed to assume the vainglorious title of Gajapatisaptan-
gaharana, appropriator of (Orissa's) seven elements of royalty.
On his return journey he was on the banks of the Krishna in
July-August, 1516. After his return from this war he made large
grants to temples in southern India for the repair of the damages
which they had suffered in the Muhammadan invasions and built
the small town of Hospet in memory of his mother Nāgalādēvi
giving it the name Nāgalāpura. At some time between the death
of Yusuf 'Ādil Shāh in 1510 and this period Krishna's troops,
profiting by the discussions between the five kingdoms of the Deccan,
had invaded and annexed the Rāichúr Doāb, and in 1520 Ismāʻil
•Ādil Shāh attempted to recover it, but was defeated'. The battle,
which is mentioned in one of Krishna's inscriptions, was fought on
May 19, 1520, at a place named Kembhāvi ("Red Well') and a
Telugu poem exults in the reddening of the well with the blood
of the Yavanas, or Muslims.
The remainder of Krishna's reign was undisturbed by foreign
wars, but in his declining years his kingdom was harassed by rebel-
lion. He appears to have fallen sick in 1525, when his brother
Achyuta, who afterwards succeeded him, acted for a short time as
regent. It was about this time that Tirumala Rāya, another of his
sons, died, and a rising, connected in some unexplained manner
with the death, occurred, but was suppressed. At the end of
Krishnas' reign, in 1528 or 1529, one of his most trusted officials,
Vira Narasimha, who is styled Sellappā, 'the Dear One,' and was
governor of the central districts of the kingdom, rebelled, and,
fearful of the consequences, fled to the kingdom of Tiruvadi, or
Travancore. At the same time Nāgama, an old officer of the king-
dom who was placed in charge of the Madura district refused to
obey the orders which he received from court, and persisted in his
contumacy until his own son, Vishvanāth, who was sent against
him, defeated him, and was appointed to the government of the
district in his father's place. The central districts of the kingdom
See p. 435.
C, H, I, III.
32
1


## p. 498 (#548) ############################################

498
[ ch.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
were still disturbed when Krishna died in 1530, and almost the first
act of his successor, Achyuta, was to lead a punitive expedition
against the fugitive governor. Achyuta had marched as for south
as Srirangam when one of his brothers-in-law, Salakam Tirumala-
rāzu, volunteered to lead the expedition. Achyuta remained in
Srīrangam while his brother-in-law reduced to obedience the ruler
of Tiruvadi, the rebel governor, and their Pāndya allies. Having
concluded a treaty sealed by his own marriage with a Pāndya
princess, Achyuta marched across to Srirangapatam and Ikkēri, and
thence towards the frontier of the Bījāpur kingdom, but effected
nothing, and returned to his capital. Having begun his reign with
so much promise he lapsed immedaitely into a life of luxury and
sloth, and let the administration pass into the hands of his two
brothers-in-law, both named Tirumala. This usurpation aroused
the opposition of a party led by three brothers, Rama, Tirumala
and Venkata of the Āravīti family, the first of whom is described
as the son-in-law of Krishna or of one of his brothers, Narasimha
or Ranga. This party seems to have had the countenance even of
the widows of Krishna. The party of the brothers Tirumala had
the upper hand to begin with, and the three brothers had to flee
from court for safety. When they had gathered together sufficient
force in their own districts and prepared to march upon the capital
Tirumala, the elder of the two brothers, who is described as the
mad Tirumala (Kanarese Hucchu, corrupted into Hoj, Tirumala),
sought the assistance of Ibrāhīm 'Adil Shāh I of Bījāpur. The
intervention of Bījāpur served only to embitter the strife. When
Ibrāhīm retired the three brothers marched upon the capital and
the mad Tirumala destroyed the portable wealth in the treasury,
hamstrang the royal horses, blinded the elephants, and committed
suicide. In the course of these events, which followed the death of
Achyuta, his son Venkata was placed upon the throne. Venkata
was killed by the mad Tirumala and the three brothers now placed
on the throne a nephew of Achyuta and Krishna, by name Sadā-
shiva, son of Ranga, one of the four brothers. The date of the
commencement of Sadāshiva's reign is 1542, and with his accession
begins the de facto rule of the three brothers!
The abortive attempt of Ibrāhīm Ādil Shāh I to add the fortress
and district of Adoni to his dominions has already been described
This fact of aggression aroused the enmity of Sadāshivarāya, who
1 This is the true version of the story which has already been related on pages
439 and 440.
2 Sce p. 440.


## p. 499 (#549) ############################################

xvm)
FALL OF VIJAYANAGAR
499
eagerly embraced opportunity afforded by an invitation from
Burhān Nizām Shāh I of Ahmadnagar of attacking Bījāpur. The
story of the intervention of Sadashivarāya in the quarrels of the
Muslim kings of the Deccan, first as the ally of Ahmadnagar
against Bījāpur, and afterwards as the ally of Bījāpur against
Ahmadnagar, of the gratuitous insults offered to the Muhammadan
religion, of the foolish arrogance which united against him those
by whose differences he night long have continued to prosper, of
his defeat and death at Talikota, and of the destruction of his great
kingdom has been related in Chapter XVII, and little need be
added to that account. The evacuation of the strongly fortified
city of Vijayanagar has not yet been explained.
ed. It was due,
according to Caesar Frederick, who was at Vijayanagar two years
after the battle of Talikota, to the mutiny of two corps of Muham-
madan mercenaries, each of which is said to have been 70,000
strong, employed in the army of Vijayanagar. The attitude of the
Hindus to Islam during the campaigns in the kingdom of Ahmad-
nagar had been such as to exasperate all Muslims, and it is not
surprising that the victory of their co-religionists should have
encouraged these mercenaries to turn their arms against their
former employers and to transfer their allegiance to the con-
querors.
1 See pp. 441–450.
.
32-2


## p. 500 (#550) ############################################

CHAPTER XIX
SIND AND MULTĀN
I. SIND
The history of Sind from the period of the Arab conquest early
in the eighth century to the time when it became a province is
fragmentary and obscure. From the first conquest until A. D. 1010,
when it was conquered by Mahmūd of Ghazni it was ruled by a
governor of governors who pretended to represent the ‘Abbāsid
Caliphs of Baghdād, but were more probably hereditary rulers who
obtained the Cliph's recognition as a matter of form, and in some
cases, doubtless, neglected even this formality. From its conquest
by Mahmūd until 1053, in the reign of Farrukhzād, the tenth of
his line, it was, at least nominally, a province of the empire of
Ghaznī, but in that year, while the empire was still in confusion
owing to the recent usurpation of Tughril 'the Ingrate,' the Sūmras,
a native Rājput tribe of Lower Sind established themselves in that
region, but failed to extend their authority over Upper Sind and
Multān. The province was conquered by Mu'izz-ud-din Muhammad
Ghūrī, and was governed by his lieutenant, Nässir-ud-din Qabācha,
who attempted, after his master's death to assert his independence
but was conquered by Shams-ud-din Iltutmish. Of the nature and
extent of the authority exercised by the later Slave king over the
province little is known, but it probably varied with the personal
character of the monarch and of the ruler of Sind. The province
owned the authority of Ghiyās-ud-din and of the Khaljis of Delhi,
whose power preserved it from becoming the prey of the Mughuls,
but retained so much autonomy, even during the reign of Mu-
hammad Tughluq; whose cmpire included the whole of India except
Kashmir and some tracts in the neighbourhood of Cape Comorin
in the extreme south and in Kāthīā wār in the extreme west, as
enabled the Sammās, a Rājput tribe of Cutch and lower Sind, to
oust the Sūmras and to usurp, without the interference of any
central authority, the government of the country. There are many
discrepancies as to the date of this event, and one authority places
it in 1439, which is at least a century too late. From a considera-
tion of all the circumstances it is safe to conclude that it occurred
about 1336.


## p. 501 (#551) ############################################

cit. Xix )
SAMMĂS AND ARGHỮNS
501
The Sammās, of whom Abu-'l-Fazl enumerates, in the Āin. ;-
Akbari sixteen, and Muhammad Ma'sūm, in the Tarikh-i-Sind,
seventeen, had adopted Islam, and propagated that religion in their
dominions. They used, as rulers, the title of Jām, still retained by
the chiefs of Nawanagar in Käthiāwār, which is explained as an
assertion of a claim to descent from Jamshid, and the explanation,
though not convincing, is the only one which has been offered.
The first three princes of this line acknowldged, by the pay-
ment of tribute, the supremacy of Muhammad Tughluq, but the
third, by harbouring and protecting the rebel Taghi, repudiated
his alleginċe to Delhi, and was enabled, by the opportune death
of his suzerain and the defection of his allies, to escape the punish-
ment of rebellion, but his successor, Timāji, was compelled by the
arms of Firüz Tughluq to return to his allegiance, and to signalize
his obedience by a protracted sojourn at the court of Delhi.
The chroniclers of Sind make no mention of the victory of
Shihāb-ud-din of Kashmir (1359—1378)' over the Jām of Sind on
the banks of the Indus, the only authorities for which are the
chronicles of Kashmir, so vague on the point as to be worthless.
The disruption of Muhammad Tughluq's great empire after the
death of Firūz, and the contraction of the kingdom of Delhi, after
the invasion of Tīmūr, to a few districts round the capital absolved
the Jāms of Sind from their allegiance to a central authority, and
they ruled their principality as independent sovereigns until, in
the reign of Jām Nizām-ud-din, commonly known as Nanda, who
succeeded in 1439 and reigned for sixty years, the Mughuls of the
Arghūn clan began to make their influence felt in Lower Sind, and
the Sammās sought to increase their power by a close alliance
with Gujarāt. Daughters were given in marriage to the kings of
that country, and, in one instance, to one of their dependants,
Qaisar Khān Fārūqi, who belonged to the ruling family of Khān.
desh, and whose grandson succeeded to that principality, but in
1521 Shāh Beg Arghūn, driven from Qandahār by Bābur, conquered
Sind and expelled Jām Firūz, the last of the Sammās, who found
an asylum at the court of Gujarāt and gave his daughter in mar-
riage to Sultān Bahādur of that country.
Shāh Beg Arghūn died in 1524, and was succeeded by his son,
Shāh Husain, who in 1528, after a siege of more than a year's
duration, took Multān, then nominally ruled by Sultān Husain
Langāh II, devastated the city, carried the inhabitants between
the ages of seven and seventy into captivity, and appointed Khvāja
1 See Chapter XII.


## p. 502 (#552) ############################################

502
(CH.
SIND AND MULTĀN
Shams-ud-din its governor, with Langar Khān, who had formerly
commanded the army of Multān, as his assistant. Shortly after-
wards Langar Khān, having collected the scattered inhabitants
and restored a measure of prosperity to the city, expelled Shams-
ud-din and governed Multān as an independent ruler.
Shāh Husain Arghūn was reigning in 1541 when Humāyūn,
fleeing from Lahore, took refuge in Sind. Sultān Mahmud of
Bukkur shut himself up in his island fortress and refused to assist
in any way the fallen emperor, nor was Shāh Husain more inclined
to protect the man whose father had expelled him from Qandahār.
Humāyūn attempted to persuade him to join him in an attack on
Gujarāt, but Shāh Husain, having kept his envoys in attendance
for five or six months, dismissed them without a decided answer,
and while Humāyān was besieging Bukkur and Sehwān cut off his
supplies. Humāyūn left sind in May, 1542, and, having vainly
endeavoured to obtain assistance from the rajas, Māldeo of Jodhpur
and Lonkaran of Jaisalmer, returned to the country later in the
year. His son Akbar was born at Umarkot on November 25, 1542,
and Humāyūn fled through Sind towards Persia, crossing the Indus
at Sehwän.
Shāh Husain Arghūn suffered from continued fever, and his
health was so enfeebled that his nobles deserted him and elected
as their sovereign Mirzā Muhammad 'Isā Tarkhān, a member of
the elder branch of the Arghūn clan. Shāh Husain and Sultān
Mahmūd, the governor of Bukkur, were united in their opposition
to 'Isā, but were compelled to sue for peace and to cede to him a
great part of Sind, the whole of which fell into his possession on
the death of Shāh Husain in 1556.
Muhammad 'Īsā Tarkhān died in 1567, and was succeeded by
his son, Mirzā Muhammad Bāqi Tarkhān, who, after crushing the
revolt of his younger brother, reigned peacefully until 1585, when
he committed suicide in a fit of insanity. His son Mirzā Pāyanda
Muhammad Tarkhān, being likewise insane, was excluded from the
succession, which passed to his son, Mirzā Jāni Beg Tarkhān, the
grandson of Muhammad Bāqi.
Akbar, who regarded Sind as a province of his empire, resented
Jāni Beg's failure to appear at his court, and in 1591 sent ‘Abd-ur-
Rahim Khān, Khān Khānān, to invade the country. He defeated
Jāni Beg in two engagements, compelled him to surrender both
Tattah and Sehwān, and carried him to Akbar's court at Lahore.
Here he was well received, and was appointed governor of the
Multān province, and shortly afterwards, owing to the clamours of


## p. 503 (#553) ############################################

XIX )
THE LANGÅHS OF MULTÀN
503
the Arghūn clan for the return of their old ruler, was restored to
Sind as governor of the province. He died at Burhānpur in 1599,
and his son Mirzā Ghāzi Beg Tarkhān was appointed to the govern-
ment of Sind, the history of which was merged thenceforward in
that of the Mughul empire.
II. MULTAN
Multān, regarded by the Arab conquerors as the principal city
of Upper Sind, was the capital of a region which was often closely
connected with Sind, but was ordinarily regarded as a province of
the kingdom or empire of Delhi, whose claim to its obedience
was established early in the thirteenth century by Shams-ud-din
Iltutmish, when he defeated Nāsir-ud-din Qabācha, the governor
who had been appointed by Mu'izz-ud-dīn Muhammad Ghūri, and
was retained, at least nominally, by his successors until the dis-
ruption of the kingdom after the invasion of Tīmūr Lang. The
authority of the Sayyid dynasty, which acquired the throne in
1414, extended no further than the immediate neighbourhood of
Delhi, and Muhammad Shāh, the third king of that line, failed
even to observe the formality of nominating a governor to Multān,
and the people were compelled to provide one for themselves.
Their devotion to the local saint, Bahā-ud-din Zakariyā, who was
born at Karor in 1182 and died at Multān on November 7, 1267,
had always been conspicuous, and in 1438 they chose as their ruler
Shaikh Yūsuf Quraishi, the guardian of the saint's shrine.
The Shaikh had the merits and the defects of one who had chosen
a life of seclusion and devotion. His rule was mild and beneficent,
but he was ill-equipped to combat, either by force or by art, the
enemies of his rule An Afghān chief, Sahra Langāh, of Sibi,
beguiled him by professing devotion for him, gave his daughter
in marriage, and made paternal affection a pretext for visits to
Multān so frequent that they ceased to excite either comment or
suspicion. In 1440 he succeeded by a stratagem in introducing his
troops into the Shailkh's citadel, deposed him, and banished him to
Delhi, where he was well received by Buhlūl Lodi.
Sahra, who assumed the title of Sultān Qutb-ud-din, founded
the Langāh dynasty, which endured almost as long as Multān
maintained her independence of Delhi. He died in 1456 after a
reign of sixteen years, and was succeeded by his son, Sultan
Husain I.
Shaikh Yusuf constantly urged Buhlūl Lodī to recover Multān,


## p. 504 (#554) ############################################

504
[CH.
SIND AND MULTĂN
>
and the Afghān king twice set out from Delhi with this object.
In 1452 he was recalled by the advance of Mahmud Shāh of Jaunpur,
whom some disaffected nobles had invited to Delhi, and once again,
after 1458, the menacing attitude of Husain Shāh of Jaunpur com-
pelled him to retrace his steps.
Husain Langāh I was an energetic ruler, and annexed Shorkot
and Karor. While he was engaged in suppressing the rebellion of
his brother in Karor Buhlūl, moved once again by the importunity
of Shaikh Yusuf, sent his third son, Bārbak Shāh, to attempt to
recover Multān, and ordered Tātār Khān Lodī, governor of the
Punjāb, to support him. The two kinsmen advanced on Multān,
but Husain returned by forced marches and utterly defeated them
before the city, putting their armies to flight.
On the death of Buhlūl Lodi, on July 17, 1489, Husain I sent
letters of condolence and congratulation to his son and successor,
Sikandar Shāh, and the two monarchs concluded a treaty of peace.
Husain I abdicated in his old age, nominating his son Firuz as his
successor, but Fīrūz proved to be a dissolute and worthless ruler.
He conceived unfounded suspicions of Bilāl, son of the minister,
'Imād-ul-Mulk, whom his father had chosen, and caused him to be
assassinated. 'Imād-ul-Mulk avenged Bilal's death by poisoning
Firūz, and Husain, deeply grieved by his son's death, resumed the
reins of power, and designated Mahmūd, the son of Fīrūz, as his
heir. 'Imād-ul-Mulk's past services and the death of his son were
not allowed to atone for his having compassed the death of his
prince, and he was executed. On August 31, 1502, Husain himself
died, after a reign of forty-six years, and was succeeded by his
grandson, Mahmūd, the son of Fīrūz,
Mahmud was a profligate youth, and his tyranny drove his
minister, Jām, Bāyazid, on whom Husain had bestowed the im-
portant fief of Shorkot, into rebellion. War broke out between the
king and his vassal, who summoned to his aid Daulat Khān Lodi,
governor of the Punjab. The combination was too strong for the
king of Multān, who was compelled to relinquish his claims to
sovereignty over the Shorkot district, and to acquiesce in Daulat
Khān's decision that the Rāvi should be regarded as the northern
frontier of the kingdom of Multān'. Shorkot was thus lost to
Multān and became a fief in the province of the Punjab.
1 A strange error is made in the I. G. (xviii. 26), where it is stated that in 1502
the Rāvi was fixed as the boundary between the territories of Delhi and those of
Multān. This is impossible, for both Delhi and Multān lay then, as now, to the
south of the Rāvi. See "The Mihrān of Sind," by Major H. G. Raverty, J. A. S. B. ,
vol. Ixi. part I, 1892.
>


## p. 505 (#555) ############################################

Xix)
RECOVERY OF MULTÀN
505
In 1527 Mirzā Shāh Husain Arghūn of Sind invaded the kingdom
of Multān at the instigation of Bābur. Mahmūd vainly endeavoured
to stay his advance by sending to him a mission charged with the
duty of effecting a settlement by negotiation, and, on the failure of
his efforts to secure peace, marched forth to a distance of two stages
from the city. Here his mission rejoined him on its return, and
immediately after receiving it he died, poisoned, as was supposed,
by Langar Khān, the commander of his troops, who on his master's
death, deserted to the enemy. The army returned to Multān and
proclaimed Husain, the infant son of Mahmūd, king. Shujā'-ul-
Mulk Bukhāri, son-in-law of the late king, became regent, and
decided, against the advice of all his officers, to stand a siege. The
city after enduring fearful privations, fell in 1528, after a resist.
ance of a year and some months, the young king was imprisoned,
and Shujā-ul-Mulk Bukhāri was tortured to death. The kingdom
was annexed to Sind and Khvāja Shams-ud-din was appointed
governor by Shāh Husain Arghūn, but was shortly afterwards
removed by Langar Khān, who submitted to Kāmrān Mirzā, brother
of Humāyūn of Delhi, and governor of the Punjab on his behalf,
thus re-uniting Multān to Delhi, from which it had been severed
for a century.


## p. 506 (#556) ############################################

CHAPTER XX
THE NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA FROM
A. D. 1000 TO 1526
On no occasion were the earlier Muslim invaders of India called
upon to meet a mighty Indian ruler. No Asoka, Kanishka, or
Harsha arose to defend the rich and alluring plains. Such rulers
were, indeed, rare phenomena in India, which has never been the
home of a nation, and whose normal condition was that of a
congeries of independent and mutually hostile states, fortunate if
they could agree temporarily to sink their differences before a
common ſoe.
When Muhammad b. Qāsim invaded Sind in 711 the Chālukyas,
the Pallavas, and the Răshtrakūtas were contending for supremacy
in the Deccan, and the Arab geographers of a later date corrupted
Vallabha Rāi, the title borne by many of the Rāshtrakūtas, imi-
tating the Chālukyas, into Balharā, and used this word as a generic
title for the leading ruler in India ; but in Northern India the
cmpire of Harsha had dissolved on his death in the middle of the
preceding century, and no power had succeeded to the hegemony.
How Muhammad dealt with Dāhir, the local ruler of Sind, we have
seen. The Chāvadas of Kāthiāwār, the Gahlots of Chitor, the
Chauhāns of Sāmbhar, and probably other houses claim to have
met and defeated the Arab invaders, but these chiefs ruled princi-
palities contiguous to or not far distant from the conquered state,
and their opposition to Muhamınad was not a united effort. The
claims may well be true, but the conflicts were of little importance.
The Arabs had Sind, and if they ever contemplated an extension
of their conquests in India they soon abandoned the idea.
At the time of Mahmūd's invasion India north of the Vin-
dhyas was divided into a number of independent states. The Hindu
Shāhiya dynasty, founded by Lulliya the Brāhman at the end of
the ninth century, with its capital at Ond on the Indus existed on
sufferance for some time after the establishment of the Turkish
power in Ghaznī, but was extinguished by Mahmūd. Of the history
of the kingdom of the Punjab, with its capital at Bhātinda, little
is known. Its position compelled its kings, Jaipāl I, Anandpāl,
Jaipāl II, and Bhimpāl the Fearless to stand forth for a time as


## p. 507 (#557) ############################################

CH. XX]
RAJPUT LEAGUES AGAINST MAHMŨD
507
the principal champions of Hinduism, and though their end was
unfortunate it was not dishonourable. On Bhimpal's flight to Ajmer
in 1021 his kingdom became a province of Mahmūd's empire.
The other states in northern India at this time were Sāmbhar,
or Ajmer, ruled by the Chauhān Rājputs; Delhi, lately founded
by the Tomaras near the site of the ancient Indraprastha (In-
darpat), Chitor, already possessed by the Gahlots, who were not
prominent among the opponents of the invader; Kanauj, still held
by the Gurjara Pratihāras, Harsha's desendants, whose power had
waned before that of the Chandel rajas of Jijhoti (the modern
Bundelkhand), chieftains of Gond origin, who had advanced north-
wards until they made the Jumna the boundary between their
territory and that of Kanauj; and Gujarāt, ruled by the Chālukyas
or Solankis, who had superseded the Chāwaras. The Jāts inhabited
the country on the banks of the Indus between Multān and the
Sulaimān Range, and their chieftains seem to have owned alle-
giance to the Muslim rulers of Multān. To the south of Jijhoti lay
Chedi, held by the Kālachurīs or Haihayas, another tribe of Gond
origin, and to the west of Jijhoti and Chedi lay Mālwa, governed
by a line of Paramāras or Pawārs which had been founded early
in the ninth century. Bengal was ruled by the
Pāla dynasty,
founded in the eighth century by Gopāla, who was elected king of
Bengal and founded the city of Odantapuri (Bihār). Kāmarūpa, or
Assam, was ruled by an ancient family of Koch, or Tibeto. Chinese
origin, which had become completely Hinduized. In Kashmir the
Karkota dynasty, founded in Harsha's lifetime by Durlabhavar-
dhana, still reigned. The fortress of Gwalior was the capital of the
Kachhwāha Rājputs, who were probably feudatories of Jijhoti.
The leading confederates of Jaipāl I in his campaign against
Sabuktigin were Rājyapāla of Kanauj, styled Jaichand by Muslim
historians, and Dhanga of Jijhoti. The confederacy formed against
Mahmūd in 1001 was far more formidable, and Anandpal of the
Punjab was joined by Vīsaladeva, the Chauhān king of Sāmbhar
or Ajmer, to whom was given the chief command, his vassal the
Tomara raja of Delhi, Rājyapāla of Kanauj, Ganda of Jijhoti,
Vajradāman Kachhwāha of Gwalior and Narwar, and the Pawār
raja of Dhār, or Mālwa, all of whom shared in the disastrous defeat
suffered by the Hindus on December 31, 10011.
Ganda Chandel, who had succeeded his father Dhanga in 999,
and appears in Muslim annals as 'Nanda, raja of Kālinjar,' which
was his principal fortress, succeeded Visaladeva of Sāmbhar as the
1 See ante, p. 16.


## p. 508 (#558) ############################################

508
| CH.
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
leader of the Hindu confederacy, and, on Mahmūd's return to
Ghazni in 1019, from the expedition in which he plundered Muttra
and Captured Kanauj, Manaich, and Asnil, took upon himself the
probably congenial duty of punishing Rajyapāla for having in order
to save Kanauj ſrom pillage and destruction, betrayed the national
cause by swearing fealty to the foreigner. Ganda's son, Vidhyā-
dara, aided by the prince of Gwalior, invaded Kanauj and defeated
and slew Rajyapāla, who was succeeded by his son, Trilochanapāla.
Mahmūd was not slow to avenge his vassal, and in 1021 invaded
India to punish Ganda. The details of this invasion have already
been given». Gandā, with the confederate army of 36,000 horse,
105,000 foot, and 640 elephants, prepared to meet the invader on
the Sai, between the Ganges and the Gumti, but his courage failed
him, and after his flight Mahmūd captured Bāri, the new Pratihāra
capital, and returned to Ghazni with the booty which he had taken
from Ganda's camp. In 1022 he returned and compelled Ganda's
son to surrender to him Kālinjar, which long remained a bone of
contention between Hindu and Muslim in India, and was regarded
as the key to the region south of the Jumna and east of Mālwa.
Hindu annals do not credit the Solankis of Gujarāt with a share
in the various confederacies formed to oppose the invader, but the
considerations which led Mahmud to undertake the most famous
of all his expeditions, that to Somnāth, have been recorded? . Bhim
the Solanki then ruled Gujarāt, having his capital at Anhilvāra,
in the neighbourhood of the modern Pātan. After the capture of
Beyt Shankhodhar and the flight of Bhim, Mahmūd, before returning
to Ghazni, made arrangements for the administration of Gujarāt.
According to the legend related in some Muslim histories an ascetic
named Dābshilīm, who had some claim to the throne, was brought
to his notice as a fit person and was appointed by him to govern
the country. At his request Mahmūd carried to Ghazni for safe
custody another Dābshilim, a relative whose pretensions the newly
made king dreaded, and detained him until king Dābshilim was
securely seated on his throne, when he sent him back to Gujarāt
at the king's request. When the prisoner approached Anhilvāra
the king, according to custom, went forth to meet him, and, arriving
at the appointed spot before him, passed the time in hunting. At
length, overpowered by the heat and by fatigue, he lay down under
a tree to rest, covering his face with a red handkerchief. A bird
of prey, taking the handkerchief for a piece of flesh, swooped down
upon it and, driving his talons into the king's eyes, destroyed his
1 See ante, pp. 18-20.
2 See ante, p. 21.
3 See ante, p. 23.


## p. 509 (#559) ############################################

xx)
GUJARĀT, KANAUJ, AND DELHI
509
sight. One so injured was disqualified from reigning, and the
prisoner Dābshilīm, arriving at that moment, was acclaimed by the
popular voice as king, while the blinded man was confined in the
dungeon under the throne room which he had destined for his
relative.
Dābshilim is well known in Muslim literature as the king to
whom the Brāhman, Pilpāy, related the fables of the jackals Kalīla
and Dimna, which have been translated into Arabic and Turkish,
and twice into Persian, but the name is unknown in Indian history
and it is difficult to connect it with any Indian king. It has been
suggested that Mahmud, after the flight of Bhim I, appointed his
uncle, Durlabha, to the government, and that the two Dābshilims
represent Durlabha and his son, but Lt. -Colonel Tod's explanation
appears to be more probable. He says that the Dābhis were a
well known tribe, said by some to be a branch of the Chāwaras,
who had preceded the Solankis on the throne of Gujarāt, and sug-
gests that the name is a compound of Dābi Chāwara.
The remnant of the dominions of Rājyapāla of Kanauj had
passed to his son, Trilochanapāla, who first transferred his capital
to Bārī, which was taken by Mahmūd, and afterwards resided
much at Benares, which was attacked and plundered by Ahmad
Niyāltigin, the traitor who governed the Punjab for Masóūd, the
son of Mahmūd.
Hānsī, a possession of Mahīpāl, rāja of Delhi, was captured early
in 1038 by Masóūd, but in 1044 Mahipal recovered from Maudūd,
Masóūd's son, not only Hānsī, but also Thānesar and Kāngra. In
1079 Ibrāhīm, the eleventh king of the Ghaznavid dynasty, led a
raid into Western India, and early in the twelfth century Mu-
hammad Bāhlim, a rebellious governor of the Punjab under Bahrām,
the fifteenth king, established himself as far south as Nāgaur, from
which town he governed a large tract of country ; but the power of
the Ghaznavids had long been declining, and, with the exceptions
already mentioned, the Hindu states of India were not molested,
and were left free to pursue their internecine strife.
After the submission of Rājyapāla of Kanauj to Mahmūd the
power of the Pratihāras declined, Trilochanapāla and his successors
were styled rajas of Kanauj, but lived principally at Manaich, now
Zafarābād, near Jaunpur, and more remote than their ancient
capital from the menace of the Chandel. Shortly before 1090
Chandradeva, of the Gaharwār clan, acquired possession of Benares
and Ajodhya, both of which had been included in the kingdom of
1 Tod, i, 122 and note.
1


## p. 510 (#560) ############################################

510
[CH.
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
Kanauj, and extinguished the last vestiges of the authority of the
Pratihāras by extending his dominions as far as Delhi, which he
is said to have captured, and occupied, reducing the Tomaras to
vassalage.
Gangeyadeva Kālachuri of Chedi, who reigned from 1015 to
1040, extended his ancestral dominions, and almost succeeded in
becoming the paramount power in Northern India, but was not
powerful enough to crush the Chandel kingdom. His son Karna-
deva, who reigned from 1040 to 1100, invaded the Pāla kingdom of
Magadha, or Bihār, in 1039, before his father's death, and defeated
the reigning king, Nayapāla. In 1060 he and Bhim II of Gujarāt
attacked and crushed Bhoj, the learned king of Mālwa.
Mālwa had been ruled for two centuries and a half by chieſs of
the Paramāra or Pawār tribe, whose capital was at first Ujjain and
later Dhār. The line was honourably distinguished by its love for
and encouragement of learning, and in this respect Bhoj was not
the least distinguished of his house. The death of Bhoj broke the
power of the Pawārs, who, however, ruled Mālwa until the begin-
ning of the thirteenth century, when they were ousted by the
Tomaras. The inclusion of the Deccan in the Muslim kingdom of
Delhi between the years 1294 and 1347 made Mālwa a highway
between the northern and the southern provinces, and destroyed
the power of the Hindu rulers of the country; but the Tomaras
were succeeded by the Chauhāns, who enjoyed some power and
influence in Mālwa until the end of the fourteenth century, when
it became an independent Muslim kingdom.
The victory over Bhoj of Mālwa benefited the Kālachuri but
little. Some years later Karnadeva suffered several defeats at the
hands of his enemies, the chief of whom were Kirtivarman Chandel,
who reigned from 1049 to 1100, and Vigrahapāla III, king of Bihār
and Bengal ; and little more is heard of Chedi. After 1181 the
Kālachuri rajas of northern Chedi disappear, having probably been
supplanted by Bāghel chiefs of Rewa.
The Gahlot kingdom, which is still represented by the State of
Udaipur, had been founded before the invasion of Sind by Mu-
hammad b. Qāsim, and tradition credits its ruler with having met
the Muslim in the field in those early days, but the state seems to
have taken no part in the resistance offered to Mahmūd. The same
may be said of the Pāla kings of Bengal and Bihar, who apparently
believed that they were not concerned in the fate of the Punjab
and Hindūstān, though the dominions of Dharmapāla, the second
of the line, are said to have extended from the Bay of Bengal


## p. 511 (#561) ############################################

XX ]
PĀLAS AND SENAS OF BENGAL
511
to Delhi and Jullundur. They were devout Buddhists, and their
religion perhaps set a gulf between them and their Brahmanical
neighbours. Mahipāla I was reigning in Bengal during the period
of Mahmūd's raids, but before the next wave of invasion, destined
to engulf Bengal, had broken over Northern India, and during a
serious rebellion which broke out in the Pāla kingdom about the
year 1080, Choragangā, king of Kalinga, extended his conquests to
the extreme north of Orissa, and Sāmantasena, a chieftain from
the Deccan, founded a principality at Kāsipurī, now Kasiārī, in the
Mayūrbhanj State. His grandson, Vijayasena, established his inde-
pendence about 1119, and took much of Bengal from the Pālas,
his aggression being doubtless stimulated by religious antagonism,
for all the Senas were Brahmanical Hindus. Vallālasena, or Ballāl
Sen, Vijayasena's son and successor, was the most powerful of the
line. He introduced Kulinism into Bengal, and is said to have
ſounded Gaur, or Lakhnāwatī, but the city was probably built
before his reign. About 1175 he was succeeded by his son, Laksh.
manasena, who was driven from his capital, Nadiya, by Ikhtiyār-
ud-din Muhammad b. Bakhtyard. The capture of Nadiya (Nuddea)
did not immediately extinguish the dynasty, which continued its
existence for four generations after Lakshmanasena, but the rajas
were mere vassals of the Muslim rulers of the country.
Rāmapāla, who reigned from about 1077 to 1120, was one of
the most famous of the Pāla kings. His father, Mahipāla II, was
slain by rebels, and Rāma pāla was compelled to flee, but obtained
assistance from many other princes, defeated and slew the rebel chief,
and regained the throne. He extended his dominions and encouraged
Buddhism, and it was not until the end of his reign that the Senas
established themselves in Bengal. Rāmapāla has sometimes been
regarded as the last of the Pālas, but he was succeeded by five kings
of his family, who, though Bengal had been lost, retained Bihār,
Indradyumnapāla, the last known raja of the line, was reigning at
the time of the Muslim invasion of Bihār”, in which he probably
lost his life, as nothing more is heard of his house.
The Muhammadan kingdom of the Punjab had long ceased to
be a menace to the Hindu princes of India, but they cannot have
been ignorant of the rise of new powers beyond the Indus. No
menace, however, sufficed to deter them from their internecine
disputes.
A long line of princes of the Chauhān tribe had ruled the princi-
pality of Sāmbhar, of which Ajmer had become the chief town, and
1 See ante, p. 46.
42.
2 See ante, p.


## p. 512 (#562) ############################################

512
[CH.
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
a
in the middle of the twelfth century Vigraharāja (Visa ladeva or
Bisal Deo) of this line extended his dominions in an easterly direc-
tion by capturing Delhi from a chief of the Tomara tribe, who had
founded the city in A. D. 993-94 by building the Red Fort where the
Qutb Minār now stands. The city was of no great importance but
Vigraharāja's victory extinguished a minor dynasty and might have
made for unity and strength, had there not been other competitors
for power in the field.
Vigraharāja's nephew and successor was Prithvi Rāj, known to
Muslim historians as Rāi Pithaurā, the most chivalrous warrior of
his time in India : but the most powerful of Indian princes at the
erd of the twelfth century was Jaychandra, the Gaharwār raja of
Kanauj and Ajodhya, styled by the Muhammadans 'Jaichand, raja
of Benares'. He had a marriageable daughter, in whose honour he
held a swayamvara, the assembly to which, in accordance with
ancient custom, princes prepared to offer themselves as suitors for
the lady's hand were summoned, in order that she might make her
choice of a husband. The swayamvara was regarded as an assertion
of superiority and Prithvi Rāj failed to respond to the invitation
and to appear as a formal suitor, but his reputation had reached
the princess and he wounded Jayachandra's honour by carrying off
the not unwilling damsel. This romantic exploit bred bitter enmity
between the two leading powers of Northern India, and a victory
in 1182 over the Chandel raja, Parmāb, and the capture of the
important fortress of Mahoba, while they enhanced the reputation
of Prithvi Rāj, weakened the Hindu cause by sowing further dis-
sension between the native princes.
These princes, however, sank their differences and united to
oppose the invader at the first battle of Tarāori', in which Muham-
mad b. Sām was defeated, for the Muslim writers say that all the
rajas of Hindūstān were present at that battle ; but Jayachandra
of Kanauj seems to have found an alliance with his son-in-law too
high a price to pay even for national freedom, for he stood aloof
from the Hindu confederacy at the second battle of Tarāroia
which laid the foundation of Muslim rule in Hindūstān, and iſ
Hindu legend is to be believed even allied himself to the national
enemy.
The operations of the Muslims after the second battle of Tarāori,
in 1192, have been described in Chapter III. Muhammad b. Sām
marched at once on Ajmer, the Chauhān capital, and, after sacking
the city and enslaving many of its inhabitants, appointed Govinda-
1 See ante, p. 40.
2 Ibid.


## p. 513 (#563) ############################################

XX ]
EXTINCTION OF THE GAHARWĀRS
513
rāja, the son of Prithvi Rāj, as its governor. According to the
Muslim chroniclers the new raja was distasteful to his subjects by
reason of his illegitimacy', but the truth was that he was a minor,
and was not fit to contend with the enemies of his people. Harirāja,
called Hemrāj by Muslim historians, who was the younger brother
of Prithvi Rāj, accordingly deposed his nephew and usurped the
throne. Govindarāja fled to the fortress of Ranthambhor, where,
as will be seen, he carried on the line of his house, not without
glory. He was succeeded by his son, Balhanadeva, who was reigning
in 1215, and Balhanadeva was succeeded by his son Prahlād, who
was killed by a lion. Vīra Narāyan, Prahlād's infant son, succeeded
to the throne of Ranthambhor, and his uncle, Vegbhata, assumed
the regency. The history of the Chauhāns of Ranthambhor will be
resumed later,
The fate of Harirāja in Ajmer has already been recorded. After
suffering two defeats at the hand of Muhammad's lieutenant, Qutb-
ud-din Aibak, he committed suicide, and Ajmer, the capital of the
Chauhāns, became a Muslim city.
Jayachandra of Kanauj had, since the second battle of Tarāorī,
acquiesced in all the acts of aggression committed by the invaders,
but Muhammad b. Sām learned that he had repented of the alliance
and was preparing to oppose him, and in 1193 he invaded India
with the object of attacking him. It was probably the invasion of
Bihār, the fate of its monks, and his own isolation that aroused in
him, too late, a sense of the folly of his association with the enemies
of his country. His fate has been recorded in Chapter 111. 4 Benares
was plundered, Kanauj was destroyed, and the kingdom of the Gahar-
wārs came to an end. The Muslims did not, however, immediately
establish their authority in this region, and chiefs of the Chandel
tribe from Mahobā ruled as local sovereigns in Kanauj for eight
generations. The Gaharwārs were extinguished, and there is no
evidence to support the legend that a remnant migrated to the
country now known as Mārwār and became known as Råhtors, or
the claim of the Mahārāja of Jodhpur to descent from the old royal
house of Kanauj.
The conquest of Bihār involved the destruction of the Pāla
dynasty, which had borne sway in Bengal and Bihār for nearly four
centuries, and in the latter country alone for nearly a hundred
years. Indradyumnapāla, the last king of the line, was alive in
1197, but retained no power during the later years of his life.
1 See ante, p. 43.
2 See ante, p. 43.
3 See ante, p. 42.
4 Şee ante, p. 43,
C. H. I. III,
33


## p. 514 (#564) ############################################

514
[ch.
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
Ikhtiyār-ud-dīn Muhammad b. Bakhtyār, having extinguished
the Pālas of Bihār, drove Lakshmanasena or Lakshman Sen of
Bengal from his capital and established Muslim rule in Bengal'.
Lakshmanasena, and, after him, his son and his grandson ruled at
Vikrampur as vassals of the Muslim governor of Bengal, but the
dynasty virtually came to an end with the capture of Nadiya
(Nuddea). His conqueror died shortly after his disastrous expe.
dition into Bhutān, or Tibet? , where the destruction of his army
was partly due to the treachery of the king of Kāmarūpa (Kāmrüp),
or Assam. This kingdom successfully resisted all attempts of the
Muslims to invade it, but the Hinduized Koch, who ruled it at this
time, succumbed in 1228 to an invasion by the Āhoms, a Shān tribe,
whose chieſs ruled the country until 1816, when they were con-
quered by the Burmese, who in 1824, during the first Burmese war,
were expelled by British and Indian troops, and in 1826 Assam
became a province of the British empire in India.
The extinction of the Kanauj dynasty and the disappearance of
the Gaharwārs left the Chandels of Jijhoti the only formidable neigh-
bours of the Muslims. Paramardī, or Parmāl, who had been defeated
by Prithvi Rāj, was still reigning at Mahobās, which had superseded
Khajrāho* as the residential capital of the Chandels. The principal
fortress in their dominions was Kālinjar", which had been sur-
rendered to Mahmūd of Ghazni by the son of Ganda Chandel, and
in 1202 Qutb-ud-din Aibak marched against the fortress, the account
of his siege and capture of which has already been related. After
the death of Paramardi, the Chandels, as an important dynasty,
disappeared, and the tribe dispersed, but petty chieftains of the race
held lands in Mālwa, as local rulers, until the sixteenth century.
All the ruling houses of Hindūstān proper, except the Chauhāns
of Ranthambhor and the Katehriya Rājputs of Katehr, the modern
Rohilkhand, had now been extinguished or expelled, and the latter
were held in check by the Muslim garrison of Budaun, their former
capital, which had been one of the earliest conquests of Qutb-ud-din
Aibak and remained ever after in Muslim hands ; but the Rājputs
made Āonla? their capital, and Katehr virtually retained its inde-
pendence until the Mughul empire was firmly established in the
middle of the sixteenth century. A strong king at Delhi might cow
the Rājputs into submission, but whenever the central authority
1 See ante, p. 46.
3 In 25° 18' N. and 79° 53' E.
5 In 25° 1' N. and 80° 29' E.
7 In 28° 17' N. nd 79° 10' E.
2 See ante, pp. 49, 50.
4 In 24° 51' N. and 79° 56' E.
6 See ante, p. 47,


## p. 515 (#565) ############################################

XX]
RANTHAMBHOR
515
was weakened the Hindus rose and attacked the Muslims. The in
habitants of Katehr often suffered severely for the turbulence of
their chiefs, who themselves usually found an asylum in the hills of
Kumāon until the storm had passed.
But though the great ruling houses were extinct, the people
were not leſt leaderless. The history of the Doāb and the country
on either side of the Ganges contains evidence that the local Hindu
landholders, petty rajas, who were probably regarded as fief-holders
and paid tribute or rent when the central government could enforce
the demand, were ever ready to resist oppression, as in the reign of
Muhammad Tughluq, and to take advantage of the weakness of
their rulers, as during the reigns of the ſeeble Sayyids, or of their
dissensions, as in the struggle for supremacy between the kingdoms
of Delhi and Jaunpur.
The most turbulent of these petty chiefs were the leaders of the
Meos, inhabitants of Mewāt, the “ill-defined tract lying south of
Delhi and including part of the British Districts of Muttra and
Gurgāon, and most of the Alwar and a little of the Bharatpur State';
the Hindu landholders of Baran, or Bulandshahr, and Etāwah ; and
various chieſs holding lands near the confluence of the Ganges and
the Jumna. The depredations of the Meos extended across the
Jumna into the Doāb, and northward even into the streets of Delhi.
The ruling family accepted Islam, and became known as Khānzādas;
and Bahādur Nāhar, whose tomb still stands at Alwar, and who
ruled Mewāt at the time of Tīmūr's invasion at the end of the four-
teenth century, was one of the most powerful chiefs in the neigh-
bourhood of Delhi.
The capture of Ranthambhor by Shams-ud-din Iltutmish' adds
little to the reputation of that great king. According to the Hindu
records he was defeated before the fortress in 1225, but succeeded
in persuading the young raja, Vīra Narāyan, to visit him at Delhi,
poisoned him, and took possession of his capital. Mālwa was still
independent under the Pawārs, and the raja then reigning at Dhār
attempted to win the favour of Iltutmish by attacking Vagbhata,
Vira Narāyan's uncle, who had been regent at Ranthambhor, but
Vagbhata defeated him, and after the death of Iltutmish recovered
Ranthambhor from the officer who held it for Raziyya, and was
acclaimed by the Chauhāns as their king. Muslim historians allege
that he was defeated at Ranthambhor by Raziyya's troops, but are
constrained to admit that the troops evacuated the fortress aſter
dismantling it?
1 See ante, p. 53.
2 See ante, p. 59.
33-2


## p. 516 (#566) ############################################

516
[ CH.
NATIVE STATES OF NORTHERN INDIA
In 1249 Ghiyās-ud-din Balban, who afterwards ascended the
throne of Delhi, attempted to recover Ranthambhor for his master,
but was obliged to retire discomfited'. The Muslim histrorian styles
Vagbhata Nāhar Deo, confusing him, perhaps, with a Meo chief,
who had probably allied himself to Vagbhata, for Balban, before
marching on Ranthambhor, had been engaged in an attempt to
establish order in Mewāt. Vaghhata was succeeded by his son, Jaitra
Singh, who abdicated, and was succeeded in 1282 by his son Hamira,
known to the Muslims as Hamir.
Hamira was warlike and enterprising. After subduing Arjuna,
a minor chieftain of Mālwa, he attacked the Gond raja of Garha-
Mandlā who submitted and paid tribute.
The Pawār had gained little by his attempt to ingratiate hiinself
with the foreigner. In 1234 Iltutmish invaded Malwa and sacked
both Bhilsa and Ujjain, and Hamira, after succeeding his father at
Ranthambhor, resolved to punish Bhoja II, the reigning king of
Mālwa, for the crime of his predecessor. Bhoja was deſeated, and
Hamira made a triumphal entry into Ujjain, the ancient capital of
Mālwa. Not content with this success, he marched northward, com-
pelled the Gahlot, Lachhman Singh, to acknowledge his supremacy,
captured Ābū and restored it to its hereditary prince in return for
a promise to pay tribute, and marched homeward through Ajmer,
Pushkar, Sāmbhar, and Khandela, all of which places he captured.
This vainglorious expedition enhanced Hamira's military repu-
tation and was probably not without effect on the attitude of Jalāl-
ud-din Fīrūz, the first king of the Khalji dynasty, who, in 1291,
marched to Ranthambhor, but decided, after reconnoitring the
fortress, that it would be dearly captured at the price in human
lives which he would have to pay, and turned aside to Jhāin and
Mandāwar.
Hamira's defiance of 'Alā-ud-din Muhammad by harbouring the
leaders of the mutiny which had broken out in Ulugh Khān's army
at Jālor, as it was returning from the conquest of Gujarāt, cost
him his kingdom and his life3. Ulugh Khān followed the fugitives
into the territory of Ranthambhor and defeated the Rājputs under
two officers named Bhim and Dharma Singh, but was unable to
undertake the siege of the fortress, and retired to Delhi. Hamira
emasculated Dharma Singh, and he and his brother fled to Delhi
and besought ‘Alā-ud-din to avenge this outrage. Ulugh Khān
and Nusrat Khān were sent to open the siege of Ranthambhor,
and, having first captured Jhāin, encamped before the fortress, but
1 See ante, p. 67
2 See ante, p. 95.
3 See ante, p.