No More Learning

His extant coins bear the latter date,


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366
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
an
>
Chanderi, to give him an asylum in that fortress, bui Bihjat Khān
replied that he was the servant of the king who held Māndū.
Mahmūd knew not where to turn, and remained irresolute for some
days, until he bethought himself of Medni Rāi the Purbiya, a
Rājput of eastern Hindústān, who held the military government
of a small district in Malwa and was noted for his valour, He
responded to the king's call, and came to his aid, and his accession
induced Bihjat Khān of Chanderi to change his attitude, so that he
sent his son Shiddat Khān to the king with offers of service.
Mahmūd, thus reinforced, marched to meet his brother, who
advanced from Māndü. The armies met in the evening, and while
they were encamped for the night Afzal Khan deserted the prince,
taking half of the army with him to Mahmūd's camp and Mu-
hammad fled without fighting. Mahmūd at once marched on
Māndū, being joined on the way by the remnant of Shihāb-ud-din's
supporters from Schore, and on November 28 found his brother,
who had assembled a number of troops, barring his way to the
capital. Muhammad was defeated, and fled into the fortress, and
Mahmūd, after inffectual attempt to induce him to submit,
opened the siege of the palace. On January 6, 1512 he was admitted
into the fortress, by some of his partisans and Muhammad and
Muhafiz Khān fled, with such jewels and treasure as they could
collect and carry with them, and threw themselves on the protec-
tion of Muzaffar II of Gujarat, who was then encamped at Baroda.
The course of Muhammad's subsequent wanderings has been traced
in the preceding chapter. He found a home, for a time in Berar,
under the protection of 'Alā-ud-din 'Imād Shāh.
Mahmūd was now established at Māndū, and soon had occasion
to repent of having summoned the Purbiya Rājputs to his aid.
Medni Rai assumed the office of minister, dismissed from their
posts all the old nobles of the kingdom, in whose places he ap.
pointed men of his own faith and race, and induced the king to
sanction the assassination of Afzal Khān and Iqābl Khān, whom
he accused of entering in correspondence with Muhammad. The
Muslim nobles viewed with mingled disgust and apprehension the
supremacy of the idolators in the state, and Sikandar Khān,
governor of Satwās and one of the most important of the great
fief-holders, raised the standard of revolt. Bihjat Khān of Chanderi
excused himself from obeying his sovereign's command to march
against the rebel, and Mansūr Khān of Bhilsa, who obeyed the
royal summons, was so ill supported that he abandoned the attempt
to crush the rebellion, and joined Bihjat Khān at Chanderi. Medni


## p. 367 (#413) ############################################

XIV ]
PREDOMINANCE OF THE RĀJPUTS
367
Rāi reduced Sikandar Khān to obedience, and by confirming him
in his fiefs induced him to renew his allegiance to Mahmūd.
Bihjat Khān of Chanderſ was still contumacious, and when
Mahmūd marched in person to Āgar sent letters to Sāhib Khān, or
Muhammad Shāh, in Berar, and to Sikandar Shāh Lodi of Delhi,
begging the former to join him and received the crown of Mālwa,
and seeking the assistance of the latter against a king who was
dominated by infidels.
While Mahmūd was awaiting the return of a mission which he
had sent to Bihjat Khān for the purpose of recalling him to his
obedience, he was perturbed by the news of a revolt in his capital,
and of the invasion of his kingdom by Muzaffar II of Gujarāt, but
the revolt was immediately suppressed and Muzaffar was recalled
to Gujarāt by domestic disturbances. No sooner had Mahmūd
been reassured by this news than he learnt that Sikandar Khān
was again in rebellion, and had defeated and slain a loyal officer
who had endeavoured to reduce him to obedience. At the same
time he learnt that his brother had reached Chanderī and had been
proclaimed king by Bihjat Khān and Mansür Khān. He retired to
Bhilsa and remained for some time in that neighbourhood. His
inaction encouraged the rebels to send a force to Sārangpur, but
the governor of that district defeated them, and the news that a
contingent sent to their help by Sikandar Shāh Lodi had retired
restored Mahmūd's spirits, and disheartened, in a corresponding
degree, his enemies. An attempt of Mubāfiz Khān to return to
Māndū was defeated, and the rebels were ready to come to terms,
The king was no less weary of the conflict, which, as he now under-
stood, was being prolonged only in the interest of the Purbiya
Rājputs, and ceded to his brother the districts of Rāisen Bhilsa, and
Dhamonī, besides remitting to hiin a substantial sum for his imme.
diate needs. The retention of the money by Bihjat Khān excited the
apprehensions of Muhammad, who believed that he was about to be
betrayed to his brother, and fled to the protection of Sikandar Shāh
Lodī, thus enabling his host to make an unqualified submission to
Mahmud, who, on December 18, 1513, was received at Chanderi by
Bihjat Khān, who endeavoured, without success, to free him from
his subservience to Medni Rāi.
Early in 1514 thc king returned to Māndū, where he fell
entirely under the influence of the Rājput minister, and at his
instigation put many of the old Muslim nobles of the kingdom to
death. The rest left the court, and even menial servants were dis-
missed, until the king was entirely in their power. He made an


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368
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
effort to free himself by dismissing Medni Rāi, but the minister
refused to accept his dismissal, and the Rājputs were restrained
from violence only by prudential considerations, and promised in
future to abstain from what was their greatest offence in the eyes
of Muslims -- the keeping of Muslim women as concubines. One of
their leaders, Sālibāhan, refused to make this promise, and the
offence thus continued. Mahmūd then attempted to remove Medni
Rāi and Salibāhan by assassination, and succeeded in the case of
the latter, but the former was only wounded, and the Rājputs
attacked the king's small bodyguard of Muslims, but were defeated,
chiefly owing to their fear of provoking the intervention of Muzaffar
II of Gujarāt by proceeding to extremities.
In 1517 Mahmūd lost patience with his Hindu masters, and,
leaving Māndū on the pretext of hunting eluded his Rājput escort
and fled to the frontier of Gejarāt, where he sought aid of Muzaf-
far II, whose ready response to the appeal, and the capture of
Māndū, the terrible massacre of the Rājputs, and Mahmūd's re-
storation to his throne have already been described in the preceding
chapter.
The Rājputs had not all been in Māndū when it was taken by
Muzaffar, and Medni Rāi had established himself in the northren
and eastern districts of the kingdom : his officers held Chanderi
and Gāgraun, and his brother, Silahdi, Rāisen, Bhilsa, and Sarang-
pur.
Mahmūd recalled all his old Muslim nobles and their troops,
and by the advice of Asaf Khān of Gujarāt, who had been left,
with 10,000 horse, by Muzaffar II to assist him against his enemies,
marched first to Gāgraun, which was held by Hemkaran for Medni
Rāi.
Medni Rai was himself with Rānā Sangrama, and, on hearing
that Mahmūd had opened the siege of Gāgraun, implored the Rānā
a town which contained all that was most precious to him.
Sangrama responded to the appeal, and marched with a large army
towards Gāgraun, and Mahmūd, on hearing of his advance, aban.
doned the siege and marched with great rapidity to meet him. His
army encamped within fourteen miles of Sangrama, who, having
ascertained that it was exhausted by its long march, attacked it at
once. On his approach the Muslims took the field in small bodies,
each division falling in as soon as it could arm and mount. The
whole army was thus cut to pieces in detail and utterly defeated.
Mahmūd himself was wounded and was captured, fighting valiantly,
for he lacked not physical courage, and carried before Sangrama,
to save


## p. 369 (#415) ############################################

XIV )
MÁLWA ANNEXED TO GUJARAT
369
who received him with the chivalrous courtesy which the Rājput
knows how to show to a defeated foe, but compelled him to sur-
render all his crown jewels.
The Rānā was now in a position to annex Mālwa, but prudently
refrained from a measure which would have raised against him
every Muslim ruler in India, and, making a virtue of necessity,
supplied Mahmūd with an escort which conducted him back to
Māndů and replaced him on his throne.
Asaf Khān's contingent of 10,000 cavarly fought in this battle,
and shared the disaster which befell the army of Mālwa, and for
this reason Sangrama's success is always represented in Hindu
annals as a victory over the combined armies of Mālwa and
Gujarāt.
Mahmūd's authority now extended only to the neighbourhood
of his capital. The northern and eastern districts of the kingdoms
remained, as already mentioned, in the hands of the Purbiya Rāj-
puts, and Satwās and the southern districts in those of Sikandar
Khān. A victory over Silahdi reduced him temporarily to obedi-
ence, but its effect was fleeting.
A few years later Mahmūd behaved with incomprehensible folly
and ingratitude. When Bahādur Shāh, in July, 1526, ascended
the throne of Gujarāt, his younger brother, Chānd Khān, fled to
Māndū, and Mahmūd not only received him, but encouraged him
to hope for assistance in ousting his brother from his kingdom.
Three years later, having heard of the death of Rānā Sangrama, he
raided the territories of Chitor and provoked Sangrama's successor,
Ratan Singh, who invaded Mālwa and advanced as far as Sārangpur
and Ujjain, to reprisals. He reaped the fruits of his ingratitude
towards the king of Gujarāt as described in the preceding chapter.
On March 17, 1531, Māndū was captured by Bahādur Shāh, and
the Khalji dynasty was extinguished. Bahādur's operations in
Mālwa during the next two years, his defeat by Humāyān, and the
latter's capture of Māndū in 1535 have been described in the
account of his reign. Humāyūn lingered in Mālwa until August,
1535, when he would have been better einployed elsewhere, and
was suddenly roused to activity by the rebellion of his brother
'Askari. After his departure Mallū Khān, formerly an officer of the
Khaljī kings, who had been permitted to retain the fief of Sārang-
pur and had received the title of Qadir Khān, reduced to obedience
other fief-holders in Mālwa, from Bhilsa to the Narbada, and,
having established himself at Māndū, assumed the title of Qādir
Shāh. When Sher Khān, hard pressed by Humāyūn in Bengal,
24
C. . H. I. III.


## p. 370 (#416) ############################################

370
( ch.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
demanded in language too peremptory for the occasion, assistance
from Qādir Shāh, the latter returned an insolent reply, which was
not forgotten, and Sher Shāh, now king of Delhi, invaded Mālwa
in 1542. Qādir, who was not strong enough to oppose him, made
his submission to him at Sārangpur, and was well received and
appointed to the government of Bengal instead of that of Mālwa,
but shortly afterwards, being apprehensive of Sher Shāh's intentions
towards him, fled from his camp. The king imprisoned Sikandar
Khān of Satwās, lest he should follow Qādir's example, and retired
from Mālwa, leaving behind him as viceroy Hāji Khān, with
Shujā'at Khān as governor of Satwās.
Nasir Khān of Satwās attacked the new governor with the
object of seizing his person and holding him as a hostage for his
father, Sikandar Khān, but was defeated, though Shujā‘at Khão
was severely wounded in the battle. He had not recovered from
his wounds when he was sum noned by Hāji Khān to assist hi'n
against Qādir Shāh, who, having assembled an army in Bānswāra,
was marching to attack him. Shujā'at Khān responded to the
appeal, and Qadir was defeated, and fled to Gujarāt The credit of
the victory rested with Shujā‘at Khān, and Hāji Khān was recalled
and Shujā‘at Khān was appointed to succeed him as viceroy of Mālwa.
Puran Mal, the son of Silahdi, still retained possession of the
fortress and district of Rāisen, and had recently, after occupying
the town of Chanderī, massacred most of its inhabitants, and
collected in his harem 2000 women, Muslims as well as Hindus. In
1543 Sher Shāh marched from Āgra against him and besieged him
in Rāisen. He was induced by delusive pronises to surrender, and
Sher Shāh, when he had him in his power, attacked him and his
followers with his elephants. The Rājputs performed the rite of
jauhar, and, fighting bravely, were trampled to death.
Shujā‘at Khān was on bad terms with Islām Shāh, Sher Shāh's
son and successor, and in 1547 an Afghān, whom he had punished
with mutilation for drunkenness and disorderly conduct, attempted,
with the king's implied approval, to assassinate him. He was
wounded, and so resented his master's behaviour that he fled from
his camp at Gwalior.
Islām Shāh treated him as a rebel, and invaded Mālwa, but the
viceroy would not fight against his king, and withdrew into Bān-
swāra. Islām Shāh was called to Lahore by the rebellion of the
Niyāzis, and at the instance of his favourite, Daulat Khan Ajyāra,
who was Shujā'at Khān's adopted son, pardoned and reinstated the
recalcitrant viceroy.


## p. 371 (#417) ############################################

XIV)
MĀLWA ANNEXED BY AKBAR
371
When Humāyūn recovered his throne in 1555 Shujā'at Khān?
abstained from acknowledging him, and demeaned himself in all
respects as an independent sovereign. Later in the same year he
died, and was succeeded by his son Miyān Bāyazid, known as Bāz
Bahādur, whose pretensions were opposed by his father's adopted
son, Daulat Khān Ajyūra. Bäz Bahādur, having lulled his rival's
suspicions by assenting to an arrangement by which Mālwa was
partitioned, seized him and put him to death, and assumed the
royal title. He then expelled his own younger brother, Malik
Mustafā, from Räisen, and captured Kelwāra from the Miyāna
Afghāns. His next exploit was an expedition against the famous
Rāni Durgāvati, qucen of the Gonds of Garha-Katanga, who de-
ſeated him and drove him back into his own country, where he
forgot his disgrace in the arms of his famous mistress, Rūpmati.
He sank into the condition of a mere voluptuary, and when Mālwa
was invaded, in 1561, by the officers of the emperor Akbar, he was
driven from his kingdom, which became a province of the Mughul
empire.
1 Shujā‘at Khān was vulgarly known as Sazāval or Sajāval Khān.
24-2


## p. 372 (#418) ############################################

CHAPTER XV
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN, 1347-1490
The revolt of the centurions and the establishment by 'Alā-
ud-din Bahman Shāh of the kingdom of the Deccan, not wholly
recovered by Delhi for 340 years, have already been described in
Chapter vi.
This kingdom was not conterminous with the southern provinces
of Muhammad Tughluq's great empire, for the Hindus of the south
had not failed to profit by the dissensions of their enemies. Kān-
hayya Nāik of eastern Telingāna, who claimed to represent the
Kākatiya dynasty, had readily assisted the rebels against the king
of Delhi, but was not prepared to acknowledge Bahman Shāh as
his master. Vīra Ballāla III of Dvāravatīpura had established his
independence when the Muslim officers in the Deccan rose in rebel-
lion, and having thrown off the yoke of Delhi was in no mood to
bow his neck to that of Gulbarga. He pushed his frontier north-
ward to the Tungabhadra river, which remained the extreme
southern limit of Bahman's dominions, nor did his successors in-
variably sncceed in retaining even this frontier, for the great
kingdom of Vijayanagar, which rose on the ruins of Dvāravatipura,
claimed the Djāb between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra, with
its two strong fortresses, Rāichūr and Mudgal, and this tract re-
mained a debatable land while Bahman's dynasty endured.
Ibn Batūtah, in his account of his voyage down the western
coast of India, mentions petty rulers of ports and their adjacent
districts owning allegiance and paying tribute to Muhammad
Tughluq, but this allegiance was withheld from Bahman Shāh, and
only gradually recovered by his successors, whose authority over
the Hindus of the Western Ghāts was always precarious.
The new kingdom included the province of Berar, which marched
on the north-west and north with the small state of Khāndesh and
the kingdom of Mālwa, and it was separated from Gujarāt by the
small hilly state of Baglāna (Bāglān), which retained a degree of
independence under a dynasty of native Rājput chieftains.
'Alā ud-din Hasan claimed descent from the hero Bahman, son
of Isfandiyār, and his assumption of the title Bahman Shāh was an
assertion of his claim. Firishta relates an absurd legend con-
necting the title with the name of the priestly caste of the Hindus,
13. A. S. B. Part I, vol. LxxIII, extra number, 1904.
a
1


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Xv ]
BAHMAN SHĀH
373
but this story is disproved by the evidence of inscriptions and
legends on coins, and the name Kankū, which frequently occurs in
conjunction with that of Bahman, and is said by Firishta to repre-
sent Gangū, the name of the king's former Brāhman master, is
more credibly explained by Maulavi 'Abd-ul-Wali' as a scribe's
corruption of Kaikāūs, which was the name of Bahman's father as
given in two extant genealogies.
The lesser Hindu chieftains of the Deccan, who had been bound
only by the loosest of feudal ties to their overlord in distant Delhi,
had followed the example of Dvāravatipura and Warangal, and
Bahman was engaged during his reign of eleven years in estab-
lishing his authority in the kingdom which he had carved out of
Muhammad's empire. He first captured the forts of Bhokardhan
and Māhūr from the Hindu chieſtains who held them, and then
dispatched his officers into various districts of the Deccan to reduce
the unruly to obedience. 'Imád-ul-Mulk and Mubārak Khān ad-
vanced to the Tāpti and secured the northern provinces, and Husain
Gurshāsp received the submission of the remnants of Muhammad's
army which had been left to continue the siege of Daulatābād,
and which submitted readily on learning that Bahman Shāh was
prepared to pardon their activity in the cause of the master to
whom they had owed allegiance. Qutb-ul-Mulk captured the towns
-
of Bhūm, Akalkot, and Mundargi, and pacified, in accordance with
the principle approved by his master, the districts dependent on
them. Landholders who submitted and undertook to pay the taxes
assessed on their estates were accepted as loyal subjects, without
too rigorous a scrutiny of their past conduct, but the contumacious
were put to death, and their lands and goods were confiscated.
Qambar Khān reduced, after a siege of fifty days, the strong fort-
ress of Kaliyāni, and Sikandar Khān, who was sent into the Bīdar
district, marched as far south as Mālkhed, receiving the submission
of the inhabitants of the country through which he passed, and
compelled Kānhayya Nāik of Warangal to cede the fortress of
Kaulās and to pay tribute for the territory which he was permitted
to retain.
Bahman had rewarded Ismāʻīl Mukh, who had resigned to him
the throne, with the title of Amir-ul-Umarā, the nominal command
of the army, and the first place at court, but afterwards transferred
this last honour to Saif-ud-din Ghūrī, father-in-law of Prince Mu-
hammad, the heir-apparent, and the old Afghān, bitterly resenting
1. Journal and Proceedings, A. S. B. , vol. v. p. 463.
2. Preserved by Firishta and the author of the Burhān-i-Ma'āsir,


## p. 374 (#420) ############################################

374
(cu.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
his supersession, conspired to assassinate the king, and paid the
penalty of his crime, but Bahman was so sensible of his indebted.
ness to him that he appointed his eldest son, Bahādur Khān, to the
post rendered vacant by his father's death.
Bahman was as yet far from being secure in his new kingdom
and a pretence of loyalty to Delhi furnished Nārāyan, a Hindu who
possessed the tract between the Krishna and Ghātprabhā rivers,
and Mu'in-ud-din, a Muslim who held a fief in the same neighbour-
hood, with a pretext for withholding tribute from a king who had
renounced his allegiance to his former lord. Khvāja Jahān from
Miraj and Qutb-ul-Mulk from Mundargi besieged the rebels in
Gulbarga, their chief stronghold, which was captured and occupied
by the former, whose politic leniency immediately conciliated the
inhabitants of the surrounding country. Khvāja Jahān, while he
was at Gulbarga, received news of the mutiny of an army which
had been sent to besiege Kanbari, one of Nārāyan's fortresses near
Bījāpur. The troops, suspecting their leader of trafficking with
the enemy, rose and slew him, and then, intoxicated by success,
and by possession of the treasure chest, marched to Sāgar, expelled
the officers employed in that district and occupied the fortress.
The news of the death of Muhammad Tughluq in Sind deprived
the mutineers of a pretext for rebellion; and Bahman, who marched
10 Sāgar in person, received their submission. He then captured
Kalabgūr, Kanbari, and Mudhol, pardoned Nārāyan, who surren-
dered to him, and marched to Miraj, which he had formerly held
as a fief from his old master, Muhammad Tughluq. Here he halted
for some time, and after establishing his authority in the neighbour-
hood, returned to Gulbarga, which he made his capital, renaming it
Ahsanābād. His leisure here was interrupted only by a rebellion of
two Muslim officers at Kohir and Kaliyāni.
After the suppression of this revolt he devoted himself to the
adornment of his capital with suitable buildings and to the estab-
lishment of a system of provincial government in his kingdom,
which he divided into four provinces, each of which was known as
a taraf. The first, Gulbarga, extended on the west to the Ghāts,
and later to the sea, on the north to the eighteenth parallel of
latitude, on the south to the Tungabhadra, and on the east to the
Banāthorā and a line drawn from its confluence with the Bhima
to the confluence of the Krishna and the Tungabhadra. To the
north of Gulbarga lay the province of Daulatābād, bounded on
the north and north-east by the petty state of Baglāna, Khāndesh,
and the southern Pūrna river ; and north-east of this lay Berar,


## p. 375 (#421) ############################################

Xv]
THE FOUR PROVINCES
375
>
which, east of Burhānpur, was bounded on the north by the Tāpti
and on the east by the Wardha and Pranhitā rivers, and extended
on the south to the southern Pūrna and Godavri rivers and on
the west approximately to its present limits. The fourth province
was Bidar, or Muhammadan Telingāna, which included the towns
and districts of Bīdar, Kandhār, Indūr, Kaulās, Kotāgir, Medak,
and as much of Telingana as was comprised in the Bahmani king-
dom, extended eastward, at the end of Bahman's reign, as far as
Bhongir ; but the eastern border of this province, like the southern
border of Gulbarga, where the Hindus of Vijayanagar often occu-
pied the Raichūr Doāb, varied with the power of the Muslim
kings to resist the encroachments or overcome the defence of the
Hindus of Telingāna. The governors first appointed to these pro-
vinces were Saif-ud-din Ghūri to Gulbarga ; the king's nephew
Muhammad entitled Bāhram Khān, to Daulatābād ; Saſdar Khān
Sīstāni, to Berar ; and Saif-ud-din's son, who bore the title of
A'zam-i-Humāyān, to Bidar. Muhmmad, the king's eldest son,
received his father's former title of Zafar Khān, and the districts
of Hūkeri, Belgaum, and Miraj, which Bahman had formerly held
of Muhammad Tughluq.
Rebellion never again raised its head during Bahman's reign,
and having thus provided for the administration of his kingdom he
was at leisure to extend its frontiers. He marched first into the
Konkan where having captured the port of Goa, he marched
northward along the coast, and took Dābhol, returning to his
capital by way of Karhād and Kolhāpur, both of which towns he
took from their Hindu rulers. After a period of repose at Gulbarga
he led an expedition into Telingāna, captured Bhongir, and re-
mained in its neighbourhood for nearly a year, during which time
he completely subjugated the country between it and Kohir.
During one of his periods of repose the king, intoxicated with
success in war and pride of race, indulged in extravagant dreams
of conquest, similar to those which had once deluded 'Alā-ud-din
Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq, and imitated the former by as-
suming, in the legends on his coins the vain-glorious title of "the
Second Alexander. ' He proposed to inaugurate his career of con-
quest by attacking the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, which had
suddenly risen to power, and carrying his arms to Cape Comorin,
but, like his prototype, was recalled to sanity by the sober counsels of
a faithful servant, the shrewd Saif-ud-din Ghūrī, who reminded him
that there was work nearer home, and that there still remained in the
northern Carnatic Hindu chieftains who had not acknowledged


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376
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
his sovereignty. Against these he dispatched an expedition, the
success of which may be measured by its booty, which included
200,000 golden ashrafis of ‘Alā-ud-din Khalji, large quantities of
jewels, 200 elephants and 1000 singing and dancing girls, murlis
from Hindu temples.
Bahman next turned his eyes towards the southern provinces
of the kingdom of Delhi, lying on the northern frontier of his
kingdom, and set out for Mālwa with an army of 50,000 horse, but
before he had traversed the hilly country of Southern Berar was
persuaded by Raja Haran the Vāghelā, son of that Raja Karan of
Gujarāt who had been expelled from his kingdom in the reign of
‘Ala-ud-din Khalji and had found an asylum with the Rāhtor raja
of Baglāna, to attempt first the invasion of Gujarāt, which the
raja promised, if restored, to hold as a fief of the kingdom of the
Deccan. Bahman marched into that kingdom, but at Navsārī fell
sick of fever and dysentery, brought on by his exertions in the
chase and by excessive indulgence in wine and venison, and was
compelled to abandon his enterprise. As soon as he had recovered
sufficiently to travel he returned to Gulbarga, where he lay sick
for six months and died on February 11, 13581. He left four sons,
Muhammad, Dāūd, Ahmad, and Mahmūd, the eldest of whom suc-
ceeded him.
Immediately after the accession of Muhammad I his mother
performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and either visited or commu-
nicated with al-Mu'tadid, the puppet Caliph in Egypt, from whom,
on her return to India in 1361, she brought a patent recognising
her son as king of the Deccan, in consequence of which he assumed
on his coins the title “Protector of the People of the Prophet of
the Merciful God. ' His father before him seems to have sought
and obtained this coveted recognition, for in 1356 the Caliph's
envoy to Firūz Tughluq of Delhi had desired him to recognise and
respect the Muslim king of the Deccan.
Muhammad I was a diligent and methodical administrator, and
on ascending the throne carefully organised his ministry, his house-
hold troops, and the provincial administration which his father
had inaugurated. His institutions demand more than passing notice,
for they not only endured as long as the kingdom of his successors
1 Rabi'ul-awwal 1, A. H. 759. This is the date given by Firishta. According to the
Tazkirat-ul-Mulūk Bahman died in A. H. 761 (A. D. 1360). A coin of his, dated A. 4.
760, exists, but is perhaps posthumous, although no coin of Muhammad I of an
earlier date than A. H. 760 has been discovered. J. A. S. B. , new series, xiv, 475.
2 3. 4. S. B. , vol. LXXIII, extra number, 1904, pp. 4–6.


## p. 377 (#423) ############################################

xv )
RISE OF VIJAYANAGAR
377.
on its
but were closely imitated in the smaller states which rose
ruins. The ministers were eight in number :
(1) Vakīl-us-Saltanah, the Lieutenant of the Kingdom ;
(2) Vazir-i-Kull, the Superintending Minister ;
(3) Amir-i. Jumlah, the Minister of Finance ;
(4) Vazīr-i-Ashraf, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Master
of the Ceremonies;
(5) Nāzir, the Assistant Minister of Finance ;
(6) Pīshvā, who was associated with the Lieutenant of the King-
dom, and whose office was in later times almost invariably
amalgamated with his ;
(7) Kotwal, the Chief of Police and City Magistrate in the
capital ; and
(8) Sadr-i-Jahān, the Chief Justice and Minister of Religion and
Endowments.
The guards were commanded by officers known as Tavājī, many
of whom acted as aides-de-camp to the king and gentlemen ushers
at court, in which capacity they were styled Bārdār. The whole
bodyguard, known as Khāss-Khail, consisted of 200 esquires to
the king (Aslihadār) and 4000 gentlemen troopers (Yaka-Javān),
and was divided into four reliefs (Naubat), each consisting of
50 esquires and 1000 troopers, and commanded by one of the great
nobles at the capital, with the title of Sar-Naubat. The tour of
duty of each relief was four days, and the whole force was com-
manded by one of the ministers, entitled, as commander of the
guards, Sarkhail, who performed his ordinary military duties by
deputy.
The Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar has already been mentioned.
The founder of the dynasty which ruled it from 1339 to 1483 was
Sangama I, a petty chieftain of Anagundi, on the north bank of
the Tungabhadra and near the site of Vijayanagar. Sangama had
never submitted to Muhammad Tughluq, but had maintained a
rude independence in his stronghold, and was at first probably
little more than a brigand chief ; but the subjection of the Kāka-
tiyas of Warangal, the destruction of the kingdom of Dvāravatīpura
by the Sayyid sultan of Madura, and the rebellion in the Deccan,
which left the Peninsula free from Muslim aggression, were the
opportunity of Sangama and his successors, and there are few
examples in history of a large and powerful state being established
by adventurers in the short time which sufficed for the establish-
ment of the kingdom of Vijayanagar. Unfortunately we lack the
means of tracing the process by which the insignificant chieftains


## p. 378 (#424) ############################################

378
[CH
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
of Anagundi became, within the short space of thirty years, the
unquestioned rulers of this great and wealthy kingdom, but we
may form some idea of the course of events by imagining a great
Hindu population exasperated by the sacrilegious oppression of
foreign warriors with whom they had been powerless to cope, de-
prived of their hereditary rulers, and suddenly relieved of the
hostile yoke by the intestine feuds of their enemies, joyfully ac-
claiming a national hero.
Sangama I was succeeded, in 1339, by his son, Harihara I, who
again was succeeded, in 1354, by his brother, Bukka I. It cannot
be determined what share each of these rulers had in establishing
the kingdom, but before 1357 it was so powerful that the sagest
counsellor of Bahman Shāh dissuaded him from molesting it. Mu-
hammad I came into conflict with this great power in consequence
of a measure of domestic policy, adopted in no spirit of aggression.
His father had minted few or no gold coins, but Muhammad, who
objected both on religious and political grounds to the circulation
of Hirdu money in his dominions, coined gold in considerable
quantities. Bukka I and Kānhayya of Warangal, without any justi-
fication, resented this measure as tending to limit the circulation
of their gold, and received support from the bankers and money-
changers in Muhammad's dominions, native Hindus of the Deccan,
who melted down all his gold coin falling into their hands, and
either hoarded the metal, which was purer than that of the Hindu
coins, or supplied it to the mints of Vijayanagar and Warangal.
Repeated warnings were disregarded, and on one day in May or
June, 1360, the Hindu bankers and money. changers in all towns
of the kingdom were, by royal decree, put to death.
Their place
was taken by Hindus of the Khatri caste of northern India, who
had accompanied the various armies which had invaded the Deccan,
and now enjoyed a monopoly of the business of banking and money.
changing until, in the reign of Fīrūz Shāh Bahmani (1397-1422),
the descendants of the slaughtered men were permitted, on pay-
ment of a large sum of money, to resume the business of their
forefathers.
The rajas of Vijayanagar and Warangal feigned to regard Mu-
hammad's determination to establish his own gold currency as an
assertion of suzerainty, and, knowing that his treasury had been
depleted by the profusion customary at the beginning of a new
reign, addressed arrogant and provocative messages to him, Bukka
demanded the cession of the Rāichūr Doab, and threatened, failing
compliance, to concert measures with the king of Delhi for a com-


## p. 379 (#425) ############################################

Xv ]
WAR WITH WARANGAL
379
bined attack on the Deccan. Kānhayya of Warangal demanded
the retroeession of Kaulās, and threatened war. Muhammad, on
one pretext and another, detained the bearers of these insolent
demands for eighteen months, by which time his preparations were
complete, and, with an effrontery surpassing that of his enemies,
haughtily inquired why his vassals, the rajas of Vijayanagar and
Warangal, had not made the customary offerings on his accession,
and demanded that they should atone for their negligence by im-
mediately sending to him all the elephants fit for work in their
dominions, laden with gold, jewels, and precious stuffs. Kānhayya's
reply to this insult was the dispatch of an army under his son
Venāyek Deva against Kaulās, and Bukka supplied a contingent
of 20,000 horse for the enterprise. The armies of Berar and Bidar
under Bahādur Khān defeated and dispersed the invaders, and
while Bukka's contingent fled southwards Venāyek Deva took
refuge in his fief of Vailampallam, on the sea coast. Bahādur
Khān marched to the gates of Warangal, forced Kānhayya to
ransom his capital by the payment of 100,000 gold hūnsand the
surrender of twenty-six elephants, and returned to Gulbarga.
These hostilities permanently disturbed the friendly relations
between Warangal and Gulbarga. In 1362 a caravan of horse-
dealers arrived at Gulbarga, and to the king's complaint that they
had no horse in their stock fit for his stable, replied that on their
way through Vailampallam Venāyek Deva had compelled them to
sell to him all their best horses, despite their protest that they
were reserved for the king of the Deccan. Muhammad set out in
person to avenge this insult, and led 4000 horse on a sudden raid
to Vailampallam, performing a month's journey in a week, and
arriving at his destination with only a quarter of his original force ;
but his arrival was unexpected, and, having gained admission to
the town by a stratagem, he captured Venāyek Deva as he at-
tempted to flee from the citadel. Exasperated by the foul abuse
which his captive uttered, he caused his tongue to be torn out, and
hurled him from a balista set up on the ramparts into a fire kindled
below.
He was gradually joined by the complement of his original
force, but imprudently lingered too long at Vailampallam, and in
the course of his long retreat was so harassed by the Hindus that
he was forced to abandon all his baggage and camp equipage, and
lost nearly two thirds of his men. Reinforcements which joined
1 The hūn was the coin former by known by the British in southern India as the
pagoda, and was worth four rupees.


## p. 380 (#426) ############################################

380
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
him at Kaulās not only checked the pursuit, but carried the war
into the enemy's country, and devastated the western districts of
Telingāna.
During the king's absence his cousin, Bahrām Khān Māzan-
darānī, governor of Daulatābād, had rebelled, and had sought the
assistance of Firūz Tughluq of Delhi'. His mission, which was
accompanied by envoys from Kānhayya of Warangal, failed to ac-
complish its object, and Muhammad sent an army to suppress the
rebellion in Daulatābād and marched in person into Telingāna to
avenge his recent discomfiture. One force was sent against Gol-
conda and another against Warangal, whence Kānhayya fled into
the hills and jungles and vainly sued for peace. Muhammad re-
mained for two years in Telingāna, ravaging and laying waste
the country, while his troops continued to besiege Warangal and
Golconda. Kānhayya at length succeeded in obtaining peace by
swearing fealty, paying an indemnity of 1,300,000 hūns, surrendering
300 elephants, and ceding Golconda. To these concessions he added
a throne studed with turquoises, which had originally been prepared
as an offering to Muhammad Tughluq, but was now included in the
regalia of the kingdom of the Deccan, where it was known as the
Takht-i-Firūza, or turquoise throne.
On March 21, 1365, Muhammad took his seat on this throne at
Gulbarga and made himself merry with wine, dance, and song. The
singers and dancers had to be suitably rewarded, and the king,
flushed with wine and success, ordered that they should be paid by
a draft on the treasury of Vijayanagar. His ministers hesitated to
execute an order issued, as they were persuaded, under the in-
fluence of strong drink, but the king was in earnest, and insisted
on obedience. The order, delivered to Bukka by an accredited
envoy, incensed the powerful raja beyond measure, its bearer was
ridden round the city on an ass and ignominiously expelled, and
Bukka crossed the Tungabhadra and besieged Mudgal, a fortress
then held by no more than 800 Muslim troops. The place fell, and
its garrison was massacred before relief could reach it, and Mu-
hammad set out for the Doāb with no more than thirty elephants,
crossed the flooded Krishna, and marched towards Bukka's great
army of 30,000 horse and 900,000 foot', vowing that he would not
1 Sce Chapter VII.
2 The vast numbers of infantry led into the field by the rajas of Vijayanagar will
frequently be noticed. They suggest a suspicion of delibcrate cxaggeration by
Muslim historians for the purpuse of magnifying the expliots of Muslim warriors but
the suspicion is unjust “Abd-ur-Razzāq, an unprejudiced observer, who visited
Vijayanagar in 1412, when the kingdom was at peace, says that the army
consisted of 1,100,000 men. The Hindu infantry was of very poor fighting


## p. 381 (#427) ############################################

Xv ]
FIRST WAR WITH VIJAYANAGAR
381
sheathe the sword until he had avenged the massacre of the garrison
of Mudgal by the slaughter of a hundred thousand misbelievers.
His impetuosity terrified Bukka, who fled with his cavalry
towards Adonī, leaving the infantry, followers, and baggage animals
to follow as best they could. The Muslims plundered the Hindu
camp, taking a vast quantity of booty, and Muhammad, after
slaughtering 70,000 Hindus of both sexes and all ages, retired for
the rest of the rainy season into the fortress of Mudgal where he
was joined by reinforcements from Daulatābād. He sent orders to
all the forts in his kingdom, demanding a detachment of artillery
from each, and sent the elephants which he had captured to Gul-
barga, for the conveyance of the guns! At the close of the rainy
.
season he advanced towards Adonī, while Bukka retired, leaving
his sister's son in command of that fortress.
Bukka reassembled his scattered army, and Muhammad, cross-
ing the Tungabhadra at Siruguppa, advanced to meet him. Bukka
detached an officer, Mallināth, with the flower of his army, con-
sisting of 40,000 horse and 500,000 foot, to attack the Muslims, and
Muhammad sent against him his cousin, Khān Muhammad, with
10,000 horse, 30,000 foot, and all the artillery, and followed him
with the remainder of his army. Early in 1367 the forces net near
Kauthal, and the first great battle between the Hindus of the
Carnatic and the Muslims of the Deccan was fought. It raged with
great fury from dawn until four o'clock in the afternoon, the com-
manders of the wings of the Muslim army were slain and their
troops put to flight but the centre stood fast, encouraged by the
news of the near approach of the king, and, by a timely discharge
of the artillery, worked by European and Ottoman Turkish gunners,
shook the Hindu ranks, and completed their discomfiture by a
cavalry charge which prevented their artillery from coming into
quality and probably consisted of a host of lightly armed and half-trained
rustics, of whom almost any number might have been collected.
1 With reference to this statement, and the mention of guns as part of Bukka's
armament, Firishta remarks that this was the first occasion on which the Muslims
used guns in warfare in the Deccan. It is quite possible that a knowledge of the use
of gunpowder in war had by this time reached southern India, for Ismā Il b. Faraj,
king of Granada, used artillery at the siege of Baza, in 1325, and cannon of brass, with
iron balls, were made at Florence in 1326. Who the Europeans and Ottoman Turks,
mentioned by Firishta as serving with the artillery, can have been, is not clear, for
the Portugese did not reach India until more than 130 years after this time. It is
not, however, improbable that Europeans from the Eastern Empire and Venice
occasionally found their way to India by way of Egypt and Red Sea, or overland,
either as independent adventurers or as the slaves of Muhammadan merchants.
Both Europeans and Ottoman Turks were in great 'request at a later period, as
gunners and artillerists.


## p. 382 (#428) ############################################

382
ch.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
action, and in which Mallināth was mortally wounded. His army
broke and fled, and Muhammad Shāh arrived on the field in time
to direct the pursuit, in the course of which the victors slaughtered
every living soul whom they overtook, sparing neither women nor
sucklings. Muhammad marched in pursuit of Bukka, who, after
eluding him for three months, contrived to throw himself into
Vijayanagar, which the Muslims were not strong enough to besiege,
but Muhammad, by feigning sickness and ordering a retreat, enticed
him from the fortress, and, having led the Hindus to a distance
attacked their camp by night, slew 10,000 men, and again captured
their treasure and elephants. Bukka again fled to Vijayanagar
and Muhammad, without attempting to besiege him, ordered a
general massacre of the inhabitants of the surrounding country.
Bukka, urged by his courtiers, sent envoys to sue for peace, and
,
even the Muslim officers were moved to beg that the slaughter
might cease, but Muhammad replied that although he had slain
four times the number of Hindus which he had sworn to slay, he
would not desist until his draft on Bukka's treasury was honoured.
To this the envoys consented, the draft was honoured, and the war
ended. The Hindus, horrified by the massacre of 400,000 of their
race, including 10,000 of the priestly caste, proposed that both
parties should agree to spare non-combatants in future. Muhammad
consented, and the agreement, though sometimes violated, miti.
gated to some extent the horrors of the long period of intermittent
warfare between the two states.
Bahrām Khān and his confederate, Kondba Deva the Marāthā,
were now stronger than ever in Daulatābād. The failure of their
missions to Delhi had been more than counterbalanced by the
withdrawal of the royal troops for the campaign in the south, and
Bahrām was enriched by the accumulation of several years' revenue
of the province and strengthened by the support of a numerous
and well-equipped army, by an alliance with the raja of Baglāna,
and by the adhesion of many of the fief-holders of southern Berar.
To a letter from Muhammad promising him forgiveness if he would
return to his allegiance he vouchsafed no reply, and Khān Mu-
hammad was reappointed to Daultatābād and sent against him, the
king following with the remainder of the army.
Bahrām and his allies advanced as far as Paithan on the Godā.
varī, and Khān Muhammad halted at Shivgaon, only thirteen miles
distant, and begged his master, who was hunting in the neighbour-
hood of Bir, to come to his assistance. On the news of the king's
approach the rebels dispersed and fled, evacuating even the fortress


## p. 383 (#429) ############################################

xvi
ACCESSION OF MUJĀHID
383
of Daulatābād and were pursued to the frontiers of Gujarāt, in
which province they took refuge.
After some stay at Daulatābād Muhammad I returned to Gul-
barga, and devoted himself to the demestic affairs of his kingdom
which enjoyed peace for the remainder of his reign. Highway
robbery had for some time been riſe, and he exerted himself to
suppress it, with such success that within six or seven months the
heads of 20,000 brigands were sent to the capital.
The provincial governors enjoyed great power. They collected
the revenue, raised and commanded the army, and made all ap.
pointments, both civil and military, in their provinces, under
a strong king, and as long as the practice, now inaugurated by
Muhammad, of annual royal progresses through the provinces was
continued, this system of decentralisation worked tolerably well,
but as the limits of the kingdom extended and the personal
authority of the monarch waned its defects became apparent, and
an attempt to modify it in the reign of Muhammad III led in-
directly to the dismemberment of the state.
It was in 1367 that Muhammad I completed the great mosque
of Gulbarga, which differs from other mosques in India in having
the space which is usually left as an open courtyard roofed in. The
late Colonel Meadows Taylor was mistaken in the idea that it was
an imitation of the great mosque, now the cathedral, of Cordova,
for it differs from it in the style of its architecture, but it is a noble
building, impressive in its massive solidity.
In the spring or early summer of 1377 Muhammad I died, and
was succeeded by his elder son, Mujāhid, remarkable for his per-
sonal beauty, his great physical strength, and his headstrong dis.
position. One of his earliest acts as king was to demand from
Bukka I the cession of the extensive tract bounded on the north
by the Ghātprabhā and on the south by the Tungabhadra, and
stretching eastward nearly as far as Mudgal and westward to the
sea. Bukka replied by demanding the return of the elephants cap-
tured in the previous reign, and Mujāhid at once invaded his
dominions. Sending a force under Safdar Khān Sistani to besiege
Adonī, he marched in person against Bukka, who was encamped
on the bank of the Tungabhadra, near Gangāwati, and retreated
southward on his approach. For five or six months Mujāhid fol-
lowed him through the jungles of the Carnatic, without succeeding
in forcing a battle, and in the end Bukka eluded him and shut
himself up in Vijayanagar. Mujāhid followed him, penetrated
beyond the outer defences of the city, and defeated successive


## p. 384 (#430) ############################################

384
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
forces of Hindus sent against him. The failure of his uncle, Dāūd
Khān, to hold a defile, the defence of which had been entrusted
to him, imperilled his retreat, but he forced his way through the
defile and retired at this leisure towards Adoni with sixty or seventy
thousand captives, whose lives were spared under the pact into
which his father had entered. Bukka feared to follow, and Mujāhid
besieged Adoni for nine months, and was on the point of receiving
its surrender when the rainy season began, replenished the water
supply of the garrison, and caused much distress in the besiegers'
camp. Saif-ud-din Ghūrī persuaded him to raise the seige, peace
was made with Bukka, and Mujāhid set out for his capital
His uncle, Dāūd Khān', had taken grave offence at the rebuke
which he had received for his desertion of his post at the battle of
Vijayanagar, and entered into a conspiracy to destroy him. An
opportunity occurred when Dāūl Khān's turn to mount guard over
the royal tent came, and on the night of April 15, 1378, the con-
spirators entered Mujāhid's sleeping tent and slew him, and Dāūd
was proclaimed king.
Safdar Khān, governor of Berar, and Aʻzam-i. Humāyūn, the
new governor of Daulātābād, both partisans of Mujāhid, had pre-
ceded the army to the capital, and on learning of the success of
the conspirators took possession of the royal elephants and returned
to their provinces without waiting to tender their allegiance to
the new king. Their defection menaced Dāūd's authority, but there
was also a party in the capital which was prepared to oppose his
enthronement, and the Hindus, on hearing of the death of Mujāhid,
crossed the Tungabhadra and laid siege to Rāichūr. The aged
regent, Saif-ud-din Ghūrī, averted the calamity of a rebellion at
Gulbarga, but refused to serve the usurper, and retired into private
life, and on May 20, 1378, Dāūd, at the instigation of Mujāhid's
sister, Rūh Parvar Āghā, was assassinated at the public prayers in
the great mosque. Khān Muhammad, Dāūd's principal supporter,
slew the assassin and attempted to secure the throne for Dāūd's
infant son, Muhammad Sanjar, but the child's person was in the
possession of Rūh Parvar, who caused him to be blinded, and, with
the concurrence of the populace raised to the throne Muhammad,
son of Mahmūd Khān, the youngest son of Bahman Shāh.
1 For a discussion of the question of the relationship between Mujāhid and Dāud
see 3. A. S. B. , vol. LXXIII, part I, extra number, 1904, p. 5.
2 Firishta wrongly styles this prince Mahmūd. He is refuted by the evidence of
coins, inscriptions, and other historians, excepting those who are admittedly mere
copyists, but has led all English historians astray. See 7. A. S. B. , vol. LXXIII, part I,
extra number, 1904, pp. 6, 7.


## p. 385 (#431) ############################################

Xy ]
MUHAMMAD U
385
Muhammad II imprisoned Khăn Muhammad in the fortress of
Sāgar, where he shortly afterwards died, and punished his accom-
plices. The provincial governors who had refused to recognise the
usurper returned to their allegiance to the throne, Saif-ud-din
Ghūri again became chief minister of state, and Bukka, on learning
of the unanimity with which the young king was acclaimed, pru-
dently raised the siege of Rāichūr and retired across the Tunga-
bhadra.
Muhammad II was a man of peace, devoted to literature and
poetry, and his reign was undisturbed by foreign wars. His love of
learning was encouraged by the Sadr-i-Jahān, Mir Fazlullāh Inju
of Shīrāz, at whose instance the great poet Hāfiz was invited to his
court. Hāfiz accepted the invitation and sent out from Shirāz, but
he possessed that horror of the sea which is inherent in Persians,
and he was so terrified by a storm in the Persian Gulf that he
disembarked and returned to Shīrāz, sending his excuses to Mic
Fazlullāh in the well-known oder beginning :
دمی با غم ہے سر بردن جهان یکسر نمی ارزد *
به می بفروش دلق ما د بیش از ایں نمی ارزد
and the king was so gratified by the poet's attempt to make the
journey that although the plentiful provision which he had sent for
him had been dissipated, he sent him valuable gifts.
Between 1387 and 1395 the Deccan was visited by a severe
famine, and Muhammad's measures for the relief of his subjects
displayed a combination of administrative ability, enlightened
compassion, and religious bigotry. A thousand bullocks belonging
to the transport establishment maintained for the court were placed
at the disposal of those in charge of relief measures, and travelled
incessantly to and fro between his dominions and Gujarāt and
Mālwa, which had escaped the visitation, bringing thence grain
which was sold at low rates in the Deccan, but to Muslims only.
The king established free schools for orphans at Gulbarga, Bidar,
Kandhār, Ellichpur, Daulatābād, Chaul, Dābhol, and other cities
and towns, in which the children were not only taught, but were
housed and fed at the public expense. Special allo:vances were also
given to readers of the Koran, reciters of the Traditions, and the
blind.
The peace of Muhammad's reign was disturbed in its last year
by the rebellion of Bahā-ud-din, governor of Sāgar, who, at the
instigation of his sons raised the standard of revolt. A Turkish
1 No. 142 in Lt. -Colonel H. S. Jarrett's edition of Hāfiz.
Ç. H, I. III.
25


## p. 386 (#432) ############################################

386
(CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
officer named Yusuf Azhdar was sent to quell the rebellion, and
besieged Sāgar for two inonths, at the end of which time the
garrison rose against their leader, decapitated him, and threw his
head over the battlements as a peace offering. His sons were slain
while making a last stand against the royal troops, and the rebel-
lion was crushed.
On April 20, 1397, Muhammad II died of a fever, and on the
following day Saif-ud-din Ghūri, the faithful old servant of his
house, passed away at the great age of 101 (solar) years, and was
buried beside his master.
Muhammad was succeeded by his elder son, Ghiyās-ud-din, a
resolute but indiscreet youth of seventeen. He angered Tughalchin,
the chief of the Turkish slaves, by refusing to appoint him governor
of Gulbarga and lieutenant of the kingdom, and incautiously placed
himself in his enemy's power, lured by his infatuation for his
daughter. Tughalchin blinded the young king and caused the
leading nobles of the kingdom to be assassinated.
The unfortunate Ghiyās-ud-din, who had reigned but one month
and twenty-six days, was blinded and deposed on June 14, 1397,
and on the same day Tughalchin raised to the throne his younger
half-brother, Shams-ud-din Dāūd, and assumed the regency. He
secured his position by playing on the vanity, the fears, and perhaps
on the warmer sentiments of the young king's mother, who had
been a maid-servant of Ghiyās-ud-din's mother, but his dominance
in the state and the degradation of the royal family were deeply
resented by the king's cousins, the brothers Firuz and Ahmad, sons
of Ahmad Khān', one of the younger sons of Bahman Shāh, who
had been brought up by their cousin Muhammad II and had each
been married to one of his daughters, full sisters of Ghiyās-ud-din.
The brothers, now young men of twenty-seven and twenty-six, do
not seem to have been actuated at first by selfish motives, but
desired only to protect the dignity of the throne and to serve the
dynasty. Tughalchin so aroused their apprehensions by poisoning
the mind of the queen-mother against them that they fled from
Gulbarga to Sāgar, where they were befriended by the governor,
and demanded that the king should dismiss Tughalchin. On re-
ceiving the reply that he was unable to exercise his authority they
marched with a small force on Gulbarga, where they expected
support from the minister's enemies, but they were disappointed,
and Fīrūz, in order to encourage the faint-hearted among his
1 See J. A S. B. , vol. LXXIII, part I, extra number, 1904, and An Arabic History
of Gujarāt, text, edited by Sir E. Denison Ross, I, 160.
a


## p. 387 (#433) ############################################

xv )
FIROZ SHAH
387
followers, assumed the royal title. Their troops were defeated by
the royal army, led by Tughalchin and the puppet king, and they
fled to Sāgar. After a short time they professed penitence, and
returned to Gulbarga, where they were received with outward
tokens of forgiveness, but continued to concert plans for the over-
throw of the slave in which it was now clear that his puppet must
be involved.
On November 15, 1397, Firuz and Ahmad contrived to enter
the palace with a few armed adherents, on the pretext of paying
their respects to the king, and overpowered both him and Tughalchin.
Fīrūz ascended the turquoise throne, and was proclaimed under the
title of Taj-ud-din Fīruz Shāh, and Sham-ud-din was blinded and
imprisoned, and eventually permitted to perform, with his mother,
the pilgrimage to the Hijāz, where he died. The blind Ghiyās-ud-
din was brought from Sāgar, a sword was placed in his hand and
Tughalchin, who was compelled to sit before him, was cut to pieces
by his former victim.
Fīrūz, at the time of his accession, was an amiable, generous,
accomplished, and tolerant prince, possessed of a vigorous con.
stitution and understanding, both of which he undermined by
indulgence in the pleasures of the harem.
His first task was to reorganise the administrative machinery of
the kingdom, and he appointed his brother, Ahmad Khān, minister,
with the titles of Amir-ul-Umarā and Khānkhānān, and Mir Faz-
lullāh Injū governor of Gulbarga and lieutenant of the kingdom,
and Brāhmans were more extensively employed in important posts.
In 1398 the long peace between the Deccan and Vijayanagar
was broken, the aggressor being Harihara II, who invaded the
Rāichūr Doāb with an army of 30,000 horse and 900,000 foot, while
the Hindu chieftain on the north bank of the Krishna headed
a rebellion of the Kolis. Firūz first dealt with the latter, and after
defeating them in the field put to death large numbers of them
and crushed the rising, but was compelled to send back the armies
of Berar and Daulatābā], which he had summoned to his assistance
against Harihara, in order that they might deal with Narsingh,
the Gond raja of Kherla, who had invaded Berar and ravaged
the eastern districts of that province as far south as Māhūr, on the
Penganga. No more than 12,000 horse remained to him, but he
ventured to advance to the Krishna. The rainy season of 1399 had
now set in, and Harihara's vast army held the southern bank of the
river. The tactics and discipline of the Hindus were contemptible.
They were scattered over an area which extended for some seventeen
25-2


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388
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
miles along the bank of the river and the same distance in depth
to the south of it, and this dispersion, necessary for purposes of
supply, was sufficient to destroy their cohesion, but their mere
numbers precluded any attempt to force the passage of the river,
and Firūz chafed at his enforced inaction until his health suffered.
At this juncture Qăzi Sirāj-ud-din, an inferior officer of his court,
whose enterprise and hardihood became rather his military than his
judicial office, suggested a bold adventure, which Firuz at first
forbade, but afterwards sanctioned.
The Qāzī, a man of parts, had in the course of a riotous youth,
acquired considerable proficiency in music, dancing and juggling,
and he proposed that he should cross the river with a small band
of performers who would readily be admitted into the disorderly
camp of the enemy, and might, by assassinating either Harihara or
his son, throw it into confusion and thus give the Muslim army an
opportunity of crossing in the darkness.
Firūz Shāh's preparations for crossing the river attracted the
attention and earned the ridicule of the Hindus, but were not con-
nected by them with the appearance in their camp of a band of
twenty-six wandering minstrels, who, having crossed the river
lower down, had lodged in a liquor shop, and exhibited their skill
before other professional entertainers whom they met there. The
new-comers soon gained a high reputation, and some nights after
their arrival were commanded to perform before Harihara's son.
The Qāzi sent a secret message to Firūz, warning him to be pre-
pared, and led his troupe to the prince's tents. Only the Qāzi and
two others were required to dance, and the rest of the party re.
mained outside, and were instructed to be ready to facilitate the
escape of the performers. After the exhibition of some tricks Sirāj.
ud-din called for arms for the performance of the sword and dagger
dance, and the three gave an exhibition of sword and dagger play
which amazed the half-inebriated Hindus. Then, suddenly rushing
forward, Sirāj-ud-din fell upon and cut down the prince, while his
two confederates disposed of the minister, the other spectators,
1 For this extraordinary exploit, which reads more like romance than history, we
have three distinct authorities, (1) Firishta, who cites the Tuhfal-us-Salātin and Sirāj.
ut-Tawārikh, (2) Nizām-ud-din Ahmad, and (3) Khāfi Khān, who for once is not a
mere echo of Firishta but obtained his facts from an independent source, and is
corroborated in many important details by Nizām-ud-din Ahmad's briefer
summary. Khāfi Khān's account has been followed as the fullest, most credible
of the three. The exploit will appear incredible to those who do not understand
the proneness of the Oriental to panic on the loss of a leader. The Qāzi under-
stood the failing and laid his plans accordingly.
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Xv ]
DEFEAT OF THE HINDUS
389
and the torch bearers. The three escaped in the darkness and
joined their companions without, who, on the first symptoms of a
disturbance, had attacked and slain the guard, so that the gang
was enabled to escape to a place of safety and await the success of
the enterprise. The camp of the Hindus was thrown into confusion,
and the wildest rumours circulated. It was widely believed that
the enemy had crossed in force, and slain the raja, and some of
the Hindus mistook others, in the darkness, for enemies, and fell
upon them. The slaughter was only stayed when a conflagration
caused by the ignition of some tents discovered to the combatants
their error ; others, not knowing whither to turn, stood to arms by
their tents, but none knew where to strike.
During the tumult some three or four thousand horse crossed
the river in relays under cover of the darkness, and the Hindu
picquets on the river bank, attacked in front and alarmed by the
uproar in their rear, turned and fled : those who had already
crossed the river covered the passage of the remainder, and before
daybreak Firuz and his whole force had gained the southern bank.
At dawn they attacked the vast and scattered camp of the Hindus,
which was still in confusion, and Harihara, who had left the conduct
of affairs entirely in the hands of his son, was so overwhelmed with
grief and dismay that he fled to Vijayanagar, carrying his son's
body with him, and leaving his army to follow as best it could.
Firūz pursued the flying mob, annihilating any small bands which
attempted to stem his progress, and at last halted before Vijaya-
nagar. His numerical weakness precluded any idea of siege
operations, or of attempting to carry the great city by storm, and
part of the army was detached to plunder and lay waste the
populous tract to the south of it. The agreement to spare the lives
of non-combatants was respected, but large numbers, including
10,000 Brāhmans, were enslaved, and the leading Brāhmans of
Vijayanagar insisted on the conclusion of peace on any terms ob-
tainable, and on the ransom of the captives. These objects were
attained by the payment of an indemnity of about £330,000 sterling,
and Firūz retired. On his return to Gulbarga he made the
first departure from the provincial system of Bahman Shāh and
Muhammad I by appointing Fūlād Khān military governor of the
Rāichūr Doab, which had hitherto formed part of the province of
Gulbarga, from which it was now separated,
It was now necessary to formulate the foreign policy of the
kingdom with respect to the territories on its northern frontier,
Gujarāt and Mālwa, which had declared their independence of


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390
( CH
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
Delhi in 1396 and 1401, and the small state of Khāndesh, which
had been established in 1382 by Malik Raja, a partisan of Bahrām
Khān Māzandarāni who had fled from the Deccan. The kingdom
of the Bahmanids, freed from the menace of its southern neighbour,
would have been stronger than any one of these states, stronger,
perhaps, than all together, but as matters stood Mālwa was only
slightly weaker than the Deccan and Gujarāt equal to it, or perhaps
slightly stronger, while the small state of Khāndesh could not have
stood alone under any conditions, and was formidable only by
reason of the support which one or other of its powerful neigh-
bours was ever ready to lend it.
The aggression of Narsingh to Kherla had been prompted by
Dilāvar Khān of Mālwa and Nasir Khān of Khāndesh, and the
governors of Berar and Daulatābād had not only been unable to
punish him, but had not even succeeded in restoring order in Berar.
Firūz was thus compelled, after two or three months' rest at Gul.
barga, again to take the field, and at the beginning of the winter
of 1399 marched to Māhūr, where he received the submission of
the governor, a Gond or Hindu who had declared for Narsingh.
After halting there for a month he continued his march to Ellichpur,
whence he dispatched a force under his brother Ahmad and Mir
Fazlullāh Injū to punish Narsingh. The Gonds, disappointed of
the help which they had expected from Mālwa and Khāndesh,
fought with such desperate valour that the centre of the Muslims
was broken, and many of the leading officers, among them Shujā‘at
Khān, Dilāvar Khān, and Bahādur Khān, were slain?
Ahmad Khān and Fazlullāh Injū rallied the fugitives and saved
the day by causing the great drums to be beaten and spreading
the report that the king was hastening to the support of his army,
They attacked the Gond centre, captured Kosal Rāi, Narsingh's
son, who commanded it, slew 10,000 Gonds, and pursued the re-
mainder to the gates of Kherla, which were shut only just in time
to exclude the victors. The fortress endured a siege of two months,
at the end of which time Narsingh was informed, in reply to his
prayers for peace, that the besiegers were not empowered to treat,
and that he must make his submission to Firūz Shāh at Ellichpur.
1 The shrine at Ellichpur known as that of Shāh 'Abd-ur-Rahmān is probably
the tomb of one or all of these officers. 'Abd-ur-Rahmān is said to have been a
nephew and son-in-law of Mahmūd of Ghazni, and to have invaded Berar early in
the eleventh century, during the reign of the cponymous raja II of Ellichpur.
The absurd story is unknown to history, and is merely a clumsy imitation of the
legends of Sālār Masíūd of Balırāich, in Oudh.