No More Learning

Hūshang then dis-
closed his identity and informed the raja that he had come to
Orissa in search of elephants. The leading men of Jājpur sent an
envoy to ask him to formulate his demands, and on learning that
he required elephants sent him seventy-five. He then set out for
his own country, but carried the raja with him as far as the frontier
of the Jajpur state. On his homeward way he learnt that Ahmad I
had invaded Mālwa and was besieging Māndū, but he found time
to capture Kherlal and carry off the raja as his prisoner. As he
approached Māndū Ahmad withdrew his troops from the trenches
in order to oppose his entry, but he contrived to evade his enemy
and entered the fortress.
The rest of this campaign has already been described in the
preceding chapter. Hüshang was again unfortunate, and after his
defeat returned to Māndu and, having allowed his army a brief
period of repose, marched to Gāgraun', and besieged and captured
that town. Thence he marched to Gwalior, and had been besieging
the fortress for a month when Mubārak Shāh of Delhi advanced
by way of Bayāna to attack him. He raised the siege and marched
towards the Chambal, but Mubārak had gained his object by re-
lieving Gwalior, and hostilities were averted by a treaty, under
which each king agreed to return to his own capital.
The raja of Kherla, since he had been made prisoner by Hüshang
in 1422, had acknowledged him as his overlord and paid him tribute,
thus giving offence to his former suzerain, Ahmad Shāh Bāhmani
of the Deccan, who still claimed his allegiance and, in 1428, besieged
1 Įn 21° 56' N. and 78° 1' E, 2 In 24° 38' N, and 76°12' E,


## p. 352 (#398) ############################################

352
(CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
Kherla, but on Hüshang's marching to its relief retired southwards
for three stages, closely followed by Hüshang. He then halted to
receive Hūshang's attack, which at first suceeded, but his army
was attacked, at the moment when victory seemed assured, by
Ahmad Shāh Bahmani, who had been lying in ambush, and was
put to flight. Its rout was so complete that the ladies of Hüshang's
harem fell into the hands of the victors, while the army of Mālwa
fled headlong to Māndū. The scrupulous and pious Ahmad sent
his prisoners to their lord under an escort of 500 horse.
Hushang's campaign against Qādir Khān of Kālpi has been
described in Chapter X. Kālpi was captured, but Qādir Khan,
whose chief offence against Hüshang had been the assumption of
the royal title, was reinstated on swearing fealty. Hūshang was
much annoyed on his homeward march by the quarrels of his four
sons, Ghazni Khān, Usmān Khān, Fath Khān, and Haibat Khān,
graceless and worthless youths.
After his return to Mandū he was engaged in punishing robbers
and when he had completed this task he founded the city of Ho-
shangābād, on the Narbada. Here he was alarmed by an accident
which he took for an omen of death. A ruby fell one day from his
jewelled crown, and though his courtiers endeavoured to reassure
him, an attack of diabetes confirmed his fears. He left Hoshanga-
bād and returned to Māndū, and on his way thither designated his
eldest son as his heir. A number of the nobles, to whom Ghazni
Khān was obnoxious, supported the pretensions of Usman Khān,
who had been imprisoned for having grossly insulted his elder
brother, and intrigues were set on foot for his liberation, to which
the king would not consent.
Hüshang died on July 6, 1435, within a day's march of Māndū,
and Ghazni Khān, who had the powerful support of his cousin
Mughīs and his son Mahmūd Khān, was proclaimed under the title
of Muhammad Shāh.
He was a confirmed drunkard, and left the administration almost
entirely in the hands of Mughīs and Mahmud Khān, but displayed
a malignant activity in putting to death his three brothers and
blinding his nephew and son-in-law, Nizām Khān, and his three
young sons. This barbarity alienated Mahmud Khān, who began
to scheme to depose the tyrant and to seize the throne for himself.
His design was revealed to the king, who made arrangements to
have him assassinated, but Mahmūd discovered the preparations
a nd to protect himself took precautions so marked that they could
not pass unnoticed, and the king took him into his harem and in


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XIV ] USURPATION OF THE KHALJIS
353
the presence of his wife, who was Mahmūd's sister, conjured him
to be faithful to him. Mahmūd swore that he harboured no designs
against him and begged the king to slay him if he suspected him.
The king excused himself for his suspicions, and outward harmony
was restored, but mutual distrust remained and increased, and
Mahmūd, shortly after the interview in the harem, caused his master's
death by a dose of posion administered in his wine.
A faction among the nobles raised to the throne Muhammad's
son Masóūd Khān, a boy of thirteen years of age, and, believing
Mahmud Khān to be yet ignorant of the late king's death, sum-
moned him to the palace in Muhammad Shāh's name, and, when
he refused to attend, went to his house in a body to arrest him ;
but he had concealed armed men in the house, and when the nobles
entered it they were arrested and imprisoned. Those of their fac-
tion who had remained with Masóūd Khān assembled the royal
troops and raised an umbrella over his head, and Mahmūd marched
on the palace to secure the persons of Masʼūd and his younger
brother, 'Umar Khān. Some fighting occurred between the royal
troops and those of Mahmūd, and lasted until the evening, when
the two boys were so terrified that they persuaded their attendants
to allow them to flee from the palace by night. Masūd Khān
sought the protection of a holy Shaikh, and found his way to
Gujarāt, and in the morning his supporters, having nothing left
to fight for, dispersed, and Mahmūd took possession of the royal
palace. He offered the crown to his father, Malik Mughīs, then
engaged in hostilities against the Hāra Rājputs of Harāotī, but
he hastened to Māndū, declined the honour, and urged his son
to ascend the throne. Mahmūd was accordingly proclaimed on
May 13, 1436.
There was still much disaffection among the nobles, who re-
sented the usurpation of the throne by one of their number, and
Mahmud was obliged, immediately after his accession, to cope with
a rebellion which assumed serious dimensions owing to the presence
in the rebel ranks of Ahmad Khān, a surviving son of Hushang.
The rebellion was crushed, and the leading rebels, including Ahmad
Khān, were pardoned and received fiefs, but they rebelled again,
and Malik Mughis was employed to crush them. Ahmad Khān, the
most formidable of them, was poisoned by a musician at the insti-
gation of Mughīs, and operations against the others were in pro-
gress when Ahmad I of Gujarāt invaded Mālwa with the object of
placing Masóūd Khān on his father's throne. The course of this
campaign has been traced in the preceding chapter. Ahmad Shāh
Ç. H. I. III,
23


## p. 354 (#400) ############################################

354
[ CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
was compelled to retire to Gujarāt, and died, in 1442, before he
could fulfil his promise to Mas'ud Khān.
Mahmud Shāh's troubles were not ended by Ahmad Shāh's
retreat. 'Umar Khan, the younger son of Muhammad Shāh had
fled from Gujarāt to Chitor, whence he had again crossed the fron-
tier of Mālwa and was welcomed by the garrison of Chanderi, who
acknowledged him as king. He had been slain during Ahmad Shāh's
invasion, but the garrison had proclaimed another pretender, Malik
Sulaiman, under the title of Shihab-ud-din Shāh, Mahmúd besieg-
ed Chanderi for seven months, during which period the pretender
died, and finally carried it by assault, but during the siege Raja
Dongar Singh the Tonwăr, of Gwalior, had invaded Mālwa and laid
siege to a town named Shahr-i-Nau, not now traceable. Mahmud
invaded Gwalior, plundered and devastated the country, defeated
the Hindus, and drove them into the fortress, which he besieged.
Dongar Singh raised the siege of Shahr-i-Nau and retired into his
own dominions, and Mılımūd, whose sole object had been the ex-
pulsion of the invader, returned to Māndū, where he completed the
great mosque founded by Hūshang.
The feeble Sayyid, Muhammad Shāh, now occupied the throne
of Delhi, the affairs of which kingdom were in the utmost conſu-
sion, and a faction amɔng the nobles, who admired the energy and
enterprise of Mahmūd Shāh of Mālwa, and were, perhaps, affected
by the consideration that he was a member of a family which
had already ruled India, not without glory, invited him to Delhi,
and offered him the throne. In 1440 he marched northwards and
encamped before Tughluqābad, within eight miles of the city, but
his partisans were either too weak to afford him any assistance or
had repented of the advances made to him, for the royal army,
commanded nominally by Muhammad Shāh's son 'Alā-ud-din, and
actually by Buhlūl Lodi, marched furth to meet him. Mahmūd
retained one division of his army in reserve, and sent two, under
his sons Ghiyās ud-din and Qadr Khān, against the enemy. The
battle, which lasted until nightfall, was indecisive, and Muhammad
Shāh proposed terms of peace, of which the principal condition
was Mahmūd's retirement. The offer was readily accepted, for
Mahmud had learnt that during his absence the mob had risen in
Māndū removed the gilded umbrella from the tomb of Hūshang,
and raised it over the head of a pretender. The nobles of Delhi
were, however, deeply disgusted with the meanness of spirit which
permitted an invader thus to depart in peace, and when Buhlūl
Lodi violated the treaty by following the retreating army and


## p. 355 (#401) ############################################

XIV ]
WAR WITH KUMBHA RĀNĀ
355
taking some plunder the exploit was magnified into a great victory,
and honour was satisfied.
On reaching Māndū, on May 22, 1441, Mahmūd found that the
rebellion had been suppressed by his father, and rested for the
remainder of the year, but marched in 1442 to punish Kumbha,
the Rānā of Chitor, for the assistance which he had given to 'Umar
Khān, the son of Muhammad Shāh Ghūri. On his way he learnt
that Nasir Khān, son of Qādir Khān, governor of Kālpī, had as-
sumed the royal title, styling himself Nasir Shāh, and had, more-
over, adopted strange heretical opinions, which he was spreading
in his small state. He was minded to turn aside and punish him,
and actually marched some stages towards Kālpi, but was pe
suaded by his courtiers to pardon the offender, who had sent an
envoy with tribute and expressions of contrition, and to pursue
the object with which he had left Māndū.
After entering the Rānā's dominions he captured a fort and
destroyed a temple, and advanced to Chitor, the siege of which he
was forming when he learnt that the Rānā had retired into the
hills. He followed him thither, and the Rānā returned to Chitor.
While Mahmūd was preparing again to form the siege of Chitor
his father, Malik Mughīs, who had led an expedition against Man-
dasor, died, and he retreated to Mandasor, followed by the Rānā,
who, in April, 1443, attacked him, but was defeated, and suffered
a second defeat in a night attack which Mahmūd made on his
camp. The Rānā then retired to Chitor and Mahmūd, who had
decided to postpone until the following year the siege of that
fortress, returned to Māndū.
Immediately on his return he received a mission from Mahmûd
Shāh Sharqi of Jaunpur, who complained of the misconduct of
Nasir Khān of Kālpi, and sought perinission to attack him, which
was granted. Mahmūd afterwards repented of having acceded to
the request of Mahmūd Sharqi, and desired him to desist from
molesting Nasir Khān, who had fled to Chanderſ and sought his
assistance. Mahmūd Sharqi evaded a decided answer and on
January 12, 1445, Mahmūd Khaljī marched for Chanderi. Thence
he marched on Kālpi, avoiding the army of Jaunpur, which was
drawn up at Erij to meet him. An indecisive battle was fought
near Kālpi, and desultory fighting, in which neither gained any
decided advantage, continued for some months, at the end of which
period peace was madel Nasir Khān, who promised amendment,
was to be restored by degrees to the districts comprising the small
1 See Chapter X.
23-2


## p. 356 (#402) ############################################

356
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
state of Kālpi, and Mahmud Khalji returned to Māndū, where he
occupied himself in building a hospital.
In October, 1446, he again invaded the Rānā's dominions He
halted at Ranthambhor, removed Bahār Khān from the command
of that fortress, appointed Malik Saif-ud-din in his stead, and next
halted on the Banās, while his army besieged the Rānā in Mān-
dalgarh. The siege was raised on the Rānā's promising to pay
tribute for the fortress, and Mahmūd marched on Bayāna. When
he was within two leagues of the fortress the governor, Muhammad
Khān, sent to him his younger son, Auhad Khān, with 100 horses
and 100,000 tangas as tribute, and Mahmūd, having sent compli-
mentary gifts in return, halted until he had ascertained that Mu-
hammad Khān had substituted his name for that of ‘Alam Shāh
of Delhi in the khutba and had struck coin in his name, and then
retired by way of Ranthambhor, near which place he captured a
minor fortress, and continued his journey towards Māndū, sending
Tāj Khān with 8000 horse and twenty-five elephants to besiege
Chitor. Before reaching Māndū he collected 125,000 tangas as
tribute from the raja of Kota.
Towards the end of 1450 Mahmūd, as has been already recorded
in the preceding chapter, invaded Gujarāt in support of Kanak
Dās, raja of Chāmpāner, but retired to Māndū without effecting
anything or gaining anything beyond an instalment of tribute from
Kanak Dās. His invasion of Gujarāt in the following year, which
.
has also been described, ended in a disastrous defeat, which
not retrieved by a raid on Surat, carried out by his son in 1452.
In 1454 he led a punitive expedition against the rebellious
Hāra Rājputs on his northern frontier, put many of them to the
sword, and sent their children into slavery at Māndū. Marching
on to Bayāna, he collected tribute from the governor, Dāūd Khān,
who had succeeded his father, Muhammad Khān, confirmed him
in the government, and composed a long-standing dispute between
him and Yūsuf Khān of Hindaun. On his return to Māndū he
appointed his younger son, Fidāi Khān, entitled Sultān 'Alā-ud din,
to the command of the fortress of Ranthambhor and the govern-
ment of Harāolī, the district of the Hāra Rājputs.
Later in the same year Mahmūd invaded the Deccan at the
invitation of two rebellious nobles, and laid siege to the fortress of
Māhūr, but raised the siege and retired when 'Alå-ud-din Ahmad
Shāh Bahmani marched to the relief of the fortress.
In 1455 he again attacked the Rānā, marching to Chitor and
ravaging his dominions. Kumbha attempted to purchase peace by
was


## p. 357 (#403) ############################################

XIV)
ŘECONQUEST OF AJMER
357
a large indemnity, but as the money sent bore his own name and
device it was indignantly returned, and the devastation of the
country continued. Māhmūd retired to Māndu for the rainy season,
but returned, when it was past, to Mandasor, and began the syste•
matic conquest of that region. He occupied a standing camp,
and sent his troops in all directions to lay waste the country.
While he was thus employed it was suggested to him that it would
be a work of merit to recover from the idolators the city of Ajmer,
which contained the holy shrine of Shaikh Mu'in-ud-din Chishti,
and he marched rapidly on the city and invested it. Gajānhar,
the Rājput commander, made daily sorties, all of which were un-
successful, and on the fiſth day of the investment ordered a general
sortie, which was driven back into the city. The pursuers entered
with the pursued, and the city was won after great slaughter in
the streets. Mahmūd paid his devotions at the shrine, appointed
Khvāja Ni'matullāh, whom he entitled Saif Khān, governor of the
city, founded a mosque, and marched to Māndalgarh. Temples
were destroyed and the country was devastated in the neighbour-
hood of this fortress, the siege was opened, and the approaches
were carried up to the walls. On October 19, 1457, the place was
carried by assault, with great slaughter. A remnant of the garrison
shut itself up in the citadel, but was compelled by want of water
to surrender, and the lives of the men were redeemed by a promise
to pay 1,000,000 tangas. The temples in the fortress were
thrown, a mosque was built of their stones, Mahmūd turned
again towards Chitor, sending columns in different directions to
harass the Rājputs and reduce them to obedience. Būndi was
captured by one column, various districts were harried and placed
under contributions of tribute by others, and heavy idemnities
were exacted from the raja of Kūmbhalgarh and the raja of
Dungarpur, whose fortresses were too strong to be taken without
tedious sieges, to which Mahmūd was not disposed to devote his
time,
After this protracted and successful campaign he returned to
Māndū and in 1461 was duced to embark on a disastrous expe-
dition to the Deccan.
Nizām-ul-Mulk Ghūrī, who was perhaps related to Mahmud,
was a noble at the court of Humāyūn Shāh, known as the Tyrant-. .
the most brutal and depraved of the line of Bahman. He was
traduced at his master's court, and the tyrant caused him to be
assassinated. His family escaped to Māndū and besought Mahmūd
to avenge his death, and the invitation was welcomed by Mahmūd,
over-


## p. 358 (#404) ############################################

358
THE KINGDOM OF MÄLWA
(CH.
a
who composed a recent quarrel with 'Adil Khan II of Khāndesh
and invaded the Deccan. The tyrant Humāyūn had been removed,
and had been succeeded by his infant son, Nizām Shāh, who was
carried into the field by his nobles. When the two armies met,
that of the Deccan gained some slight advantage, but the pre-
cipitate action of a slave named Sikandar Khān, who had charge
of the person of the child king, decided the fate of the day. He
conceived his master's life to be in danger, carried him from the
field, and delivered him to his mother, who was at Firūzābād, in
the south of his dominions.
After his victory Mahmūd occupied Berar and the northern
Deccan, entered Bīdar, the capital, and besieged the citadel, but
meanwhile the guardians of the young Nizām Shāh had sought aid
of Mahmūd Bīgarha of Gujarāt, who had arrived on the frontiers of
the kingdom with 80,000 horse. Mahmúd Gāvān, one of Nizām's
two ministers, marched by Bir to meet him and assembled a force
of 20,000 horse. Mahmud Bigraha placed a similar force at his
disposal and Mahmūd Khalji found his direct line of retreat barred.
He retired hastily by way of eastern Berar, followed by Mahmud
Gāvān, who cut off his supplies and so harassed him that he aban-
doned his elephants, after having blinded them, and burnt his
heavy baggage. His retreat soon became a rout, and to avoid his
pursuers he plunged into the forests of the Malghāt, where his
army was nearly destroyed. Over 5000 perished of thirst, and the
Korkūs fell upon the remnant and slaughtered large numbers.
Mahmūd put the Korkū chieftain to death, but his vengeance could
not save his army, few of whom returned to Māndū.
He learnt little from this disaster and later in 1462, again in-
vaded the Deccan with 90,000 horse, but the army of the Deccan
was drawn up to meet him at Daultabād, and the sultan of Gu-
jarāt once more marched to Nandurbār. On this occasion Mahmūd
Khalji retired before it was too late, and again traversed the Mel.
ghāt on his homeward way, but his march was now leisurely, and
,
his troops suffered from nothing more serious than the difficulty of
the roads.
In 1465 Mahmūd was much gratified by the arrival at Māndū
of Sharaf-ul-Mulk, an envoy from al-Mustanjid Billāh Yūsuf, the
puppet ‘Abbāsid Caliph of Egypt, who brought for him a robe of
honour and a patent of sovereignty. The honour was an empty
one, such patents being issued chiefly for the purpose of filling the
coffers of the needy pontiffs who were in theory the Commanders
of the Faithful, and in practice obsequious courtiers of the Mamlūk


## p. 359 (#405) ############################################

XIV)
MAHMŨD RECOVERS KHERLA
359
Sultans of Egypt, but it was highly prized by the lesser sultans in
India.
Nizām-ul-Mulk, an officer of Nizām Shāh of the Deccan, now
led a large army against the fortress of Kherla. Sirāj-ul-Mulk, who
held it for Mālwa, was helplessly drunk when the enemy arrived
before the fortress, but his son attempted to withstand the invader.
He was defeated and fled, and Nizām-ul-Mulk occupied Kherla.
Mahmūd retaliated by sending Maqbul Khān against Ellichpur,
the capital of Berar, and though he failed to capture the city he
laid waste the fertile district in which it stood and returned to
Māndū with much spoil, but in the following year a treaty of peace
was concluded with Muhammad III, who had succeeded his brother
Nizām on the throne of the Deccan and Mahmūd's possession of
Kherla was confirmed but the integrity of Berar, with that exception,
was maintained.
In the same year Mahmūd marched to Kūmbhalgarh and be.
sieged Rānā Kumbha, who was then in that fortress. Learning
that Chitor was denuded of troops, Mahmūd ordered his officers to
assemble an army, as quietly and unostentatiously as possible, at
Khaljīpur, hard by Mandasor, in order that a sudden descent might
be made on the Rānā's capital, but Kumbha discovered the design
and sallied from Kūmbhalgarh to attack him. He was defeated,
but succeeded in making good his retreat to Chitor, and as the
opportunity of surprising the fortress had been lost Mahmūd re-
turned to Māndū. While he had been thus engaged Sher Khān, a
Turkish officer in his service, had captured Amreli in Kāthiāwār
and slain its raja, Chītā.
Muhammad III of the Deccan had broken the treaty of 1466
by tampering with the loyalty of Maqbul Khān, Mahmūd's governor
of Kherla, who transferred his allegiance to the southern kingdom
and surrendered the fortress to the son of the raja whom Mahmūd
had imprisoned. Mahmūd's sons, Tāj Khān and Ahmad Khān,
made a forced march to Kherla, defeated the raja's son, put him to
flight, and re-occupied the fortress. The Gonds with whom he took
refuge, on hearing that Tāj Khān was preparing to attack them, sent
the fugitive to him in chains. Mahmūd visited Kherla, and march-
ed thence to Sārangpur, where he received Khvāja Kamāl-ud-din
Astarābādī, an envoy from 'Tīmūr’s great-grandson, Sultān Abu-Sa'id,
king of Transoxiana, Khurāsān, and Balkh. When the envoy
departed he was accompanied by Shaikhzāda 'Alā-ud-din, whom
Mahmūd sent as his ennoy to Abu-Sa'id.
In 1468 the landholders of Kachwāra raided some of the
a


## p. 360 (#406) ############################################

360
[ CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MÅLWA
districts of Mālwa, and Mahmūd at once marched to punish them.
His son Ghiyās-ud-dīn built, in an incredibly short space of time,
a fortress which he named Jalālpur, on the border of Kachwāra,
which was occupied by a garrison which curbed the predatory ten-
dencies of the rebels.
In the same year Mahmud marched to Chanderi, and thence
sent Sher Khān and Fath Khān to capture the town of Karahra,
160 miles distant from his camp. They invested the place and
pushed forward their parallels until they were able to throw lighted
combustibles into one quarter of the town. The fire spread, and
destroyed 3000 houses, and the town was captured without difficulty,
no fewer than 7000 prisoners being taken. Mahmūd was informed
at Chanderi of the outbreak of the conflagration, and is said to
have ridden in one night from that town to Karahra in order to
witness the discomfiture of the unbelievers, but this is hardly
credible.
In the course of this expedition Mahmūd received, on February
20, 1469, Shaikhzāda Muhammad Qarmali Qutb Khān Lodi, and
K apúr Chand, son of Karī Singh, raja of Gwalior, who came as en-
voys from Buhlūl Lodi, king of Delhi, to seek his help against Husain
Shāh of Jaunpur, whose repeated attempts to gain possession of Delhi
gave its master no rest and appeared, at this time, to be certain of
success. Bayāna was held out as the bait, and Mahmūd promised,
in return for the cession of this district, to supply Buhlül with 6000
horse whenever he might have need of them.
After the dismissal of this mission Mahmud returned to Māndü,
exhausted with unceasing warfare. He was now sixty-eight years
of age, and during a reign of more than thirty-three years he had
preferred the song of the lark to the cheep of the mouse, and to be
worn out rather than rusted out. In the course of his return march
to his capital he suffered severely from the fierce heat of an Indian
summer, and on June 1, 1469, shortly after his arrival at Māndū, he
expired.
He was the greatest of the Muslim kings of Mālwa, which reached
its greatest extent during his reign. His ambition may be
measured by his attempts to conquer Delhi, Gujarāt, Chitor, and
the Deccan, in all of which he failed but against his failures must
be set his signal successes against the Rāna Kumbha and many minor
Rājput chieftains, his enlargement of the frontiers of his kingdom,
and the high estimation in which he was held by his con-
temporaries. His recognition by the phantom Caliph, worthless
though it was, proved, at least, that his fame had reached distant


## p. 361 (#407) ############################################

XIV)
GHIYĂS-UD-DÍN
361
Egypt, and the mission from Sultan Abu-Saʻīd conveyed to him the
more valuable regard of a king in fact as well as in name. He
earned a reputation as a builder, and one of his works was a column
of victory an Māndū, erected to commemorate his successes against
Rānā Kumbha of Chitor. The more famous column of victory at
Chitor is said to commemorate victories over Mahmūd of Gujarāt
and Mahmud of Mālwa. If this is so it, like some tall bully lifts
its head and lies. ' Mahmūd I failed to capture Chitor, but the
Rānā never gained any important victory over him. The successes
of the Gahlots against Mālwa were gained by Sangrama Singh, not
by Kumbha, against Mahmūd II, not Mahmūd I.
Mahmūd was a good Muslim. He substituted the unpractical
and inconvenient lunar calendar, sacred to Islam, for the solar
calendar in all public offices, he destroyed temples and idols and
slew or enslaved their worshippers, and he was so scrupulous about
meats that when he was besieging the citadel of Bidar he harassed
the saint Khalilullāh Butshikan, son of Shāh Ni'matullāh of Māhān,
with questions regarding a supply of lawful vegetables for his table.
The saint expressed surprise that one who was engaged in attacking
a brother Muslim and slaying his subjects should be so scrupulous
in the matter of his food. Mahmūd acknowledged, with some
embarrassment, the justice of the rebuke, but pleaded that the
laws of the faith had never suſliced to curb the ambition of kings.
Mahmud I was succeeded by his eldest son, Ghiyās ud-din, who
took his seat on the throne two days after his father's death. He
earned the gratitude of his servants by retaining in their posts all
those whom his father had appointed, and displayed a confidence
in the loyalty of his near relations rarely found in an eastern king.
His next brother, Tāj Khān, was confirmed in his fiefs and received
the title of 'Alā-ud-din, and his younger brother, Fidāi Khān, was
permitted to retain the government of Ranthambhor and other
districts. His declaration of policy resembled that of the Roman
emperor Augustus. His father, he said, had extended his sway
over the whole land of Mālwa, and it should be his care to hold
what had been acquired, not to molest his neighbours. So averse
was he from war that when Buhlūl Lodi raided Pālampur, near
Ranthambhor, he would not take the field himself, but ordered
Sher Khān, governor of Chanderī, to obtain satisfaction from the
invader, which task was sufficiently well performed, and when, in
1484, he marched from Māndū in response to an appeal from the
raja of Chāmpāner, who had sought his aid against Mahmūd Be.
garha, he was suddenly smitten with compunction, and consulted


## p. 362 (#408) ############################################

362
į ch.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
the doctors of the law on the legality of aiding an infidel against a
Muslim, and, on their delivering the opinion that such assistance
was unlawful, at once returned to Māndū.
At the beginning of his reign he conferred on his eldest son,
‘Abd-ul-Qadir, the title of Nāsir-ud-din Sultān, designated him as
his heir, and associated him with himself in the business of govern-
ment.
Ghiyās-ud-din found his own chief amusement in the administra-
tion of his harem, which it was his fancy to organise as a kingdom
in miniature, complete in itself. Its army consisted of two corps
of Amazons, of 500 each, one of African and one of Turkish slave
girls, who at public audiences were drawn up on either side of the
throne. The harem contained, besides these, 1600 women, who
were taught various arts and trades, and organised in departments.
Besides the musicians, singers, and dancers, usually found in a
royal seraglio there were goldsmiths, blacksmiths, shoemakers,
weavers, potters, tailors, makers of bows, arrows, and quivers, car-
penters, wrestlers, and jugglers, each, of whom received fixed wages.
their officers, also women being paid at higher rates, also women
who supervised the various craſts and administrative departments.
These women were recruited, at great trouble and expense, from
all parts of India, but a case in which one of his agents abducted a
girl from her parents led him to order the cessation of recruitment
in his own dominions. A replica in miniature of the great bazar
in the city was erected within the precincts of the palace, and was
filled with the artists, artisans and craftswomen of the harem.
The king himself regulated with meticulous nicety the pay and
allowances of all, even to the quantities of grain, fodder and meat
allotted to the various animals employed or domesticated within
the extensive premises set apart for the harem, decided disputes,
and generally wasted in these futile pursuits the time and energy
which should have been devoted to the administration of his
kingdom.
When not thus employed he devoted himself to the ceremonies
of his faith, and to inventing others, to add to the list of those with
which the daily life of a devout Muslim is encumbered. He insisted
on being aroused every night, shortly after midnight, even if force
should be necessary, for the recitation of the voluntary night
prayers, and he abstained, not only from all intoxicants, but from
all food of the legality of which there was the slightest doubt, and
from wearing clothes of materials not sanctioned by the law of
Islam.


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XIV)
FOLLY OF GHIYĀS. UD. DİN
363
His folly and profusion were practised upon by rogues and im-
postors, whose fraudulent tricks needed but to be connected in
some way with professions of religion to receive unmerited rewards.
A beggar from Delhi picked up a handful of wheat from a heap
lying in the courtyard of the palace and carried it into the royal
presence. When asked the meaning of his action he explained that
he was one who had committed to memory the whole of the Koran,
which he had recited over each single grain of the wheat in his
hand, which he now offered to the king. Honours and favours were
showered upon him.
Another rogue brought to the king the hoof of an ass, which he
asserted to be a hoof of the ass on which our Lord had entered
Jerusalem. He received 50,000 tangas and was, of course, followed
by three other rogues, each bearing the hoof of an ass, of which he
told the same story and for which he received the same reward.
As though this were not enough, a fifth appeared, with a fifth hoof,
and the king co. nmanded that he likewise should receive 50,000
tangas. The courtiers protested against this folly, and asked their
master whether he believed that the Messiah's ass had five legs.
'Let him have the reward,' replied the crowned fool, 'perhaps he
is telling the truth and one of the others made a mistake. '
At such a court as this beggars of all classes of course abounded,
and the taxes wrung from a thrifty and industrious people were
squandered on rogues, vagabonds and idlers.
Ghiyās-ud-din's declining years were embittered by a violent
quarrel between his two sons, ‘Abud-ul-Qādir, Nāsir-ud-dīn and
Shujā'at Khan 'Alā-ud-din, whose mother, Rāni Khurshid, daughter
of the raja of Baglāna, favoured the cause of the younger. The
miserable king, whose naturally feeble intellect was now impaired
by old age, was incapable of composing the strife, and vacillated
between his heir and his wife's favourite. Murders were committed
on either side, and both appealed to arms. Nāsir-ud-din marched
.
out of the capital and assembled an army, and both his father and
his mother attempted to persuade him to return, the former that
the prince might resume the government of the kingdom, which
had latterly fallen entirely into his hands, and the latter that she
might find an opportunity of putting him to death. Nāsir ud-din's
first attempt to storm the capital was unsuccessful, but the greater
part of the nobles and the army was on his side, and he was
tually admitted by the Bālāpur gate.
He seized his mother and
brother, imprisoned the one and put the other to death, and on
October 22, 1500, ascended the throne with the consent of his
even-


## p. 364 (#410) ############################################

364
(CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MÁLWA
father. He caused those of the nobles who had opposed him to be
put to death and designated his second son, Miyān Manjhla, as his
heir, conferring on him the title of Shihāb-ud-din.
Many of the nobles in the provinces, including Sher Khān the
powerful governor of Chanderī, and Muqbil Khān, governor of
Mandasor, declined to believe that the new king had ascended the
throne with his father's conscent, and took up arms against him.
After one unsuccessful attempt to crush this rebellion, and another
attempt, equally unsuccessful, to conciliate the rebels, he took the
field against them, and assembled his army at Naʻlcha, leaving his
son Shihab-ud-din in charge of the capital. At Dhār he received
news of the death of his father, on February 28, 1501, from poison,
administered, as it was generally believed, by his orders. He en-
countered the rebels at Sārangpur and utterly defeated them.
Sher Khān fled to Chanderī, and thence to Erij and Bhānder',
and Nāsīr-ud-din occupied Chanderī, but discovered that a faction
in the town had invited Sher Khān to return and promised him
their active support. He sent a force against the rebel who was
advancing on Chanderi and who was defeated and so severely
wounded that he died in the course of his retreat.
The king
marched as far as the spot where the body had been buried, ex-
humed it, and carried it back to Chanderī, where it was exposed
on a gallows. He then appointed Bihajat Khān governor of Chan-
derī and returned to Māndū, when by deep drinking he aggravated
the natural ferocity of his disposition and by his violent and iras-
cible temper alienated his nobles.
In 1503 he led a marading expedition into the dominions of
the Rānā, and later in the year sent a force to the aid of Dāūd
Khān of Khāndesh, whose dominions had been invaded by Ahmad
Nizām Shāh of Ahmadnagar,
In 1510 Shihāb-ud-din, his son and heir apparent, rose in re-
bellion, and was joined by most of the nobles in the provinces and
many in the capital, who were disgusted by the king's tyranny.
Nāsir-ud-din marched against him and met him, with greatly
inferior numbers, at Dhār. Shihāb-ud-din, encouraged by his
numerical superiority, attacked his father, but was defeated and
fled to Chanderī, and, when he was pursued thither, to Sipri. His
father followed him, and having vainly attempted to persuade him
to return to his allegiance set o'it for Māndū, but died on his way
thither.
Of the manner of his death there are two accounts. According
1 In 24' 31'N. and 73' 45'E.


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XIV ]
MAHMUD II
365
to one he contracted a fever and insisted on bathing in cold water,
which so aggravated his illness that it terminated fatally. Accord-
ing to the other he gave expression to his suspicions of many of his
nobles, whom he believed to have been secretly in correspondence
with Shihāb-ud-din, and uttered menaces, until they beca me so
apprehensive that they poisoned him. Immediately after his death
they unanimo usly raised to the throne, on May 2, 1511, his son
'Alā-ud-din Mahmūd II, who was in the camp, and sent Nāsir-ud-
d'n's body to Māndū for burial.
Shihāb-ud-din, on hearing of his father's death, returned to
Mālwa and marched on Māndū, but Mahmūd II outstripped him
and arrived there first, and when Shihāb-ud-din reached the city
the gates were shut in his face. After attempting, without success,
to persuade the governor of the city, Muhāfiz Khān, to admit him,
he retired to the fortress of Asīr, in Khāndesh.
Mahmūd II confirmed in his post his father's minister, a Hindu
named Basant Rāi, but the Muslim nobles so resented his tenure
of his high place that they murdered him. The intrigues of
Muhāfiz Khān, governor of Māndü, drove Iqbāl Khān and Mukhtass
Khān, two of the leading nobles, into rebellion and they iled to
the Narbada and sent Nusrat Khān, the former's son to Asīr, to
summon Shihāb-ud-din to the throne of Mālwa. The prince was so
overjoyed that he set out at once, riding hard, in the great heart, to
join his adherents, but he succumbed, and on July 29, 1511, died
on the road. The rebels sent his body to Mandū for burial, pro-
claimed his son King under the title of Hūshang II, and marched
into the central districts of Mālwa. A force was sent against them
and defeated them, and Hüshang took refuge in Sehore, but the
leaders convinced the king that they were loyal at heart, and had
rebelled only in consequence of the intrigues of Muhāfiz Khān.
This officer had already angered the king by proposing that he
should put to death his eldest brother, Sāhib Khān, and the quarrel
became so acute that Muhāfiz Khān attacked the king in his
palace. He was defeated and driven off, and avenged himself by
proclaiming Sāhib Khān king under the title of Muhammad I11.
Mahmūi Il escaped from Māndū and withdrew to Ujjain, where
he was joined by Iqbāl Khān, Mukhtass Khān, and Dastur Khān.
Sāhib Khān advanced to Na'lcha and Mahmúd retired to Dipāl-
pur, where most of the nobles, whose wives and families were
in Māudū deserted him. He asked Bihjat Khān governor of
1 Muhammad Il reigned nominally from A. H. 917 to A. H. 921 (A. D. 1511—1516).
His extant coins bear the latter date,


## p. 366 (#412) ############################################

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


## p. 368 (#414) ############################################

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


## p. 376 (#422) ############################################

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.