South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c10.2

c10.2

*The First Invasion due to an accident.*—Sometimes great revolutions happen in the history of empires by accident, and the first invasion of the Dekhan may well be brought under the category of accidents. During one of the Mameluk revolutions that took place in Delhi, a Khilji high official, one of the slaves of the masterful Ghiyasu-d-din Balban raised himself to the throne. He was an old man remarkable alike for bravery and clemency. He came to the throne with three grown-up sons, one of whom at least was a warrior of reputation like the father. He had two nephews, sons of a brother, of whom the elder was a daring unscrupulous man of high ambitions. These nephews had married, each of them a daughter of the Sultan. Of these two ladies, the elder one was apparently a proud and indiscreet person, and conducted herself in such a way as to make her ambitious husband feel his position intolerable. Her mother the Malika-i-Jahan had great influence over the king, and as our Muhammadan authorities state, encouraged her daughter in her proud bearing towards her husband. So long as the young man was at court, he kept his pride under control. A chance came early for him however, to go out to a governorship as the result of a rebellion which was successfully put down. He took the opportunity of the remoteness of his head-quarters from court to mature his plans to carry himself to a higher position than that of a governor, and to teach the proud princess, his wife, a lesson. Gratitude to an uncle who brought him up like a father, gave him one of his daughter's in marriage and promoted him to offices and positions of trust, did not come in the way of his ambition. The one essential required for the fulfilment of this was money. He had not much chance of raising it in his own province unobserved by the agents of the court and the sovereign himself. He therefore cast longing eyes across the mountains, and made use of an occasion when he conducted an expedition to Bhilsa, to make the requisite enquiries and satisfy himself as to the wealth that was to be got by an invasion of the Dekhan. That was how the first invasion came about.