South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c10.20

c10.20

contrast to what perhaps would have been expected from Alau-d-din. Alau-d-din's object in these various invasions of the Dekhan and the farther south appears to have gone no farther than making them the milch-cow for the gold that he was often much in need of for the efficient maintenance of his army to keep Hindustan free from internal disturbance and invasion by the Mughals from outside. That this was actually his policy is clear from the instructions he gave to Malik Kafur on the occasion of the expedition against Warangal. In the words of Barni the Naib was to do his utmost to capture the fort of Warangal and overthrow Rai Rudra Deo (Laddar Deo). ‘If the Rai consented to surrender his treasure and jewels, elephants and horses, and also to send treasure and elephants in the following year, Malik Naib Kafur was to accept these terms and not press the Rai too hard. He was to come to an arrangement and retire without pushing matters too far, lest Rai Laddar Deo should get the better of him. If he could not do this he was, for the sake of his own name and fame, to bring the Rai with him to Delhi.’ The policy here adumbrated involves two essential conditions: (1) The ruler was to be defeated to make an impression of power, but the territory was not to be annexed as it would involve government from a distance, which would mean constant rebellion and war; (2) he was to be allowed to rule, but to be fairly fleeced of all his wealth and treasure, and even all the elephants, the most powerful arm of Indian armies in those days. These ought to be regarded very wise measures to attain the object he had in view. In the year A.D. 1309 Malik Kafur left with a force similar to that which he took with him in the previous year on an expedition to Deogir. Accompanied in this expedition ‘by the royal red canopy, through the kindness of “the sun of sultans,” he departed towards the sea and Ma’bar.’ Marching through uninhabitable tracts, which in the graphic language of Amir Khusru are called ‘the Razor-bridge of Hell’ and crossing five rivers in the course of six days, the army arrived at last in Elichpur (Irijpur) called by the Muhammadans, Sultanpur. Proceeding from there they arrived at Kandahar where they spent the first fourteen days of the Ramzan. At Nilkanth¹ on the borders of Deogir which was the frontier town of Rai Rayan Ram Deo, the minister of Deogir, met the army and attended to their wants till they passed the frontiers of Deogir. Marching for sixteen days in what seems a south-eastern direction, they arrived at the fort of Sarbar (Sirpur), considered to be within the province of Telingana. The fort was set fire to and the inhabitants massacred. They marched further forward and in four more days arrived at a place called Kunarpal, very near Warangal. They took possession of Hanumakonda (An Makinda in Amir Khusru) wherefrom ‘all the edifices and gardens of Warangal can be seen.’ Warangal was a double fortress; the inner wall was built of stone and the outer made of mud ‘but so strong that a spear of steel could not pierce it; and if a ball from a western catapult were to strike against it, it would rebound like a nut with which children play.’ The fort was immediately laid siege to. Malik Kafur fixed his headquarters a mile from the gate of Warangal and pitched his tents close together all round the fort. Every division of his army was allotted 1,200 yards of land round the fort, the entire circuit of the wall being according to the same authority 12,546 yards. Orders were issued also that every division of the army was to surround itself with a stockade wall. They were so well and so strongly constructed and entrenched ‘that if fire had rained from Heaven their camp would have been unscathed.’ A night attack upon the camp by Vinayak Deo (Banak Deo) was unsuccessful and [Figure: Hanumakoṇḍa Temple, General View (by permission of H.E.H the Nizam's Archæological Department)]