South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c11.s1: The Sack of Śrīrangam by Malik Kafur
South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c11.s1
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The Sack of Śrīrangam by Malik Kafur
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benefactions of Sundara Pāṇḍya, not to mention a host of others before him.
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There is direct evidence to confirm this presumption in a work called Kōyiloḷuhu. This is a work which deals with all the benefactions made to the temple at Śrīrangam by people from its foundation to almost the eighteenth century. There are various editions of this work, differing in details, which cannot all of them be regarded accurate without confirmation. The more important of these, however, seem based upon the inscriptions in the temple, some of which may not be available at present. This work has a few paragraphs devoted to the sack of Śrīrangam and the carrying away of the idol of Ranganātha, apparently under Malik Kafur. The account begins that the king of Delhi having conquered Pratāpa Rudra, invaded both the Toṇḍamaṇḍalam and Śōlamaṇḍalam. The invading armies spread along the whole country and made a general sack of temples carrying away the idols as well. In the course of this campaign, they entered Śrīrangam as well, by the north gate, which was in the charge of the Ārya Bhaṭṭas, the Northern Brahmans. The guards, by name Panjukoṇḍān, were over-powered, the temple was entered into and all the property was carried away including the idol of the god. There was a woman who had made it her daily habit never to take her food without worshipping the god in the temple. She was a native of Karambanūr, otherwise called Uttamarkoil, on the other bank of the Coleroon. As the army was retreating after the sack, she gave up her household and followed the army in the guise of a mendicant having learnt that they were carrying away the idol of Rāmapriya as well from Tirunārāyaṇapuram (Melukoṭṭai). She reached ultimately the palace at Delhi where these idols were all locked up in a safe chamber. One of the younger princesses of the Sultan's family having been struck with the beauty of the Ranganātha idol, asked permission and obtained the idol to play with. She kept herself in the constant company of the idol. Knowing so much, perhaps feeling that the idol was in safe custody, the woman managed to steal away from the palace and journeyed back to Śrīrangam to give information of it to the people there.
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The more important among the citizens having deliberated as to what they should do, walled up the north gate of the temple and left the temple vacant burying the goddess idol that escaped capture under a bilva tree (Aegla Marmelos). Sixty of these men placed themselves under the guidance of the woman mendicant and set forward on their journey to Delhi. She put on the former guise and got entry into the palace as before. In the meanwhile those that followed her managed to get audience of the Sultan, and by exhibiting both the music and the dance for which they were famous, as having had to perform daily before the god, they pleased the Sultan so greatly and declined all rewards offered by the Sultan, preferring instead the one idol of Ranganātha, among the many, as the reward. The Sultan ordered that these men might be allowed to take the idol of their choice. Not finding this particular idol in the store-room and knowing as they did that it was with the princess, they reported the matter to the Sultan, who in joke told them that if it was their god they might call him and take him away. They agreed and sang their prayers, which the idol answered by following them. Showing this to the Sultan they obtained his permission and started off with their idol over-night. When morning broke, the princess was disconsolate at the loss of her idol and declined to live if she could not have it. Search for the party proving useless, he placed her under an escort and sent her off for the idol. The Brahmans of Śrīrangam having had a start, marched along ahead and reached Tirupati safe before they could be overtaken by the princess and her escort. At Tirupati they heard of the arrival of the party of the princess and feeling themselves unsafe, the party broke up and dispersed themselves to avoid observation leaving the idol in charge of three men among them, the father and son, and the son's maternal uncle. The big party having thus disappeared, the escort marched on till they reached Śrīrangam. Finding that the northern gate of the temple was walled up and the temple empty, the princess died of a broken heart.
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In the meanwhile, the three men in charge of the idol heard of the advance of the Muhammadans closer to the hill; fearing for their safety and that of the idol, the chief man tied himself down to the idol and asked the two others gently to let it down the slope of the hill, himself being always on the underside so that the idol may not suffer damage. Having got down safely, the three men lived on there in an isolated glen in the forest at the foot of the hill unfrequented by ordinary people. In the meanwhile, people at Śrīrangam thinking it impossible to recover the idol, made and consecrated others, instead of those of both the god and the goddess. In the meanwhile the three men continued to live on doing their daily service to the god in the usual fashion. For a period of fifty-nine and a half years from the date of the sack, of which two years were spent in the palace of the Sultan, the idol of Śrīrangam found its shrine in that sequestered glen. In the course of this long stay, the father and the uncle had died and the son had grown up to be an old man of eighty, looking more like a forest man than a civilized one. Feeling that his end was drawing near this one man showed himself to the hill folk about and let them understand how and why he happened to be there. Information of this reached the town by means of these people, and it happened to be the time of Gopana, who was in charge of Nārāyaṇapuram (Nārāyaṇavaram) near Chandragiri under the newly formed kingdom of Vijayanagar. He carried the idol to his later head-quarters at Ginji where he placed it in the temple called Singavaram even now, in a safe place difficult of approach even from Ginji itself. When Prince Kampana had over-powered the Muhammadan garrisons in the various localities in South India and brought the whole of it under the control of Vijayanagar, Gopana, his chief adviser got the idol re-installed in the temple at Śrīrangam in the Śaka year, 1293, A.D. 1370-71, in the year Paritāpi, month Vaikāśi, date 17.
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The last date 1370-71 is admittedly taken from the inscription which gives a chronogram, which is interpreted here as 1293. Counting back fifty-nine and a half years from this will take us to 1310-11. This is most naturally referred to the invasion of Malik Kafur and cannot refer to one of the later invasions. But there is one apparent objection to accept this account. There is another sack of Śrīrangam referred to in the same work and of a later date certainly when the idol of Ranganātha had to be taken towards the south and ultimately brought back by way of Malayāḷam to Calicut, and across to Tirupati. We shall have to refer to this in another connection.
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The memory of this particular migration of the idol is preserved in the temple where in the north-eastern corner of the outer Maṇḍapa, in the first line round the sanctum, there is a chamber containing a wall painting of this Suratāṇi (Sultana), popularly called Tulukkachchi Nāchiyār. At break of day worship is offered to her and to the god, with bread and butter, which is a special feature of this particular temple in regard to this particular deity.
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*Epigraphical Evidence.*—There are a few references in inscriptions in this part of the country which throw considerable light upon the Muhammadan invasions having gone as far as the Pāṇḍya country. The earliest so far available is No. 434 of 1903 of the Madras Epigraphist's collection, which refers itself to the fourteenth year of Veṇru Maṅkoṇḍa Śambuvarāyan, whose date of accession is A.D. 1322 according to the late professor Kielhorn. This would mean that the reference is of date A.D. 1335-36, and it speaks of the Muhammadan invasions in ‘previous days’ and the destruction of the country by them. This record is in Tiruvāmāttūr a place in the South Arcot district. The next reference is in records of Tiruppattūr (in the Ramnad district just outside the southern border of Puḍukoṭṭa) referring themselves to the years forty-four and forty-six of Vīra Pāṇḍya, in which it is stated that Tiruppattūr temple was in the occupation of the Muhammadans during their campaign in the south, and the temple was reconsecrated in the said years by a certain Viśaiyālaya Dēvan. The name Viśaiyālaya figures in inscriptions of Māravarman Kulaśēkhara, and refers possibly to the same officer as the one referred to in the records of this Vīra Pāṇḍya.¹ If that were so, the date of these records would be A.D. 1339-40 and A.D 1341-42. The Vīra Pāṇḍya referred to above must be Jaṭāvarman Vīra Pāṇḍya against whom Malik Kafur undertook the invasion of the south and whose date of accession is A.D. 1295-96. The next later record is one of the seventh year of Rājanārāyaṇa Śambuvarāyan, whose sixth year, according to Kielhorn, is A.D. 1345, and therefore the actual date of reference is A.D. 1346. But the most important document in this connection is c. 64 of 1916 at Tirukaḷākkuḍi which refers explicitly to the invasion and occupation by the Muhammadans, the appropriation of temple lands, the neglect of temple worship, etc., till Kampana Uḍaiyār came and put an end to the Muhammadan domination and appointed officers (Nāyakanmārs) for supervision of temple worship and management. This record refers itself to the thirty-first year of a Māravarman Vīra Pāṇḍya and gives astronomical details which, according to Rao Bahadur Mr. Krishna Sastrigal, work out correctly to A.D. 1358.¹ The next one is No. 18 of 1899 at Tiruppuṭkuḷi of A.D. 1365, which states in clear terms that Kampana conquered Rāja Gambhīra Rājya, and was pleased to rule the earth permanently. This date A.D. 1358 is taken as a starting point by Mr. Sastrigal, and calculating back from it he fixes the date of Māravarman Vīra Pāṇḍya's accession as A.D. 1326-27 on the assumption of a forty-eight years' occupation by the Muhammadans beginning with Malik Kafur. This point will come in for discussion in connection with the dynasty of the Sultans of Madura. It is enough to state here that the assumption of the official date for the Sultans of Madura who ruled for forty-eight years in all is wrong, and hence this date for Māravarman Vīra Paṇḍya is untenable if it depended upon that assumption alone. For the present purpose this series of epigraphical references makes it clear beyond doubt that the early Muhammadan invasions reached certainly into the Pāṇḍya country, and raises a very strong presumption that it did go farther south both to Madura and to Rāmēśvaram as Amir Khusru claims, having regard to the character of the invasion as a mere raid undertaken for the sole purpose of plunder.
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¹ A family of these chiefs is known associated with Śūraikkuḍi or Vannian Śūraikkuḍi, to distinguish it from another place of the name, on the road to Tiruppattūr from Kānāḍukāttan. About a dozen chiefs of this family have records and are known by the general style ‘Araiyan Viśaiyālaya Dēvan’.
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¹ Epi. Rep. for 1916, Sec. 33.
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Alau-d-din's Empire.—Malik Kafur returned to Delhi about the end of the year A.D. 1311² or early in A.D. 1312, with all the great booty that he had taken in his invasion of Ma'bar, and presented himself before Alau-d-din. From that time till the death of Alau-d-din in the year A.D. 1315 there was no further invasion of the South by the Muhammadans. Alau-d-din's administration was one of a thorough-going character, as was already stated. He had put down internal rebellion with a high hand, and introduced order and efficiency in his administration, both civil and military, and by that means he had successfully kept the Mughals out of the Indian frontiers. He had besides so far been successful in his invasions of the Dekhan and the South, that, although these distant kingdoms were not actually annexed to his government, they were reduced to such subordination that they could be regarded as a part of his own empire. It looked as though the empire was quite at peace and there was not the slightest likelihood of any disturbance.
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² This date of Amir Khusru seems quite correct. The Koiloluhu referring to the sack of the Śrīrangam temple states specifically that the Ranganātha idol was fifty-nine and a half years out of the temple down to its restoration in A.D. 1370-71, according to the inscription in the temple. *Epigraphia Indica*, vol, vi, No. 33.
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Domestic troubles of Alau-d-din's reign.—Anxieties and cares, however, assailed the king almost from the moment of the return of Malik Kafur from his southern expedition. The causes of these are easy to trace, and these were the causes that subverted his own government, luckily for him after his death, and that of his great successor Muhammad-bin Tughlak. These can be grouped under three heads: (1) It was pointed out already that Jalal-ud-din settled several of the Mughal centurions (Amirs of hundred and more, called ‘Amir Judeida’ by other historians) who had become Muhammadans, in various places providing them estates or other means of livelihood. At the commencement of the reign of Alau-d-din, he took advantage of his revenue organization to cut the income of these Mughals close, along with those of others, even depriving some of them of their means of livelihood. This naturally created discontent, and the discontent gathered head on the occasion of a possible Mughal invasion. Some of them, the more impetous among them, conspired to assassinate the king. This conspiracy was taken full advantage of, and Alau-d-din ordered a general massacre of these new Mussalmans to take place simultaneously wherever they were.
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Such of them as did not escape by chance or design were put to death, their houses plundered, their women and children turned into the streets, and whatever of property they had was swept into the public treasury. By this drastic measure he made internal rebellions by these chieftains impossible although such of them as escaped to more distant provinces were quite ready to create trouble as we shall see. (2) The violence and jealousy of his temper, which shows itself in these acts, began to extend itself further in the last years of his reign. He grew jealous of those old nobles and officers, who were mainly responsible for the administration of the kingdom. Fearing risings on their part, he removed several of them and put in their stead young slaves and eunuchs, who became his favourites, notably Malik Kafur. His treatment of his sons carried in it another fruitful cause of discontent. While yet they were too young for exercise of authority, he advanced them to responsible dignities, which naturally turned their heads and brought about first misunderstandings, and then graver consequences. (3) His infatuation for Malik Kafur the greatest of his favourites, led him to prefer the slave above all others, whatever their rank or position. The officer that resented this preference the most was Alp Khan, the father-in-law of Kizer Khan and a brother of his mother. Through the influence of Malik Kafur Alp Khan, the Governor of Gujarat, was assassinated, and even Kizer Khan and his mother were ill-treated and turned out of their palaces. These disturbances near the throne naturally loosened the hold upon the distant provinces, and, as was usually the case, revolts broke out in Gujarat. The officer sent to put down the rebellion was killed and the rebels had the upper hand of it. Other rebellions followed when Alau-d-din got seriously ill. It was generally believed that the illness was aggravated and helped out to a fatal termination by Malik Kafur himself.
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Malik Kafur supreme, and his assassination.—The death of Alau-d-din left Malik Kafur in the plenitude of his power. He made use of it to aggrandize himself at the expense of everybody else. He threw all the grown-up sons of the late king into prison, and with the assent of the nobles placed an infant son upon the throne, himself undertaking the conduct of Government. Kizer Khan and his brother Shadi Khan, who were older and in prison in Gwalior were blinded, and the queen-dowager, the mother of Kizer Khan, was sent out into miserable retirement. He threw Mubarak into close confinement with the intention ultimately to have him blinded. These high-handed acts of his made him very unpopular in a short time, and the crowning act of his, to gather together all the more important nobles in the capital and assassinate them, was anticipated by his own assassination by a body of paiks—‘slaves of the late king, whose duty it was to be in charge of the Hazar Sutun,’ the Durbar hall of the palace. Thirty-five days after the death of Alau-d-din these men assassinated Malik Kafur, brought forth Mubarak Khan from his prison, and placed him in the position of authority as Naib (director) to the infant king. Mubarak had to begin his reign as director for the infant, and after a short while when he felt his position safe, he set aside the infant brother and ascended the throne himself. Almost the first act of his was to get rid of his dangerous allies, ‘the guards of the Hazar Sutun.’ He distributed them in distant places and got them put to death to put them beyond possibility of becoming dangerous. The accession of the Sultan Kutub-ud-din Mubarak Shah took place about the middle of A.D. 1316.
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Kutub-ud-din Mubarak Shah.—Mubarak began his reign by a declaration of amnesty for all political prisoners and exiles of the late reign. He ordered six months’ pay to be given to the army, and increase of allowance and grants to nobles. He also adopted other measures to give relief to the people from the heavy tribute and oppressive demands of the late reign, ‘and penalties, extortion, beating, chains, and blows were set aside in revenue matters.’ He allowed the rigorous measures of the late reign to fall into desuetude, and signs of prosperity began to appear among the people. After so much promise of a good administration the Sultan gave himself up to his pleasures, involving as a consequence the neglect of administration.
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*The rise of Khusru Khan.*—Along with this he began to exhibit the other failing, favouritism to an unworthy slave. A young Parwari by name Hasan was brought up by one of the officers of the Court. The Sultan took a liking for this young man and in the very first year of his reign raised him to distinction with the title Khusru Khan. So attached was he to this young slave that he raised him at one jump to the position of Malik Naib Kafur, and combined with that high office that of the Wazir. The abolition of all the regulations of Alau-d-din except those against drinking exhibited itself in the rise of prices and perhaps the return of prosperity to the people; and if Barni could be believed, bribery, extortion and malversation followed in train. The regulations against drink were also neglected, and the example of the habits of dissipation of the monarch was but too readily followed, and even improved upon, by his subjects. Fortunately for him the Mughals did not appear in his reign on the borders. His few years of rule were years of prosperity in respect of agriculture, and there was no great disturbance in any quarter. In the first year of his reign he sent out an army under ’Einu-l-Mulk Multani to put down the rebellion in Gujarat and the province was soon got into order. He appointed his own father-in-law, Malik Dinar, Zafar Khan, governor of Gujarat. Several other old and experienced governors of Alau-d-din were retained at their posts, and they contributed to the continuance of orderly administration, in spite of the relaxation in regard to the regulations of Alau-d-din.
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Loss of hold upon the tributary kingdoms.—So far as the Dekhan and South India were concerned, the few years of disturbance following the return of Malik Kafur to Delhi, and the domestic trouble which occupied his attention completely were quite enough to destroy the hold of the central government upon the subordinate Hindu kingdoms. It was stated already that soon after the return of Malik Kafur to Delhi, the number of elephants and the amount of tribute due from Warangal were sent by Rudra Deo. The following three or four years were quite enough to make him negligent in this matter. During that short period a change had taken place in the government of Deogir. Ram Deo had already died in the reign of Alau-d-din and had been succeeded by Shankar Deo his eldest son; and a second change had taken place by the time Mubarak had ascended the throne, and the chief power was in the hands of a son-in-law of the late Ram Deo of Deogir. His name was Harapāla Deo, and, like an ambitious young man that he was, he thought that it was an advantageous time to throw off the yoke recently imposed upon them by the Muhammadans. In regard to the distant south, Ma'bar, Malik Kafur’s conquest did not extend to anything beyond a magnificent raid as far as Rāmēśvaram, and the destruction of a number of places of importance. There seems, however, little doubt that he left a garrison behind in Madura, the head-quarters of the Pāṇḍya Kulaśēkhara, who had fled for protection to Delhi. Whether the garrison was left to safeguard the interests of Kulaśēkhara is not clearly stated, but seems quite likely. There are good reasons for believing that a Musalman garrison continued in Madura. If it did, its authority must have been confined very narrowly, not extending in all probability to very much beyond the territory immediately round Madura. In the year following the return of Malik Kafur to Delhi, we find an enterprising Travancore ruler in occupation of practically the whole of the Chola country. This was Ravi Varman Kulaśēkhara, who was born in the year A.D. 1266-7. He fought early against a Vīra Pāṇḍya, in all likelihood the Bir Pandi or the Tira Pandi of the Muhammadan historians, and marched into the territory of the Pāṇḍyas and the Cholas soon after Malik Kafur left for Delhi. He was as far north as Tiruvaḍi in the South Arcot district in A.D. 1313. In A.D. 1313-14 he was in Kāñchi, having celebrated his coronation on the banks of river Vēgavati in his fourth year, a stream that runs through the town of Kāñchi.¹ If this means anything, he felt justified in anointing himself ruler over the Tamil country in succession to the Imperial Cholas, and their Pāṇḍya successors. Records in Śrīrangam of the same year, or the following, show him as having overcome in battle a rival of his by name Vīra Pāṇḍya, whom he drove for shelter to Konkan.² Another record of his in Poonamalli gives him credit for a victory over a Sundara Pāṇḍya. This record shows the two fishes of the Pāṇḍyas surmounted by an elephant-goad, a certain indication of Kēraḷa ascendency over the Pāṇḍya. The presence of this ruler in the Tamil country and what he did there during the period indicate that the garrison left in Madura could have been only a guard of protection to the Pāṇḍya Kulaśēkhara and could have been no more.³ So then when Mubarak ascended the throne and was ready to turn his attention to the South in the second year of his administration he had to do the conquest of South India over again.
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¹ *Epigraphia Indica*, vol. viii. No. 8.
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² Epi. Coll. for 1911. No. 34; for a record of his fifth year, see Epi. Rep. for 1909, Sec 74.
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³ For Ravivarman Kulaśēkhara see my article ' A medieval Kēraḷa Ruler ' in the *Ernakulam College Magazine* for July 1919.
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Hoyśālēśvara temple ; Halebid. General View, back (by permission of the Mysore Archæological Department)
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Dvārasamudra re-built before A.D. 1316.—The kingdom of the Hoysalas of Dvārasamudra remained quite intact all this while, and was not much affected even by the progress of the Kēraḷa ruler Ravivarman Kulaśēkhara. During the period of activity of the latter in the Tamil country, the Hoysala apparently withdrew into his ancestral dominions and appears to have been attending to the work of restoring order in his kingdom, which had suffered by the invasion of the Muḥammadans considerably, though not to the extent that the Tamil kingdoms did. Reference was already made to the return of the Hoysala prince from Delhi in A.D. 1313,¹ and to the fact that the entry of the prince again into the capital of his father was celebrated by a grant to a temple which might be just one of the items of celebration, and need hardly be regarded as the whole of it. Another record of Vira Baḷḷāḷa III dated the equivalent of A.D. 1316, states in clear terms that the Baḷḷāḷa was ruling in great happiness *after having re-built his capital at Dhorasamudra*.² This rebuilding of the capital is a certain indication of the reviving security of the Hoysala, and we might see a reflex of the disturbances at head-quarters in the hopefulness with which the southern governments went about setting their own kingdoms in order with a view to further eventualities. We do not hear of any activity on the part of the Hoysala in the Tamil country till about the year A.D. 1328. Absence of information is not always synonymous with absence of occurrences worth recording in history; but at the same time it looks as if the Hoysala intervention, which might well have begun soon after A.D. 1316, became really effective only about the year A.D. 1328, the date of the recorded residence of the Hoysala at Tiruvaṇṇāmalai.³ That incident will come in its proper place later. The sudden retirement of Ravivarman Kulaśēkhara might have been due in part at any rate to the attempt of the Hoysala, to recover his lost dominions in the Tamil country¹ though the chief cause must have been the southward march of Pratāpa Rudra’s general Muppiḍināyaka whose records we find both in Kāñchi and Jambukēśvaram (on the island of Śrīrangam, near Trichinopoly). The need therefore for a fresh attempt at the conquest of the southern kingdoms as soon as Mubarak felt settled upon the throne is very clear.
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¹ Sh. 68 *Epigraphia Car.*, vol. viii.
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² Md. 100 *Epigraphia Car.*, vol.iii.
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³ Db. 14 *Epigraphia Car.* ix.
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¹ Epi. Rep. for 1916, Sec. 531 and *Ibid* for 1909, Sec. 73.
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*Reconquest of the Dakhan.*—Mubarak marched to Deogir defeated Harapāla in battle, took him prisoner and flayed him alive. When the rains began, the Mahrattas had been brought into subjection; the Sultan remained in Deogir itself during the rains appointing Malik Yek Lakhi, an old servant of Alau-d-din, ‘who for many years was Naib of the Barids (spies),’ as governor of the Mahārāshtra. It was now that Mubarak appointed ‘feudatories, rulers and revenue collectors over the territories of the Mahrattas.’ This means that the Mahratta country was brought directly under Muhammadan rule, and the country was distributed among a certain number of Muhammadan governors. In the words of Col. Haig, ‘Kutub-ud-din Mubarak Shah remained during the rainy season at Deogir engaged in bringing the Mahratta country for the first time under Muhammadan rule, and in building the great mosque which still stands at Deogir. This structure is a monument of the establishment of Islam in the south. The numerous pillars which support its roof are purely Hindu in design, and were evidently taken from some temple which stood on or near the spot where the mosque now stands. The effect of the Hindu carvings in the temple of monotheism is most incongruous, perhaps designedly so, for Kutub-uddin Mubarak, who was three parts debauchee and one part theologian, evidently intended them to bear witness to future ages of the downfall of Hinduism and the establishment of Islam. The emperor, during his stay in Deogir, established military posts throughout the Gulbarga, Sagar, and Dhora-samudra country¹ and parcelled out the Mahārāṣṭra among Muhammadan jagirdars.²
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¹ The statement is a little too hyperbolical, as appears from the Hoysala Inscriptions, and the first campaign of Alau-d-din Bahman Shah according to the Burhan-i-Ma'asir.
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² Historic Landmarks of the Dakhan 625.
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Khusru Khan’s invasion of Warangal.—It was in all probability for establishing the military posts above referred to that an expedition against Warangal was entrusted to Khusru Khan, of which Barni makes no mention. Amir Khusru, however, who completed his work Nuh Siphir (nine spheres) in A.D. 1318, has a detailed account of Khusru Khan’s invasion and siege of Warangal. In Deogir itself Khusru Khan was detached first against Raghu, the minister of Ram Deo, and then, against Harpal (Harapāla) Deo himself. It must have been after this that he marched southwards towards Warangal. Warangal seems to have been closely besieged as on the former occasions, and was compelled to submit. The negotiations also took a turn similar to that of Malik Kafur’s Campaign, the Khan stating that ‘the Khalifa who sent me to this country ordered me to demand three conditions from the Hindus; first, that they should make profession of the faith in order that its tidings may be proclaimed throughout the world; second, that, in the event of refusal, a capitation tax should be levied; and the third is, if the compliance with this demand is refused to place their heads under the sword. It is my recommendation that the Rai come forth and place his head upon the ground, in front of the royal pavilion.’ These terms meant conversion to Islam, or the surrender of all property and agreement to pay Jazia, or death in the alternative, terms quite similar to those offered by Malik Kafur before. The Raja agreed to surrender all his wealth and to pay tribute, and after he satisfied the Khan that he had secreted no treasure, the Khan accepted the terms. The written agreement also arrived in due course. ‘The Khan then received from the Rai five districts (mauza) of his country (A’kta), an annual tribute of more than a hundred strong elephants, as large as demons, twelve thousand horses, and gold and jewels and gems beyond compute. The Rai assented to the whole, with heart and soul, and wrote an agreement to this effect and confirmed it.’¹ As a token of subordination to the Empire at Delhi Khusru Khan renewed the canopy and standard given to the Rai, and returned to Deogir in a hurry, as he was summoned in haste. Before Khusru Khan reached Deogir however, Mubarak Shah left for Delhi on the 5th of August A.D. 1318.
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¹ Elliott iii. 558-60.
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Mubarak’s return to Delhi.—Before leaving on this expedition to Warangal Khusru Khan was raised by the Sultan to a distinction even higher than that attained by Malik Kafur and was granted a canopy with the special commission to invade Ma’bar. He probably started on that expedition after the Sultan left for Delhi. On the Sultan’s return march to Delhi, at Ghati-Sakun, an attempt on the life of the Sultan was about to be made by Malik Asadu-d-din, a cousin of Alau-d-din. One of the conspirators revealed the plot to the Sultan, and all the conspirators were immediately captured and put to death; and the whole family of the principal conspirator, in Delhi, who had no knowledge of the conspiracy were also similarly treated. Then the Sultan grew exceedingly suspicious and, according to Barni, got all the sons of Alau-d-din in prison at Gwalior put to death. He then grew very high-handed in all that he did, and resigned himself practically into the hands of Khusru Khan whom Barni describes as a low designing schemer. Some of his schemes to put to death the principal nobles, to get them out of the way of his schemes, were brought to the ears of the Sultan, who subjected to disgraceful punishment those that made bold to warn him of his own danger. He put to death his own father-in-law Zafar Khan, Governor of Gujarat and appointed in his stead an uncle of Khusru Khan. A rebellion broke out against the new governor; and persons of a respectable character were appointed to governorships afterwards. There was a revolt in Deogir by the governor Malik Yek Lakhi, who was cruelly punished and publicly disgraced. Luckily, however, others appointed in his place happened to be tried men and of good character. They carried on the administration satisfactorily at Deogir. It was during this period of his reign that he ordered the construction of a Jami Masjid at Delhi and when that was completed, he gave orders that the city and fort of Delhi begun by Alau-d-din and left unfinished, should be completed.
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Khusru Khan's invasion of Ma'bar and return to Delhi.—Khusru Khan's invasion of Ma'bar, as Barni describes it, was uneventful. He marched towards the country, the kings fled before him and about a hundred elephants left in two cities fell into the hands of Khusru Khan. The rains set in, and Khusru had to remain there during the rains. To the horror of Barni, Khusru Khan seized the person of Taki Khan, a Sunni and, appropriating his money, put him to death.¹ While here, he was plotting against the more influential nobles and maturing his own plans to carry through his final schemes of usurping the throne himself.
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¹ Elliott, iii, 219.
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The Sultan was so infatuated with him that he was able to prevail against the most influential among the nobles of the court. When ultimately he returned to Delhi he found himself in great power, and Mubarak trusted himself altogether in his hands. Introducing with the permission of the Sultan a body of three hundred men from his own country of Gujarat, he got possession of the palace in the night and succeeded in assassinating Mubarak Shah, and proclaimed himself emperor in his stead. The doings of this favourite are looked upon, at least by the Muhammadan historians, as a deliberate Hinduising movement with a view to putting an end to the power of the hereditary nobles among the Muhammadans and raising to their positions renegades and slaves with a view ultimately to bring about the restoration of Hindu monarchy, a movement we meet with again in the reign of Muhammad-bin-Tughlakh, perhaps in a much more pronounced form. This naturally created a party of the more orthodox Musalmans, who found a capable leader in Ghazi Malik, governor of Deobalpur. At the time when Khusru Khan overthrew Mubarak, the eldest son of this Ghazi Malik, Muhammad Fakhruddin Juna, who became afterwards Sultan Muhammad Tughlakh, was in Delhi. Khusru made him his ‘master of the horse,’ and treated him with respect and gave him robes of honour. This did not reconcile him to the rule of the base Khusru as the ‘storms of violence and cruelty reached to the skies. Copies of the holy scripture were used as seats, and idols were set up in the pulpit of mosques.’ . . . ‘It was Khusru’s design to increase the power and importance of the Parwaris and Hindus, and to make their party grow; he therefore opened the treasury and scattered money about . . . . calling himself Sultan Nasiru-d-din. The base born slave had his title repeated in the Kutba (public prayer) and impressed upon coins.’ There was such an ascendancy of the Hindus in the capital that both the Ghazi Malik and his friends found their position dangerous.
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*The Tughlak Revolution.*—Two months after the accession of the new Sultan, Malik Fakhru-d-din made his plans, mounted his horse one afternoon and fleeing with a few slaves from Delhi ‘confided himself to God.’ He was able to elude his pursuers, and reached Sarsuti in safety. He was met there by an escort of 200 horse sent by his father and reached his family safe. That was the signal for a rising of the Musalmans against Khusru. Khusru’s army was defeated by Ghazi Malik and Bahram Abiya of Uch. A week after this victory, Malik Ghazi marched upon Delhi itself. Khusru came out of Delhi to meet him, having emptied the treasury in rewarding his followers, and destroyed everything worth preserving. The battle fought in the environs of Delhi went against Khusru, who fled from the field. Ghazi Malik stood victor, and Khusru and his followers were hunted out of their hiding places and were beheaded. Spending the night at Indarpet, Ghazi Malik on the following morning took possession of Delhi. Seating himself in the Hazar Sutun, Ghazi Malik gave public thanks for his victory and wished the nobles to assemble in order to decide who was to succeed next. None of Alau-d-din’s descendants being left, everybody unanimously acclaimed Ghazi Malik, Sultan, who accepted the position with reluctance and ascended the throne as Sultan Ghiyasu-d-din Tughlakh Shah in the palace of Siri in A.D. 1320.