The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c14.56

v4.c14.56

Besides building Rohtās, near Jhelum, Sher Shāh built two forts at Delhi, extended the city towards the Jumna, and built forts at Kanauj and elsewhere. Crime was rigorously suppressed and the headmen of villages were held responsible for the surrender of those who committed crimes in their villages or of criminals who took refuge in them. Even the historians of the Timurids admit that in the Afghān's reign an old woman with a basket of gold could safely sleep in the open plain at night without a guard, and the historian Badāūnī, born in 1540, imitates the founder of his faith by thanking God that he was born the subject of so just a king. It was India's grave misfortune that this great king did not, as he himself once exclaimed when observing his grey hairs in a mirror, ascend the throne until the time of evening prayer. His body was borne to Sasarām and there a splendid mausoleum, which still stands, was raised above it. He was a pious and rigidly orthodox Muslim, but was liberal and tolerant. The most flagrant act of his life was his breach of faith with Pūran Mal and the massacre of the Hindus after the surrender of Rāisen; but those Hindus had committed the gravest of all offences against Islam, and Sher Shāh was convinced that his faith required the violation of a pledge which should never have been given.