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Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c14.s2: Part II.—History

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarát c14.s2

Language
English

Contents

Part II.—History

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The history of Mándu belongs to two main sections, before and after the overthrow by the emperor Akbar in A.D. 1563 of the independent power of the Sultáns of Málwa.

Section I.—The Málwa Sultáns, A.D. 1400-1570

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Of early Hindu Mándu, which is said to date from A.D. 313, nothing is known.³ Hind spire stones are built into the Hindola palace walls; and the pillars of the lesser Jámá mosque, about a hundred yards from the east end of the sea or Ságar Lake, are Hindu apparently Jain. Of these local Hind chiefs almost nothing is known except that their fort, was taken and their power brought to an end by Sultān Shams-ud-din Altamsh about A.D. 1234.¹ Dhār, not Māndu, was at that time the capital. It seems doubtful whether Māndu ever enjoyed the position of a capital till the end of the fourteenth century. In A.D. 1401, in the ruin that followed Timūr's (A.D. 1398-1400) conquest of Northern India, a Pathān from the country of Ghor, Dilāwar Khān Ghori (A.D. 1387-1405), at the suggestion of his son Alp Khān, assumed the white canopy and scarlet pavilion of royalty.² Though Dhār was Dilāwar's head-quarters he sometimes stayed for months at a time at Māndu, strengthening the defences and adorning the hill with buildings, as he always entertained the desire of making Māndu his capital.³ Three available inscriptions of Dilāwar

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³ The Persian references and extracts in this section are contributed by Khán Sáheb Fazl-ul-lah Lutfullah Faridi of Surat. Sir John Malcolm in Eastwick's Handbook of the Panjáb, 119. This reference has not been traced. Farishtah (Elliot, VI. 563) says Mándu was built by Anand Dev of the Bais tribe, who was a contemporary of Khusrao Parwiz the Sassanian (A.D. 591-621).

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¹ The date is uncertain. Compare Elphinstone's History, 323; Briggs' Farishtah, I, 210-211; Tabakāt-i-Nāsiri in Elliot, II, 328. The conquest of Māndu in A.D. 1227 is not Mandu in Mālwa as Elphinstone and Briggs supposed, but Mandūr in the Siwālik Hills. See Elliot, Vol. II, page 325 Note 1. The Persian text of Farishtah (I, 115), though by mistake calling it Māndu (not Māndu), notes that it was the Mandu in the Siwālik hills. The poetical date-script also terms it Bilādi-Siwālik or the Siwālik countries. The date of the conquest of the Siwālik Māndu by Altamsh is given by Farishtah (Ditto) as A.H. 624 (A.D. 1226). The conquest of Mālwa by Altamsh, the taking by him of Bhilsah and Ujjain, and the destruction of the temple of Maha Kāl and of the statue or image of Bikramajit are given as occurring in A.H. 631 (A.D. 1233). The Mirāt-i-Sikandari (Persian Text, 13) notices an expedition made in A.D. 1395 by Zafar Khān (Muzaffar I, of Gujarāt) against a Hindu chief of Māndu, who, it was reported, was oppressing the Musalmāns. A siege of more than twelve months failed to capture the fort.

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² Briggs' Farishtah, IV, 170.

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³ Briggs' Farishtah, IV, 168. According to the Wakiāt-i-Mushtāki (Elliot, IV, 553) Dilāwar Khān, or as the writer calls him Amin Shāh, through the good offices of a merchant whom he had refrained from plundering obtained the grant of Māndu, which was entirely desolate. The king sent a robe and a horse, and Amin gave up walking and took to riding. He made his friends ride, enlisted horsemen, and promoted the cultivation of the country (Elliot, IV, 552). Farishtah (Pers. Text, II, 460-61) states that when Sultān Muhammad, the son of Firūz Tughlak, made Khwajah Sarwar his chief minister with the title of Khwajah Jehan, and gave Zafar Khān the viceroyalty of Gujarāt and Khizr Khān that of Multān, he sent Dilāwar Khān to be governor of Mālwa. In another passage Farishtah (II, 461) states that one of Dilāwar's grandfathers, Sultān Shahāb-ud-din, came from Ghor and took service in the court of the Dehli Sultāns. His son rose to be an Amir, and his grandson Dilāwar Khān, in the time of Sultān Firūz became a leading nobleman, and in the reign of Muhammad, son of Firūz, obtained Mālwa in fief. When the power of the Tughlaks went to ruin Dilāwar assumed the royal emblems of the umbrella and the red-tent.

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⁴ Dilāwar Khān Ghori, whose original name was Husain, was one of the grandsons of Sultān Shahāb-ud-din Muhammad bin Sām. He was one of the nobles of Muhammad, the son of Firūz Tughlak, who after the death of that monarch, settled in and asserted his power over Mālwa, (Pers. Text Farishtah, II, 460). The emperor Jehāngir (who calls him Amid Shāh Ghori) attributes to him the construction of the fort of Dhār. He says (Memoirs Pers. Text, 201-202): Dhār is one of the oldest cities of India. Rāja Bhoj, one of the famous ancient Hindu kings, lived in this city. From his time up to this thousand years have passed. Dhār was also the capital of the Muhammadan rulers of Mālwa. When Sultān Muhammad Tughlak (A.D. 1325) was on his way to the conquest of the Dakhan he built a cut-stone fort on a raised site. Its outline is very elegant and beautiful, but the space inside is empty of buildings. Amid Shāh Ghori, known as Dilāwar Khān, who in the days of Sultān Muhammad the son of Sultān Firūz, king of Dehli, gained the independent rule of Mālwa, built outside this fort an assembly mosque, which has in front of it, in the ground a four-cornered iron column about four feet round. When Sultān Bahādur of Gujarāt took Mālwa (A.D. 1530-31) he wished to carry this column to Gujarāt. In digging it up the pillar fell and broke in two, one piece measuring twenty-two feet the other thirteen feet. As it was lying here uncared-for I (Jehāngir) ordered the big piece to be carried to Agra to be put up in the courtyard of the shrine of him whose abode is the heavenly throne (Akbar), to be utilised as a lamp post. The mosque has two gates. In

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THE HILL FORT OF MÁNDU. HISTORY, The Málwa Sultáns, A.D. 1400-1570.

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Khán (A.D. 1387-1405) seem to show that he built an assembly mosque near the Ship Palace, a mosque near the Dehli Gate, and a gate at the entrance to Songadh, the south-west corner and citadel of Mándu, afterwards known as the Tárápúr Gate.

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In A.D. 1398 Alp Khán, son of Diláwar Khán, annoyed with his father for entertaining as his overlord at Dhár Mehmúd Tughlak, the refugee monarch of Dehli, withdrew to Mándu. He stayed in Mándu for three years, laying, according to Farishtah, the foundation of the famous fortress of solid masonry which was the strongest fortification in that part of the world.¹ On his father's death in A.D. 1405 Alp Khán took the title of Sultán Hoshang, and moved the capital to Mándu. The rumour that Hoshang had poisoned his father gave Diláwar's brother in arms, Muzaffar Sháh of Gujarát (A.D. 1399-1411), an excuse for an expedition against Hoshang.² Hoshang was defeated at Dhár, made prisoner, and carried to Gujarát, and Muzaffar's brother Nasrat was appointed in his place. Nasrat failed to gain the goodwill either of the people or of the army of Málwa, and was forced to retire from Dhár and take refuge in Mándu. In consequence of this failure in A.D. 1408, at Hoshang's request Muzaffar set Hoshang free after a year's confinement, and deputed his grandson Ahmed to take Hoshang to Málwa and establish Hoshang's power.³ With Ahmed's help Hoshang took Dhár and shortly after secured the fort of Mándu. Hoshang (A.D. 1405-1431) made Mándu his capital and spread his power on all sides except towards Gujarát.⁴ Shortly after the death of Muzaffar I. and the accession of Ahmed, when (A.D. 1414) Ahmed was quelling the disturbances raised by his cousins, Hoshang, instead of helping Ahmed as requested, marched towards Gujarát and created a diversion in favour of the rebels by sending two of his nobles to attack Brosch. They were soon expelled by Ahmed Sháh. Shortly after Hoshang marched to the help of the chief of Jháláváda in Kathiáváda,

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¹ Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 169.

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² When fellow-nobles in the court of the Tughlak Sultán, Zafar Khán (Sultán Muzaffar of Gujarát), and Diláwar Khán bound themselves under an oath to be brothers in arms. Farishtah, Pers. Text II. 462.

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³ Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 173; Elphinstone's History, 678.

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⁴ Though their temples were turned into mosques the Jains continued to prosper under the Ghoris. At Deogarh in Lalitpura in Jhánsi in the North-West Provinces an inscription of Samvat 1481, that is of A.D. 1424, records the dedication of two Jaina images by a Jain priest named Holi during the reign of Sháh Alambhaka of Mandapapara, that is of Sháh Alp Khán of Mándu that is Sultán Hoshang Ghori. Archæological Survey of India, New Series, II. 120.

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front of the arch of one gate they have fixed a stone tablet engraved with a prose passage to the effect that Ahmid Sháh Ghori in the year H. 808 (A.D. 1405) laid the foundation of this mosque. On the other arch they have written a poetic inscription of which the following verses are a part:

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The liege lord of the world.
The star of the sphere of glory.
The stay of the people.
The sun of the zenith of perfection.
The bulwark of the law of the Prophet, A'mi'd Sha'h Da'u'd.
The possessor of amiable qualities, the pride of Ghor.
Dila'war Kha'n, the helper and defender of the Prophet's faith.
The chosen instrument of the exalted Lord, who in the city of Dha'r constructed the assembly mosque
In a happy and auspicious moment on a day of lucky omen.
In the year 808 years have passed (A.D. 1405)
When this fabric of Hope was completed.

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and ravaged eastern and central Gujarát.¹ To punish Hoshang for these acts of ingratitude, between A.D. 1418 and 1422, Ahmed twice besieged Mándu, and though he failed to take the fort his retirement had to be purchased, and both as regards success and fair-dealing the honours of the campaign remained with Ahmed.² In A.D. 1421 Hoshang went disguised as a horse-dealer to Jájnagar (now Jájpur) in Cuttack in Orissa. He took with him a number of cream-coloured horses, of which he had heard the Rája was very fond. His object was to barter these horses and other goods for the famous war elephants of Jájnagar. An accident in the camp of the disguised merchants led to a fight, in which the Rája was taken prisoner and Hoshang was able to secure 150 elephants to fight the Gujarát Sultán.³ During Hoshang's absence at Jájnagar Ahmed pressed the siege of Mándu so hard that the garrison would have surrendered had Hoshang not succeeded in finding his way into the fort through the south or Tárápur Gate.⁴ For ten years after the Gujarát campaign, by the help of his minister Malik Mughis of the Khilji family and of his minister's son Mehmúd Khán, Málwa prospered and Hoshang's power was extended. Hoshang enriched his capital with buildings, among them the Great Mosque and his own tomb, both of which he left unfinished. Hoshang's minister Malik Mughis (who received the title of Ulugh Aázam Humáyún Khán) appears to have built the assembly mosque near the Ságar Lake in Hoshang's life-time, A.D. 1431. Another of his buildings must have been a mint, as copper coins remain bearing Hoshang's name, and Mándu Shádiábád as the place of mintage.⁵ In A.D. 1432, at Hoshangábád, on the left bank of the Narbada, about 120 miles east of Mándu, Hoshang, who was suffering from diabetes, took greatly to heart the fall of a ruby out of his crown. He said: A few days before the death of Fírúz Tughlak a jewel dropped from his crown. Hoshang ordered that he should be taken to Mándu. Before he had gone many miles the king died. His nobles carried the body to the Madrasah or college in Shádiábád or Mándu, and buried him in the college on the ninth day of Zil Hajjah, the twelfth month of A.H. 838 = A.D. 1434. The year of Hoshang's death is to be found in the letters Ah Shah Hoshang na mund: Alas, Shah Hoshang stayed not.⁶

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¹ Farishtah, Pers, Text II. 461-65.

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² Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 176, 178, 180, 181, 183.

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³ Farishtah, Pers, Text II. 466-67.

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⁴ Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 180. In connection with the Tárápur Gate Farishtah says (Pers, Text, II. 468): The fort of Mándu is built on the top of a mountain, and the line of its fortification is about twenty-eight miles in length. In place of a moat it is surrounded by a deep chasm, so that it is impossible to use missiles against it. Within the fort water and provisions are abundant and it includes land enough to grow grain for the garrison. The extent of its walls makes it impossible for an army to invest it. Most of the villages near it are too small to furnish supplies to a besieging force. The south or Tárápur gate is exceedingly difficult of access. A horseman can hardly approach it. From whichever side the fort may be attempted, most difficult heights have to be scaled. The long distances and intervening hills prevent the watchers of the besieging force communicating with each other. The gate on the side of Delhi is of easier access than the other gates.

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⁵ It follows that Farishtah (Briggs, IV. 196) is mistaken in stating that Hoshang's son Muhammad gave Mándu the name of Shádiábád, the Abode of Joy.

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⁶ Farishtah, Pers. Text II. 472-475. It seems to follow that from the first the monument to Hoshang in Hoshangábád was an empty tomb. Compare Briggs' Farishtah, IV, 180-190.

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On Hoshang's death his son Ghazni Khán, with the title of Sultán Muhammad Ghori, succeeded. Malik Mughis, his father's minister, and the minister's son Mehmúd were maintained in power. In three years (A.D. 1433-1436), as Sultān Muhammad proved dissipated cruel and suspicious, Mehmūd, the minister's son, procured his death by poison. Mehmūd Khilji then asked his father to accept the succession, but his father declined, saying that Mehmūd was fitter to be king. In A.D. 1436 Mehmūd was accordingly crowned with the royal tiara of Hoshang.¹ He conferred on his father the honour of being attended by mace-bearers carrying gold and silver sticks, who, when the Khán mounted or went out, had, like the mace-bearers of independent monarchs, the privilege of repeating the *Bismillah* 'In the name of the compassionate and merciful Allāh.'² He gave his father royal honours, the white canopy and the silver quiver, and to his title of Malik Ashraf Khān Jehān he added among others Amir-ul-Umara and Aāzam Humāyūn.³ Mehmūd quelled a revolt among his nobles. An outbreak of plague in the Gujarāt camp relieved him from a contest with Ahmed Shāh.⁴ In A.D. 1439 Mehmūd repaired the palace of Sultān Hoshang and opened the mosque built in commemoration of that monarch which Farishtah describes as a splendid edifice with 208 columns.⁵ About the same time Mehmūd completed Hoshang's tomb which Hoshang had left unfinished. On the completion of this building Hoshang's remains seem to have moved into it from their first resting-place in the college. In A.D. 1441 Mehmūd built a

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¹ Farishtah, Pers. Text II, 480.

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² Briggs' Farishtah, IV, 196. These titles mean: The Chief of Nobles, the Great, the August.

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³ It is related that one of the pious men in the camp of Sultān Ahmed of Gujarāt had a warning dream, in which the Prophet (on whom be peace) appeared to him and said: "The calamity of (spirit of) pestilence is coming down from the skies. Tell sultān Ahmed to leave this country." This warning was told to sultān Ahmed, but he disregarded it, and within three days pestilence raged in his camp. Farishtah Pers. Text, II, 484.

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⁴ Briggs' Farishtah, IV, 205, gives 230 minarets and 360 arches. This must have been an addition in the Text used by Briggs. These details do not apply to the building. The Persian text of Farishtah, II, 485, mentions 208 columns or pillars (*duyast o hasht ustuwānah*). No reference is made either to minarets or to arches.

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The following more detailed, but also more confused, story is told in the Wakiāt-i-Mushtāki (Elliot, IV, 552-54): A man named Mehmūd, son of Mughis Kiōlji, came to Hoshang and entered his service. He was a treacherous man, who secretly aspired to the throne. He became minister, and gave his daughter in marriage to the king. [Farishtah, Pers. Text II, 474, says: "Malik Mughis gave his daughter (Mehmūd's sister) in marriage, not to Hoshang, but to Hoshang's son Muhammad Shāh."] His father Malik Mughis, coming to know of his son's ambitious designs, informed the king of them. Hereupon Mehmūd feigned illness, and to deceive the king's physicians shut himself in a dark room and drank the blood of a newly killed goat. When the physicians came Mehmūd rose hastily, threw up the blood into a basin, and tossing back his head rolled on the floor as if in pain. The physicians called for a light. When they saw that Mehmūd had spat up blood they were satisfied of his sickness, and told the king that Mehmūd had not long to live. The king refrained from killing a dying man. This strange story seems to be an embellishment of a passage in Farishtah (Pers. Text, II, 477). When Khān Jehān, that is Malik Mughis the father of Mehmūd, was ordered by Sultān Muhammad to take the field against the Rājput rebels of Nādoti (?) many of the old nobles of Mālwa went with him. In their absence the party hostile to the Khiljis represented to Sultān Muhammad that Mehmūd Khilji was plotting his death. On hearing that the sultān was enraged against him Mehmūd secluded himself from the Court on pretence of illness. At the same time he worked secretly and bribed Sultān Muhammad's cup-bearer to poison his master. On the death of Sultān Muhammad the party of nobles opposed to Mehmūd, concealing the fact of Muhammad's death, sent word that Muhammad had ordered him immediately to the palace, as he wanted to send him on an embassy to Gujarāt. Mehmūd, who knew that the sultān was dead, returned word to the nobles that he had vowed a life-long seclusion to him and convinced him that the good of his country depended on his going to Gujarāt as he was ready to go and see sultān Muhammad. The nobles were caught in their own trap. They went to Mehmūd and were secured and imprisoned by him.

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garden with a dome and palaces¹ and a mosque at Naálchah about three miles north of the Dehli Gate of Mándu, a pleasing well-watered spot where the plateau of Málwa breaks into glades and knolls.² In A.D. 1443 in honour of his victory over Rána Kúmbha of Chitor, Mehmúd built a beautiful column of victory,³ seven storeys high, and a college in front of the mosque of Hoshang Ghori. Facing the east entrance to the Great Mosque stands a paved ramp crowned by a confused ruin. As late as A.D. 1843 this ruin is described as a square marble chamber. Each face of the chamber had three arches, the centre arch in two of the faces being a door. Above the arches the wall was of yellow stone faced with marble. Inside the chamber the square corners were cut off by arches. No roof or other trace of superstructure remained.⁴ This chamber seems to be the basement of the column of victory which was raised in A.D. 1443 by Mehmúd I. (A.D. 1432-1469) in honour of his victory over Rána Kúmbha of Chitor. Mehmúd’s column has the special interest of being, if not the original, at least the cause of the building of Kúmbha Rána’s still uninjured Victory Pillar, which was completed in A.D. 1454 at a cost of £900,000 in honour of his defeat of Mehmúd.⁵ That the Mándu Column of Victory was a famous work is shown by Abul Fazl’s reference to it in A.D. 1590 as an eight-storeyed minaret.⁶ Farishtah, about twenty years later (A.D. 1610), calls it a beautiful Victory Pillar seven storeys high.⁷ The emperor Jehángir (A.D. 1605-1627) gives the following account of Mehmúd’s Tower of Victory⁸: This day, the 29th of the month Tir, corresponding to July-August of A.D. 1617, about the close of the day, with the ladies of the palace, I went out to see the Haft Manzar or Seven Storeys, literally Seven Prospects. This building is one of the structures of the old rulers of Malwa, that is of Sultan Mehmud Khilji. It has seven storeys, and on each storey there are four porticos, and in each portico are four windows. The height of this tower is about 163 feet and its circumference 150 feet. From the surface of the ground to the top of the seventh storey there are one hundred and seventy-one steps.⁹ Sir Thomas Herbert, the traveller, in A.D. 1628 describes it from hearsay, or at least at second-hand, as a tower 170 steps high, supported by massive pillars and adorned with gates and windows very observable. It was built, he adds, by Khán Jehán, who there lies buried.¹⁰

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¹ Farishtah, Pers. Text II. 487.

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² Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 207. Malcolm’s Central India, I. 37. In A.D. 1817 Sir John Malcolm (Central India, I. 37 Note) fitted up one of Mehmud’s palaces as a hot-weather residence.

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³ Of the siege of Kumbhalmer a curious incident is recorded by Farishtah (Pers. Text II. 485). He says that a temple outside the town destroyed by Mehmud had a marble idol in the form of a goat. The Sultan ordered the idol to be ground into lime and sold to the Rájputs as betel-leaf lime, so that the Hindus might eat their god. The idol was perhaps a ram, not a goat. The temple would then have been a Sun-temple and the ram, the carrier or vahana of the Sun, would have occupied the porch a position similar to that held by the bull in a Mahideva temple.

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⁴ Ruins of Mándu, 15.

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⁵ In the end of A.H. 846 (A.D. 1442) Mehmúd built a seven-storeyed tower and a college opposite the Jamá Mosque of Hoshang Sháh. Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 210; Persian Text, II. 488.

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⁶ Compare Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 323.

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⁷ Gladwin’s Ain-i-Akbari, II. 41.

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⁸ Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 210; Farishtah, Persian Text II, 488.

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⁹ Memoirs of the emperor Jehángir (Pers. Text) Sir Sayad Ahmed’s Edition, page 176, eleventh year of Jehángir, A.D. 1617.

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¹⁰ Herbert’s Khán Jehán is doubtless Mehmúd’s father the minister Malik Mughis, Khán Jehán Aázam Humáyún. It cannot be Khán Jehán Pír Muhammad, Akbar’s general, who after only a few months’ residence was slain in Mándu in A.D. 1561; nor can it be Jehángir’s great Afghan general, Khán Jehán Lodi (A.D. 1600-1630), as he was not in Mándu until A.D. 1628, that is more than a year after Herbert left India. Compare Herbert’s Travels, 107-118; Elliot, VI. 249-323, VII. 7, 8, and 21; and Blochman’s Aín-i-Akbari, 503-506.

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THE HILL FORT OF MÁNDU. HISTORY.

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Two years later (A.D. 1445) Mehmúd built at Mándu, and endowed with the revenues of several villages a large Shifa Khánah or Hospital, with wards and attendants for all classes and separate apartments for maniacs. He placed in charge of it his own physician Maulána Fazlulláh.¹ He also built a college to the east of the Jámá mosque, of which traces remain.²

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¹ Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 214.

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² Ruins of Mándu, 13. Farishtah has three mentions of colleges. One (Pers. Text. II. 475) as the place where the body of Hoshang was carried, probably that prayers might be said over it. In another passage in the reign of Mehmúd I. (Pers. Text, II. 480) he states that Mehmúd built colleges in his territories which became the envy of Shíráz and Samarkand. In a third passage he mentions a college (page 438) near the Victory Tower.

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In A.D. 1453, though defeated, Mehmúd brought back from Gujarát the jewelled waistband of Gujarát, which in a daring charge he had taken from the tent of the Gujarát king Kutb-ud-dín Sháh.³ In A.D. 1441 Mehmúd’s father died at Mandisor. Mehmúd felt the loss so keenly that he tore his hair like one bereft of reason.⁴ After his father’s death Mehmúd made his son Ghiás-ud-dín minister, and conferred the command of the army and the title of Aázam Humáyún on his kinsman Táj Khán. In A.D. 1469, after a reign of thirty-four years (A.D. 1436-1469) of untiring energy and activity Mehmúd died. Farishtah says of him: "His tent was his home: the field of battle his resting-place. He was polite, brave, just, and learned. His Hindu and Musalmán subjects were happy and friendly. He guarded his lands from invaders. He made good his loss to any one who suffered from robbery in his dominions, recovering the amount from the village in whose lands the robbery had taken place, a system which worked so well that theft and robbery became almost unknown. Finally, by a systematic effort he freed the country from the dread of wild beasts.⁵

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³ Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 217. A different but almost incredible account of the capture of the royal belt is given in the Mirát-i-Sikandari, Pers. Text, 160: When Sultán Kutb-ud-dín, son of Sultán Muhammad, defeated Sultán Mehmúd Khilji at the battle of Kapadvanj, there was such a slaughter as could not be exceeded. By chance, in the heat of the fray, which resembled the Day of Judgment, the wardrobe-keeper of Sultán Kutb-ud-dín, in whose charge was the jewelled belt, was by the restiveness of his horse carried into the ranks of the enemy. The animal there became so violent that the wardrobe-keeper fell off and was captured by the enemy, and the jewelled belt was taken from him and given to Sultán Mehmúd of Malwa. The author adds: This jewelled waistband was in the Malwa treasury at the time the fortress of Mándu was taken by the strength of the arm of Sultán Muzaffar (A.D. 1531). Sultán Mehmúd sent this belt together with a fitting sword and horse to Sultán Muzaffar by the hands of his son.

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⁴ Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 209.

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⁵ Briggs’ Farishtah, IV, 234-235; Pers. Text, II. 508.

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In A.D. 1469 Mehmúd was succeeded by his son and minister Ghiás-ud-dín, to whose skill as a soldier much of Mehmúd’s success had been due. On his accession Ghiás-ud-dín made his son Abdul Kádir Prime Minister and heir-apparent, and gave him the title of Násir-ud-dín. He called his nobles, and in their presence handed his sword to Násir-ud-dín, saying: "I have passed thirty-four years in ceaseless fighting. I now devote my life to rest and enjoyment."⁶ Ghiás-ud-dín, who never left Mándu during the whole thirty years of his reign (A.D. 1469-1499), is said to have completed the Jaház Mehel or Ship Palace,⁷ and the widespread buildings which surround it. It seems probable that the Tapela Palace close to the south-east of the Ship palace and the lake and royal gardens immediately to the north and north-east of the Tapela palace were part of Ghiás-ud-din's pleasure-houses and grounds. The scale of the ruins behind the Hindola or Swingcot palace to the north, and their connection with the out-buildings to the west of the Jaház Mehel, suggest that they also belonged to the palaces and women's quarters of the pleasure-loving Ghiás-ud-din.

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⁶ Briggs’ Farishtah, IV, 236.

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⁷ Ruins of Mándu, 6.

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Of the surprising size and fantastic arrangements of Ghiás-ud-din's pleasure city, the true Mándu Shádiábád or Abode of Joy, curious details have been preserved. This Abode of Pleasure was a city not a palace. It contained 15,000 inhabitants, all of them women, none either old or plain-featured, and each trained to some profession or craft. Among them were the whole officers of a court, besides courtiers, teachers, musicians, dancers, prayer-readers, embroiderers, and followers of all crafts and callings. Whenever the king heard of a beautiful girl he never rested till he obtained her. This city of women had its two regiments of guards, the Archers and the Carabineers, each 500 strong, its soldiers dressed like men in a distinguishing uniform. The archers were beautiful young Turki damsels, all armed with bows and arrows; the carabineers were Abyssinian maidens, each carrying a carbine. Attached to the palace and city was a deer park, where the Lord of Leisure used to hunt with his favourites. Each dweller in the city of women received her daily dole of grain and coppers, and besides the women were many pensioners, mice parrots and pigeons, who also received the same dole as their owners. So evenly just was Ghiás-ud-din in the matter of his allowances, that the prettiest of his favourites received the same allowance as the roughest carabineer.¹

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¹ Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 504-505.

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The Lord of the City of Pleasure was deeply religious. Whenever he was amusing himself two of his companions held in front of him a cloth to remind him of his shroud. A thousand Háfizahs, that is women who knew the Kuráán by heart, constantly repeated its holy verses, and, under the orders of the king, whenever he changed his raiment the Háfizahs blew on his body from head to foot with their prayer-hallowed breath.² None of the five daily prayers passed unprayed. If at any of the hours of prayer the king was asleep he was sprinkled with water, and when water failed to arouse him, he was dragged out of bed. Even when dragged out of bed by his servants the king never uttered an improper or querulous word.

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² Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 505.

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So keen was his sense of justice that when one of his courtiers pretending he had purchased her, brought to him a maiden of ideal beauty, and her relations, not knowing she had been given to the king, came to complain, though they gladly resigned her, the king grieved over his unconscious wrong. Besides paying compensation he mourned long and truly, and ordered that no more inmates should be brought to his palace.³ So great was the king's charity that every night below his pillow he placed a bag containing some thousand gold-mohurs, and before evening all were distributed to the deserving. So religious was the king that he paid 50,000 tankas for each of the four feet of the ass of Christ. A man came bringing a fifth hoof, and one of the courtiers said: "My Lord, an ass has four feet. I never heard that it had five, unless perhaps the ass of Christ had five." "Who knows," the king replied, "it may be that this

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³ Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 507.

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THE HILL FORT OF MÂNDU. HISTORY. The Mâlwa Sultâns, A.D. 1400-1570.

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last man has told the truth, and one of the others was wrong. See that he is paid." So sober was the king that he would neither look upon nor hear of intoxicants or stimulants. A potion that had cost 100,000 tankas was brought to him. Among the 300 ingredients one was nutmeg. The king directed the potion to be thrown into a drain. His favourite horse fell sick. The king ordered it to have medicine, and the horse recovered. "What medicine was given the horse?" asked the king. "The medicine ordered by the physicians" replied his servants. Fearing that in this medicine there might be an intoxicant, the king commanded that the horse should be taken out of the stables and turned loose into the forest.¹

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¹ Wâkiât-i-Mushtâki in Elliot, IV. 551-556. Probably these are stock tales. The Gujarat historians give Muzaffar and Muhammad the Gold-giver (A.D. 1411-1451) credit for the horse scrupulosity. See Mirât-i-Sikandari Pers. Text, 178.

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The king's spirit of peace steeped the land, which, like its ruler, after thirty years of fighting yearned for rest. For fourteen years neither inward malcontent nor foreign foe broke the quiet. In A.D. 1482 Bahlol Lodi advanced from Dehli to subdue Mâlwa. The talk of Mându was Bahlol's approach, but no whisper of it passed into the charmed City of Women. At last the son-minister forced his way into the king's presence. At the news of pressing danger his soldier-spirit awoke in Ghiâs-ud-dîn. His orders for meeting the invaders were so prompt and well-planned that the king of Dehli paid a ransom and withdrew. A second rest of fifteen years ended in the son-minister once more forcing his way into the Presence. In A.D. 1500 the son presented his father, now an aged man of eighty, with a cup of sherbet and told him to drink. The king, whose armlet of bezoar stone had already twice-made poison harmless, drew the stone from his arm. He thanked the Almighty for granting him, unworthy, the happiest life that had ever fallen to the lot of man. He prayed that the sin of his death might not be laid to his son's charge, drank the poison, and died.²

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² Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 236-239; Wâkiât-i-Jehângiri in Elliot, VI. 349-350; Wâkiât-i-Mushtâki in Elliot, IV. 551-55; Malcolm's Central India, I. 35-36. The Mirât-i-Sikandari (Pers. Text, 160) has the following notice of Ghiâs-ud-dîn: The Sultâns of Mându had reached such a pitch of luxury and ease that it is impossible to imagine aught exceeding it. Among them Sultân Ghiâs-ud-dîn was so famous for his luxurious habits, that at present (A.D. 1611) if any one exceeds in luxury and pleasure, they say he is a second Ghiâs-ud-dîn. The orders of the Sultân were that no event of a painful nature or one in which there was any touch of sadness should be related to him. They say that during his entire reign news of a sad nature was only twice conveyed to him: once when his son in-law died and once when his daughter was brought before him clothed in white. On this occasion the Sultân is related to have simply said: "Perhaps her husband is dead." This he said because the custom of the people of India is that when the husband of a woman dies she gives up wearing coloured clothes. The second occasion was when the army of Sultân Bahlol Lodi plundered several of the districts of Chanderi. Though it was necessary to report this to the Sultân, his ministers were unable to communicate it to him. They therefore asked a band of actors (bhânds) to assume the dress of Afghâns, and mentioning the districts to represent them as being pillaged and laid waste. Sultân Ghiâs-ud-dîn exclaimed in surprise: "But is the governor of Chanderi dead that he does not avenge upon the Afghâns the ruin of his country!"

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Ghiâs-ud-dîn can hardly have shut himself off so completely from state affairs as the story-tellers make out. He seems to have been the first of the Mâlwa kings who minted gold. He also introduced new titles and ornaments, which implies an interest in his coinage.³ Farishtah says that Ghiás-ud-dín used to come out every day for an hour from his harím, sit on the throne and receive the salutations of his nobles and subjects, and give orders in all weighty matters of state. He used to entrust all minor affairs to his ministers; but in all grave matters he was so anxious not to shirk his responsibility as a ruler, that he had given strict orders that all such communications should be made to him at whatever time they came through a particular female officer appointed to receive his orders.¹

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³ Compare Catalogue of Indian Coins, The Mahomedan States, pages LIV. LV. and 138-121.

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¹ Farishtah Pers. Text, II, 507.

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According to most accounts Násir-ud-dín was led to poison his father by an attempt of his younger brother Shujáát Khán, supported if not organised by some of Ghiás-ud-dín's favourite wives to oust Násir-ud-dín from the succession.² In the struggle Násir-ud-dín triumphed and was crowned at Mándu in A.D. 1500.³ The new king left Mándu to put down a revolt. On his return to Mándu he devoted himself to debauchery and to hunting down and murdering his brother's adherents. He subjected his mother Khurshíd Ráni to great indignities and torture to force from her information regarding his father's concealed treasures.⁴ In a fit of drunkenness he fell into a reservoir. He was pulled out by four of his female slaves. He awoke with a headache, and discovering what his slaves had done put them to death with his own hand.⁵ Some time after in A.D. 1512, he again fell into the reservoir, and there he was left till he was dead.⁶ Násir-ud-dín was fond of building. His palace at Akbárpúr in the Nimar plain about twenty miles south of Mándu was splendid and greatly admired.⁷ And at Mándu besides his sepulchre⁸ which the emperor Jehángír (A.D. 1617) mentions,⁹ an inscription shows that the palace now known by the name of Báz Bahádur was built by Násir-ud-din.

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² Farishtah (Pers. Text, II, 508) detailing how Násir-ud-dín came to power, says: There was a difference between Násir-ud-dín and his brother Alá-ud dín. The mother of these princes, Khurshíd Ráni, who was the daughter of the Hindu chief of Báglána, had taken Alá-ud-dín the younger brother's side. After killing his father Násir-ud-dín ordered his mother to be dragged out of the harím and Alá-ud-dín and his children to be slaughtered like lambs.

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³ Briggs' Farishtah, IV, 238-239. Farishtah holds that Násir-ud-dín's murder of his father is not proved. He adds (Pers. Text, II, 518) that Násir-ud-dín was at Dhár where he had gone to quell the rebellion of the nobles when the news of Ghiás-ud-dín's death reached him. He argues that as a parricide cannot flourish more than a year after his father's murder, and as Násir-ud-dín ruled for years after that event, he could not have killed his father.

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⁴ Farishtah Pers. Text, II, 518.

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⁵ Briggs' Farishtah, IV, 243. The emperor Jehángír (Memoirs Pers. Text, 181) says that Násir-ud-dín had a disease which made him feel so hot that he used to sit for hours in water.

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⁶ Wakiát-i-Jehángíri in Elliot, VI, 350. Farishtah (Pers. Text, II, 517-18) says that Násir-ud-dín died of a burning-fever he had contracted by hard drinking and other evil habits, that he showed keen penitence before his death, and bequeathed his kingdom to his third son Mehmúd. The emperor Jehángír (Memoirs Pers. Text, 181) confirms the account of the Wakiát as to the manner of Násir-ud-dín's death.

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⁷ Briggs' Farishtah, IV, 243.

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⁸ The emperor Jehángír thus describes (Memoirs Pers. Text, 181) his visit to Násir-ud-dín's grave. It is related that when during his reign Sher Khán Afghán Súr (A.D. 1540-1555) visited Násir-ud-dín's grave he ordered his attendants to flagellate the parricide's tomb: When I visited the sepulchre I kicked his grave and ordered those with me to do the same. Not satisfied with this I ordered his bones to be dug out and burned and the ashes to be thrown into the Narbada.

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⁹ Wakiát-i-Jehángíri in Elliot, VI, 350. The emperor Jehángír (Memoirs Pers. Text, 202) refers to the well-known bridge and water-palace about three miles north of Ujjain as the work of Násir-ud-dín. He says: On Sunday I reached Sandalpur near Ujjain. In this village is a river house with a bridge on which are alcoves both built by Násir-ud-dín Khilji (A.D. 1500-1512). Though the bridge is not specially praiseworthy the water-courses and cisterns connected with it have a certain merit.

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Násir-ud-din was succeeded by his younger son (Mehmúd A.D. 1512-1530), who, with the title of Mehmúd the Second, was crowned with great pomp at Mándu. Seven hundred elephants in gold-embroidered velvet housings adorned the procession.¹ Shortly after his accession Mehmúd II. was driven out of Mándu by the revolt of the commandant Muháfiz Khán, but was restored by the skill and courage of Medáni Rái his Rájput commander-in-chief.² A still more dangerous combination by Muzaffar II. (A.D. 1511-1526) of Gujarát and Sikandar Sháh Lodi (A.D. 1488-1516) of Dehli, was baffled by the foresight and energy of the same Rájput general. Mehmúd, feeling that his power had passed to the Hindus, tried to disband the Rájputs and assassinate Medáni Rái. Failing in both attempts Mehmúd fled from Mándu to Gujarát, where he was well received by Sultán Muzaffar (A.D. 1511-1526).³ They advanced together against Mándu, and in A.D. 1519, after a close siege of several months, took the fort by assault. The Rájput garrison, who are said to have lost 19,000 men, fought to the last, consecrating the close of their defence by a general johar or fire-sacrifice. Sultán Mehmúd entered Mándu close after the storming party, and while Mehmúd established his authority in Mándu, Muzaffar withdrew to Dhár. When order was restored Mehmúd sent this message to Muzaffar at Dhár: "Mándu is a splendid fort. You should come and see it." "May Mándu," Muzaffar replied, "bring good fortune to Sultán Mehmúd. He is the master of the fort. For the sake of the Lord I came to his help. On Friday I will go to the fortress, and having had the sermon read in Mehmúd's name will return." On Muzaffar's arrival in Mándu Mehmúd gave a great entertainment;⁴ and Muzaffar retired to Gujarát leaving a force of 3000 Gujarátis to help to guard the hill.¹ Immediately after Muzaffar's departure, as Sultán Mehmúd was anxious to recover Chanderi and Gágraun, which still remained in the possession of Medáni Rái and his supporters, he marched against them. Rána Sánga of Chitor came to Medáni's aid and a great battle was fought.² Mehmúd's hastiness led him to attack when his men were weary and the Rájputs were fresh. In spite of the greatest bravery on the part of himself and of his officers the Musalmán army was defeated, and Mehmúd, weakened by loss of blood, was made prisoner. Rána Sánga had Mehmúd's wounds dressed, sent him to Chitor, and on his recovery released him.³

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¹ Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 246.

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² Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 247-249. Malcolm's (Central India, I. 38) writes the Rájput's name Maderay. The Mirát-i-Sikandari (Persian Text, 149-155), gives the form Medáni Rái, the Lord of the Battlefield, a title which the author says (page 149) Mehmúd conferred on the Rájput in acknowledgment of his prowess.

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³ The Mirát-i-Sikandari (Pers. Text, 151) gives the following details of Mehmúd's flight: Sultán Mehmúd, on pretence of hunting left Mándu and remained hunting for several days. The Hindus, whom Medáni Rái had placed on guard over him, slept after the fatigue of the chase. Only some of the more trusted guards remained. Among them was a Rájput named Krishna, a Málwa zamindár who was attached to the Sultán. Mehmúd said to Krishna: "Can you find me two horses and show me the way to Gujarát that I may get aid from Sultán Muzaffar to punish these rascals? If you can, do so at once, and, Allah willing, you shall be handsomely rewarded." Krishna brought two horses from the Sultán's stables. Mehmúd rode on one and seated his dearest of wives, Ráni Kannya Kuwar, on the other. Krishna marched in front. In half the night and one day they reached the Gujarát frontier.

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⁴ Tárikh-i-Sher Shahi in Elliot, IV. 386. The Mirát-i-Sikandari (Pers. Text, 160) gives the following details of the banquet: Sultán Mehmúd showed great hospitality and humility. After the banquet as he led the Sultán over the palaces, they came to a mansion in the centre of which was a four-cornered building like the Kaabah, carved and gilded, and round it were many apartments. When Sultán Muzaffar placed his foot within the threshold of that building the thousand beauties of Sultán Mehmúd's harim, magnificently apparelled and jewelled, all at once opened the doors of their chambers and burst into view like húris and fairies. When Muzaffar's eyes fell on their charms he bowed his head and said: "To see other than one's own harim is sinful." Sultán Mehmúd replied: "These are mine, and therefore your's, seeing that I am the slave purchased by your Majesty's kindness." Muzaffar said: "They are more suitable for you. May you have joy in them. Let them retire." At a signal from Sultán Mehmúd the ladies vanished.

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¹ Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 250-262.

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² Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 527. According to the Mirát-i-Sikandari (Pers. Text, 161) Mehmúd marched against Gágraun first, and slew Hemkaran, a partisan of Medáni Rái, in a hand-to-hand fight. On this the Rána and Medáni Rái joined their forces against Mehmúd.

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³ Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 262-263.

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In A.D. 1526, by giving protection to his outlawed brother Chánd Khán and to Razi-ul-Mulk, a refugee Gujarát noble, Mehmúd brought on himself the wrath of Bahádur Sháh of Gujarát (A.D. 1526-1536). The offended Bahádur did not act hastily. He wrote to Mehmúd asking him to come to his camp and settle their quarrels. He waited on the Gujarát frontier at Karji Ghát, east of Bánswara, until at last satisfied that Mehmúd did not wish for a peaceful settlement he advanced on Mándu. Meanwhile Mehmúd had repaired the walls of Mándu, which soon after was invested by Bahádur. The siege was proceeding in regular course by mines and batteries, and the garrison, though overtaxed, were still loyal and in heart, when in the dim light of morning Mehmúd suddenly found the Gujarát flag waving on the battlements. According to the Mirát-i-Sikandari⁴ Bahádur annoyed by the slow progress of the siege asked his spies where was the highest ground near Mándu. The spies said: Towards Songad-Chitor the hill is extremely high. With a few followers the Sultán scaled Songad, and rushing down the slope burst through the wall and took the fort (May 20th, 1526).⁵ Mehmúd surrendered. Near Dohad, on his way to his prison at Chámpanír, an attempt was made to rescue Mehmúd, and to prevent their escape he and some of his sons were slain and buried on the bank of the Dohad tank.⁶ Bahádur spent the rainy season (June-October 1526) in Mándu, and Málwa was incorporated with Gujarát.

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⁴ Persian Edition, 239.

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⁵ Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 267-68. Sultán Bahádur apparently surprised the party in charge of the Tárápúr or Southern Gate.

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⁶ Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 269; Mirát-i-Ahmedi, Persian Text, I, 76.

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Mándu remained under Gujarát, till in A.D. 1534, after Bahádur's defeat by Humáyún at Mandasor, Bahádur retired to Mándu. Humáyún followed. At night 200 of Humáyún's soldiers went to the back of the fortress, according to Farishtah the south-west height of Songad⁷ by which Bahádur had surprised Mehmúd's garrison, scaled the walls by ladders and ropes, opened the gate, and let others in. Mallu Khán, the commandant of the batteries, a native of Málwa, who afterwards gained the title of Kádir Sháh, went to Bahádur and wakened him. Bahádur rushed out with four or five attendants. He was joined by about twenty more, and reaching the gate at the top of the maidán, apparently the Tárápúr gate by which Humáyún's men had entered, cut through 200 of Humáyún's troops and went off with Mallu Khán to the fort of Songad, the citadel of Mándu. While two of Bahádur's chiefs, Sadr Khán and Sultán Alam Lodi, threw themselves into Songad, Bahádur himself let his horses down the cliff by ropes and after a thousand difficulties made his way to Chámpánir.¹ On the day after Bahádur's escape Sadr Khán and Sultán Alam Lodi came out of Songad and surrendered to Humáyún.²

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⁷ Briggs' Farishtah, II, 77.

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¹ Abul Fazl's Akbar Námah in Elliot, VI. 14; Briggs' Farishtah, II. 77.

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² Abul Fazl's Akbar Námah in Elliot, V. 192.

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In the following year (A.D. 1535) the combined news of Sher Sháh's revolt in Bengal, and of the defeat of his officers at Broach and Cambay, forced Humáyún to retire from Gujarát. As he preferred its climate he withdrew, not to Agra but to Mándu.³ From Mándu, as fortune was against him in Bengal, Humáyún went (A.D. 1535-36) to Agra.

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³ Abul Fazl's Akbar Námah in Elliot, VI. 16; Briggs' Farishtah, II. 80-81.

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On Humáyún's departure three chiefs attempted to establish themselves at Mándu: Bhúpat Rái, the ruler of Bijágar, sixty miles south of Mándu; Mallu Khán or Kádir Sháh, a former commandant of Mándu; and Mirán Muhammad Fárúki from Burhánpur.⁴ Of these three Mallu Khán was successful. In A.D. 1536, when Humáyún fled from Sher Sháh to Persia, Mallu spread his power from Mándu to Ujjain Sárangpúr and Rantambhor, assumed the title of Kádir Sháh Málwi, and made Mándu his capital. Some time after Sher Sháh, who was now supreme, wrote to Mallu Kádir Sháh ordering him to co-operate in expelling the Mughals. Kádir Sháh resenting this assumption of overlordship, addressed Sher Sháh as an inferior. When Sher Sháh received Mallu's order he folded it and placed it in the scabbard of his poniard to keep the indignity fresh in his mind. Allah willing, he said, we shall ask an explanation for this in person.⁵ In A.D. 1542 (H. 949) as Kádir Sháh failed to act with Kutb Khán, who had been sent to establish Sher Sháh's overlordship in Málwa, Sher Sháh advanced from Gwalior towards Mándu with the object of punishing Kádir Sháh. As he knew he could not stand against Sher Sháh Kádir Sháh went to Sárangpúr to do homage. Though on arrival Kádir Sháh was well received, his kingdom was given to Shujáát Khán, one of Sher Sháh's chief followers, and himself placed in Shujáát Khán's keeping.⁷ Suspicious of what might be in store for

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⁴ Abul Fazl's Akbar Námah in Elliot, VI. 18. According to Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 532) Mallu, the son of Mallu, was a native of Málwa and a Khilji slave noble. Mallu received his title of Kádir Sháh from Sultán Mehmud III. of Gujarát (A.D. 1536-1544) at the recommendation of his minister Imád-ul-Mulk who was a great friend of Mallu. Mirát-i-Sikandart, Persian Text, 298.

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⁵ Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 532.

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⁶ Tárikh-i-Sher Sháh in Elliot, IV. 391; Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 271-72.

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⁷ Farishtah (Pers. Text, 533-34) refers to the following circumstance as the cause of Kádir Sháh's suspicion. On his way to Sher Sháh's darbár at Ujjain Kádir saw some Mughal prisoners in chains making a road. One of the prisoners seeing him began to sing:

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Mará mi bis darin ahwal a firi khiaktes mi kun?
In this plight thou seest me to-day,
Thine own turn is not far away.

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When Kádir Sháh escaped, Sher Sháh on hearing of his flight exclaimed:

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Ted má chi kard áli
Matis Ghikta-galli.
Thus he treats us with scorn,
Mallu the slave base born.

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To this one of Sher Sháh's men replied:

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Kavl-i-Rasúl bar hakk
Lá khaira fi al-akik.
The words of the Prophet are true,
No good can a slave ever do.

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him Kádir Sháh fled to Gujarát. Sher Sháh was so much annoyed at Shujáát Khán's remissness in not preventing Kádir Sháh's escape that he transferred the command at Dhár and Mándu from Shujáát Khán to Hájí Khán and Junaid Khán. Shortly after Kádir Sháh brought a force from Gujarát and attacked Mándu. Shujáát came to Hájí Khán's help and routed Kádir Sháh under the walls of Mándu. In reward, Sher Sháh made him ruler of the whole country of Mándu.¹ Shujáát Khán established his head-quarters at Mándu with 10,000 horse and 7000 matchlockmen.

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¹ Tárikh-i-Sher Sháhí in Elliot, IV, 397.

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During the reign of Sher Sháh's successor Salím Sháh (A.D. 1545-1553), Shujáát was forced to leave Málwa and seek shelter in Dúngarpúr. Salím pardoned Shujáát, but divided Málwa among other nobles. Shujáát remained in Hindustán till in A.D. 1553, on the accession of Salím's successor, Adili, he recovered Málwa, and in A.D. 1554, on the decay of Adili's power, assumed independence.² He died almost immediately after, and was succeeded by his eldest son Malik Báyazíd.³ Shujáát Khán was a great builder. Besides his chief works at Shujáwalpúr near Ujjain, he left many memorials in different parts of Málwa.⁴ So far none of the remains at Mándu are known to have been erected during the rule of Shujáát Khán.

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² Tárikh-i-Alfi in Elliot, V, 168; Elphinstone's India, 402-403.

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