The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c10.29

c10.29

In A.D. 1420 an expedition under Malek-ul-Tujár was sent to subdue the Gháts and the Konkan. He put down the Rámoshi robbers in the Khatáo desh and the Mahádev hills; penetrated to Wái and even into the Konkan, and took measures for the cultivation of the land; but the effects of the expedition were not lasting. Another force sent in A.D. 1436 by Alá-ud-dín reduced the rájás of Ráiri (Ráygad) and Sonkehr. At last in A.D. 1451 more systematic efforts were made to subdue the country. Malek-ul-Tujár was sent in command of a considerable force. He made Chákan, a village eighteen miles north of Poona, his head-quarters; a stone fort still existing was built there; the hill fort of Shivner, which overlooks the town of Junnar, was taken, and a Musalmán garrison placed in it. Junnar soon became the head-quarters of the Musalmáns in the west, and in a fairer country they could not have settled. Malek-ul-Tujár then overran the lands of the Sirké family; their chief surrendered, and induced the Musalmán leader to march against the rája of Kelna (now Vishálgad). When the invading forces were entangled in the dense wilds he gave information to the rája, who surrounded and massacred the greater number, a fate not unlike that which befell another Musalmán army in the defiles of the Gháts two hundred years later, when Shiváji achieved one of his most notable exploits. A few stragglers retired to Chákan, and quarrels broke out between the Mughals who held the fort and the Dakhan troops; the latter, being the more numerous, besieged the Mughals, forced them to surrender, and then treacherously murdered them, though many of them were Saiads. This story Farishtah relates at great length and with much feeling, dwelling with pleasure on the retribution which overtook the murderers of the descendants of the Prophet.