The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c10.81

c10.81

The authority of Delhi was thus being negatived almost everywhere. Even in Awadh and the Doab, the heart of the kingdom, Hindus found means to assume an aggressive attitude. In 642/1244 the tribes of "Jarali and Datoli" in the Doab, were reported to have infested the highways and forests of Hindusthan². It took Balban two sanguinary expeditions in 1244 and 1249 to obtain a temporary control over the area³. A Hindu chief captured the fort of Talsandah in the district of Kanouj and a strong force had to be despatched to recover it in 645/1247⁴. In the trans-Gangetic area, the Katehriyas, from their stronghold at Ahicchatra, frequently raided the districts of Budaun and Sambhal. An expedition led by the governor of Budaun in 1242, in which a number of the 'Katehriya infidels were overthrown,' was apparently ineffective, for in 1254 another attempt had to be made on a larger scale⁵. Led by Balban himself, the Delhi forces on this occasion, crossed the Ganges and advanced upto Bijnour and Bardar as far as the Ramganga. The Katehriyas offered sustained resistance and killed one of Balban's officers⁶. Although the chronicle states that they were punished in an exemplary manner on this occasion, in reality they were far from being effectively reduced. They appeared with even greater strength early in the reign of Balban. The success of Kashlu Khan, the governor of Meerut, who is reported to have reduced a portion of Rohilkhand across the Ganges near Bijnour and to have "overthrown *Ranahs* and other independent Hindu tribes inhabiting places as far as Rurki and Miapur"¹ could be hardly permanent. The only tangible result of his operations seemed to be the establishment of a military outpost in Amroha, for the first time mentioned as an iqta early in the reign of Balban².