The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c8.102

c8.102

Taking advantage of the dangers besetting the Delhi Sultanate the Rajputs, all these years, made steady progress in recovering their territories. Mention has been made of the loss of Kalinjar to the Chandellas; inscriptions found near Ajaigarh testify to their continuous occupation of the neighbourhood throughout the century². In Gwalior also, where Iltutmish held his first appointment, local chroniclers detail a continuous Parihara rule upto 1231³; coins and inscriptions of a prince named Malayavarmadeva, belonging to the same family, have been found in Narwar, Gwalior and Jhansi to prove an uninterrupted occupation from at least 1220 to 1233⁴. In Rajputana, the recently independent Chauhana family found it possible to impose its paramountcy over other princes in the north. In an inscription, discovered at Manglana (Jodhpur state) dated in 1215, a local chieftain named Jaitrasinha, acknowledges Vallanadeva of Ranthambhor as his overlord, though the "Suratrana Iltutmish of Joginipur" is also mentioned therein⁵. Iltutmish's name appears (as *Sama-Sorala-deva*) in a coin of another prince calling himself Chaharadeva who, seemingly identical with the author of a fragmentary grant, boasts of his Chauhana descent and appears as ruling at Ranthambhor¹. This record, like the Manglana inscription, must belong to the early part of Iltutmish’s reign for, latterly, Ranthambhor required armed expedition to enforce his suzerainty. An extension of the power of the Chauhanas of Jalor is also testified to by an inscription of Udaisinha’s (Udisah of Hasan Nizami) grandson, in which the former is credited with ruling over Nadol, Jalor, Mandor, Bharmer, Ratnapur, Sanchor, Radhadhara, Kher, Ramsin and Bhinmal; and also with having curbed the pride of the Turushkas². In northwestern Rajputana, the Jadon Bhattis established themselves at Kaman, Tijara and Sarhatta (northern Alwar)³. Even Ajmer, Bayana and Thangir seem to have been lost, to judge from their inclusion among Iltutmish’s conquests⁴.