The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.201

v3.c20.201

In 1260 the Meos expiated by a terrible punishment a long series of crimes. For some years past they had infested the roads in the neighbourhood of the capital and depopulated the villages of the Bayāna district, and had extended their depredations eastwards nearly as far as the base of the Himālaya. Their impudent robbery of the transport camels on the eve of a projected campaign had aroused Balban’s personal resentment, and on January 29 he left Delhi and in a single forced march reached the heart of Mewāt and took the Meos completely by surprise. For twenty days the work of slaughter and pillage continued, and the ferocity of the soldiery was stimulated by the reward of one silver *tanga* for every head and two for every living prisoner. On March 9 the army returned to the capital with the chieftain who had stolen the camels, other leading men of the tribe to the number of 250, 142 horses, and 2,100,000 silver *tangas*. Two days later the prisoners were publicly massacred. Some were trampled to death by elephants, others were cut to pieces, and more than a hundred were flayed alive by the scavengers of the city. Later in the year those who had saved themselves by flight returned to their homes and ventured on reprisals by infesting the highways and slaughtering wayfarers. Balban, having ascertained from spies the haunts and movements of the bandits, surprised them as before by a forced march, surrounded them, and put to the sword 12,000 men, women and children.