The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.214

v3.c20.214

While he was thus engaged he learnt that the Hindus of Katehr had risen and were overrunning and plundering that province in such force that the governors of Budaun and Amroha were unable to take the field against them. He hastily returned to Delhi, assembled his best troops, and, having misled his enemy by announcing his intention of hunting, made a forced march and appeared in Katehr sixty hours after he had left the capital. The rebels in arms, taken completely by surprise, fled, and Balban terribly avenged his outraged authority. All males over the age of eight were put to death, the women were carried off into slavery, and in every village through which the army passed huge heaps of corpses were left, the stench of which poisoned the air as far as the Ganges. The region was plundered and almost depopulated, and those of the inhabitants who were spared were so cowed that for thirty years order reigned in the province and the districts of Budaun, Amroha, Sambhal, and Gunnaur had peace.