The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.387

v3.c20.387

In the second year of the reign a most serious rebellion broke out in the Deccan. Bahā-ud-dīn Gurshāsp, sister’s son to Ghiyās-ud-dīn Tughluq, and therefore first cousin to Muhammad, held the fief of Sāgar, about ten miles north of Shorāpur, and enjoyed great influence among the Muslim officials of the Deccan. He refused to recognise the new king and appears to have believed that he might be able to establish a claim to the throne, though relationship in the female line seldom counts for much in the east. He exerted all his influence, and the whole of the Deccan was soon aflame. The rebels advanced towards Deogīr, but were met by the minister, Khvāja Jahān, and the brutal Mujīr-ud-dīn, Abu Rijā, who defeated them. Gurshāsp fled to Sāgar and thence to Kamplī, on the Tungabhadra, where he took refuge with the raja. The imperial troops sustained a reverse before this place, but were reinforced, and the noble raja, seeing that he could no longer protect his guest, sent him to Dvāravatīpura, with a letter commending him to the protection of Vīra Ballāla III, and performed the awful rite of *jauhar*. After the women had been destroyed the raja led his bravest warriors in a charge on the royal army, in which all the Hindus perished. Khvāja Jahān then entered Kamplī and carried off the principal inhabitants, including the dead raja’s eleven sons, into slavery. The Hindu princes were forced to accept Islam, but were otherwise treated with the distinction due to their high birth and their father’s valour. Ibn Batūtah, while at Muhammad’s court, met three of these princes and describes one of them as an intimate friend of his own.