The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.417

v3.c20.417

Jalāl-ud-dīn Ahsan Shāh, having declared his independence in A.H. 735, was slain in A.H. 740 by one of his officers, who usurped the throne under the title of 'Alā-ud-dīn Udaujī, but had not reigned a year when he was slain by a stray arrow which penetrated his head when he had removed his helmet after a victory over the 'infidels,' that is to say the subjects either of the Pāndya or of the Kerala kings, and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Qutb-ud-dīn Fīrūz Shāh, who was slain in a revolt after a reign of forty days. On his death the throne was seized by Ghiyās-ud-dīn Dāmaghānī, who had been a trooper in the service of Muhammad Tughluq, and now assumed the title of Ghiyās-ud-dīn Muhammad Dāmaghān Shāh. He married a daughter of Ahsan Shāh, and thus became the brother-in-law of the wife of Ibn Batūtah, who was a guest at his court after leaving that of Muhammad Tughluq, and records some of the atrocities committed by him, such as the torture and massacre of a great number of Hindu captives, men, women, and children. He also records Dāmaghān Shāh's victory over Vīra Ballāla III of Dvāravatīpura, who was over eighty years of age and was captured, strangled, and flayed by his adversary, who had learnt some lessons at the court at Delhi, and hung the stuffed skin of the *raja* on the wall of Madura. The death of Dāmaghān Shāh's only son from cholera on his return to Madura and his own death a fortnight later from the effects of an aphrodisiac were regarded as the due punishment of his cruelties.