The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.496

v3.c20.496

Fīrūz enriched Sirhind with a new fort, which he named Fīrūzpur, and continued his march northwards towards Kāngra by way of the famous temple of Jwālamukhī, where he dealt less harshly than usual with the Brāhman priests. A panegyrist defends him from the imputation of encouraging idolatry by presenting a golden umbrella to be hung over the head of the idol, which he seems, in fact, to have removed; but he ordered that some of the sacred books, of which there were 1300 in the temple, should be translated, and one in particular, treating of natural science, augury, and divination, was rendered into Persian verse by a court poet, A‘azz-ud-dīn Khālid Khānī, and named by him *Dalā’il-i-Fīrūz Shāhī*. Firishta describes the book as a compendium of theoretical and practical science, and even the rigidly orthodox Budaunī admits that it is moderately good, free neither from beauties nor defects, which is high praise from him. Budaunī mentions also some ‘unprofitable and trivial works on prosody, music, and dancing,’ which were translated. There seems to be no reason for crediting the statement, made with some diffidence by Firishta, that Fīrūz broke up the idols of Jwālamukhī, mixed their fragments with the flesh of cows, and hung them in nosebags round the Brāhmans’ necks, and that he sent the principal idol as a trophy to Medina. The raja of Kāngra surrendered after standing a very short siege, and was courteously received and permitted to retain his territory as a fief of Delhi.