The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c22: Chapter IX. The Lodī Dynasty
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c22
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Chapter IX. The Lodī Dynasty
v3.c22.2
THE condition of the kingdom over which Buhlūl was called to rule has already been described, but he differed from its late feeble sovereign in being already, at the time of his elevation to the throne, a powerful ruler. The greater part of the Punjab owned his sway, and one of his kinsmen was virtual ruler of the country to the east of Delhi, the northern Doāb, and the province now known as Rohilkhand.
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The new king was just such a ruler as the distracted state required. With sufficient political acumen to serve his purpose he was active and warlike and had formed the resolution of restoring the kingdom to its pre-eminence among the Muhammadan States of Northern India. Among his Afghān kinsmen he was little more than *primus inter pares*, and was well content with that position, but he would tolerate no interference by strangers, and one of his first acts was to overthrow the powerful Hamīd Khān, by whom he had been called to the throne and whose influence in Delhi might at any time be sufficient to initiate a formidable movement for the restoration of the old order of things, when everybody was his own master. The Afghāns, acting under their leader’s instructions, behaved with grotesque boorishness at all his formal meetings with Hamīd Khān. The men-at-arms crowded into the hall of audience on the pretext that all soldiers and fellow-tribesmen were equals, and their conduct, while it excited the surprise and disgust of Hamīd Khān, encouraged him to believe that he had to deal with a horde of mere rustic simpletons. The Afghān troops were soon numerous enough to crush any disturbance which might arise in the city, and their numbers at court were always sufficient to enable Buhlūl to carry out any act of violence. At one audience Qutb Khān Lodī, Buhlūl’s cousin and brother-in-law, produced a chain and, casting it down before Hamīd Khān, informed him that it was considered necessary for reasons of state that he should be confined for a few days, but that in consideration of the services which he had rendered his life would be spared. How this promise was kept we do not know, but Hamīd Khān disappears henceforth from the scene.
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Shaikh Yūsuf, the popularly elected governor of Multān, who had been expelled from that city by the Langāhs¹ and had taken refuge at Delhi, urged Buhlūl to recover the lost province, and late in 1451 he left the capital for Multān, but as soon as his back was turned some of the old nobles of ‘Ālam Shāh, who found the energetic personal rule of the new king little to their taste, invited Mahmūd Shāh of Jaunpur to attack the city and expel the Afghāns. Mahmūd responded to the appeal, and on his march towards Delhi was joined by Buhlūl’s relative, Daryā Khān Lodī, who remained at heart loyal to his kinsman, and whose adherence to the invader was a matter of necessity rather than choice. Mahmūd advanced to Delhi and besieged Buhlūl’s eldest son, Khvāja Bāyazīd, who had been left in charge of the city; and Buhlūl, who had reached Dīpālpur, immediately retraced his footsteps and was within thirty miles of the capital before Mahmūd had succeeded in making any impression on its defences. He was fortunate enough to capture large numbers of Mahmūd’s transport animals, which were at pasture but immediately after this successful stroke was attacked by Mahmūd’s principal lieutenant, Fath Khān of Herat, with 30,000 horse and thirty elephants. In the battle Qutb Khān Lodī, who was an expert archer, checked the onset of Fath Khān’s elephant by wounding it with an arrow, and this mishap shook the ranks of the Jaunpur troops. Qutb Khān was able to convey a message to Daryā Khān Lodī, urging him to desert the enemy and join his kinsmen, and Daryā Khān at once led his troops from the field. The rest of the army of Jaunpur, demoralised by his defection, broke and fled, and Fath Khān was taken alive and was beheaded by Rāja Khān, a Hindu officer of Buhlūl’s who had a blood feud with him.
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¹ See Chapters VIII and XIX.
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Mahmūd, on the defeat of his army in the field, raised the siege and returned to Jaunpur. His expedition convinced Buhlūl that the settlement of the trivial disorders in the Punjab, where Lodī supremacy was assured, might well be postponed until the turbulent fief-holders of the Doāb and the petty princes of Mewāt, who had long been independent, were once more brought into subjection to the kingdom of Delhi and the power of the king of Jaunpur which, during the reigns of Mubārak, Muhammad, and ‘Ālam Shāh, had always equalled and frequently over-shadowed that of the king of Delhi, had been broken. Buhlūl, whose reputation had been greatly enhanced by his victory, marched to Mewāt, where he received, without a battle, the submission of Ahmad Khān, who surrendered seven *parganas* to him, agreed to holding the remainder of his territory as a fief of Delhi, and placed his uncle, Mubārak Khān, at Buhlūl's court, nominally as his agent, but in fact as a hostage.
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From Mewāt Buhlūl crossed the Jumna and marched to Baran, where Daryā Khān Lodī waited on him and compounded for his late adhesion to Mahmūd of Jaunpur by the surrender of seven *parganas* of his great fief to the crown. It was Buhlūl's policy to conciliate the great fief-holders of the Doāb, whose disobedience to Delhi and subservience to Jaunpur had been forced upon them by circumstances, and all were treated with leniency. ‘Īsā Khān, Mubārak Khān, and Raja Partāb submitted to him and were permitted to retain the fiefs of Koīl, Suket and Bhongāon, and even Qutb Khān¹, son of Hasan Khān, who defended the fortress of Rāprī against the royal troops, was permitted to retain his fief after his submission.
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¹ Not to be confounded with Qutb Khān Lodī, Buhlūl's cousin and brother-in-law.
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From Rāprī Buhlūl marched to Etāwah and received the submission of the raja, but this assertion of his authority provoked Mahmūd of Jaunpur, who claimed the allegiance of Etāwah and invaded the district for the purpose of contesting Buhlūl's claim. Neither king was in a position to proceed to extremities against the other, and after one day's desultory fighting they concluded a truce, in accordance with the terms of which the boundaries between the two states were to be those which had been recognised in the reign of Mubārak Shāh of Delhi, seven elephants taken from Fath Khān were to be restored to Jaunpur, and Buhlūl was to be permitted, after the rainy season, to wrest Shamsābād from Jaunān Khān, who held it nominally as a fief of Jaunpur.
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Mahmūd returned to Jaunpur and Buhlūl drove Jaunān Khān from Shamsābād and placed his own vassal, Raja Karan, in possession of the fief. Mahmūd, though Buhlūl had violated none of the conditions of the treaty, marched against him, and as the army of Jaunpur approached Shamsābād it was attacked by night by a force under Qutb Khān Lodī and Daryā Khān Lodī. The attack failed and Qutb Khān was captured and sent to Jaunpur, where he remained a prisoner for seven months. Just as the main bodies of the two armies were about to join battle Mahmūd died, in 1457, and his son Bhikan was raised to the throne under the title of Muhammad Shāh, and made peace with Buhlūl, whose right to retain Shamsābād he acknowledged. Buhlūl returned towards Delhi, but on reaching Dhankaur received a message from Qutb Khān's sister, reproaching him for having left her brother in captivity and urging him not to rest until he had liberated him, whereupon he at once turned back to meet Muhammad Shāh, who marched with equal promptness to Shamsābād, expelled Raja Karan, and restored the fief to Jaunān Khān. His success attracted to his standard the raja of Etāwah, who openly transferred his allegiance from Delhi to Jaunpur, and Muhammad marched to Saraswati while Bahlūl marched to the neighbouring town of Rāprī. After some desultory fighting between the two armies intestine discord deprived that of Jaunpur of the power of offensive action¹, and Muhammad was deserted by one of his brothers, who led away a force of 30,000 horse and thirty elephants and halted on the banks of the Jharna. Bahlūl, who regarded this move as a tactical manœuvre against himself, followed them, and on his way captured Jalāl Khān, a third brother of Muhammad, who was attempting to join the deserter, and detained him as a hostage for the safety of Qutb Khān Lodī.
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¹ For the details of these disputes see Chapter x.
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Muhammad retreated towards Kanauj, and was followed as far as the Ganges by Bahlūl, but his brother Husain had already been acclaimed as king at Kanauj and Muhammad was deserted by the few courtiers who had remained with him, and was put to death.
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Husain Shāh ascended the throne of Jaunpur in 1458, and at once concluded a four years' truce with Bahlūl. Qutb Khān Lodī was exchanged for Husain's brother, Jalāl Khān, and peace reigned between Delhi and Jaunpur for the period for which the truce had been concluded.
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During this period Bahlūl's attention was fully occupied in the administration of his dominions and late in 1472 he marched towards Multān, to reduce to obedience Husain Shāh Langāh, who had succeeded his father in that small kingdom.
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In 1473 Husain Shāh of Jaunpur, instigated by his wife Jalīla, who was a daughter of 'Ālam Shāh, marched on Delhi with a large army, and this menace to his capital recalled Bahlūl, who, however, sent his third son, Bārbak Shāh, and Tātār Khān Lodī, governor of Lahore, to Multān, where they suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Husain Langāh, and were compelled to retreat.
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Bahlūl, on reaching Delhi, was dismayed by the imminence of his peril and hastily sent a mission to Mahmūd Khaljī II of Mālwa, imploring him to come to his aid and promising to cede to him the whole country west of Bayāna, but Husain had reached the banks of the Jumna, a short distance to the south-east of Delhi, before a reply could be received from Mahmūd, and Buhlūl attempted to purchase peace by the most humiliating submission. Were he allowed, he said, to retain Delhi and the country for thirty miles around it he would cheerfully hold it in Husain's name. The offer was haughtily rejected and Buhlūl marched forth at the head of 18,000 Afghān horse, to meet his powerful enemy. The armies were encamped on opposite banks of the Jumna and for several days neither ventured to cross the river in force to attack the other until one day Husain who, in his contempt of his opponent neglected all military precautions, permitted the whole of his army to disperse for the purpose of plundering the fertile lands of the Doāb. His camp was left unprotected, and Buhlūl crossed the river by a ford and fell upon it. Even now Husain's insensate pride blinded him to his danger and it was not until the Afghāns were actually plundering his tents that he sought safety in flight, then the only course left open to him. The ladies of his harem, including his wife Jalīla, were captured by Buhlūl, who generously sent them unharmed to Jaunpur.
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A new treaty, in which a truce of three years was agreed upon, was concluded and Buhlūl, besides turning his attention once more to the improvement of his administration and the consolidation of his power, marched into Mewāt for the purpose of dealing with Ahmad Khān, a great fief-holder who had joined Husain Shāh in his recent expedition. Ahmad Khān fled and joined Husain in Jaunpur, thus furnishing him with a pretext for renewing hostilities, to which course he was constantly urged by his wife Jalīla.
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Husain, after capturing Etāwah, marched on Delhi with an army of 100,000 horse and 1000 elephants, and Buhlūl again stooped to supplication and promised, if Husain would refrain from molesting him, to attend him in the field whenever in future he might require assistance. Husain vouchsafed no answer to this piteous appeal and Buhlūl was compelled to take the field. He again defeated the army of Jaunpur, but was not strong enough to profit by his success, and was fain to make peace. Shortly afterwards Husain again marched against Buhlūl, who marched from Delhi and encountered him at Sikhera, about twenty-five miles east of the city. Husain was defeated but was again able to make peace on equal terms and retired to Etāwah, where Qutb Khān Lodī and the son of the raja of Gwalior waited on him. Qutb Khān, learning that Husain still entertained designs on Delhi, ingratiated himself by disparaging Buhlūl, and promised Husain that he would never rest until he had conquered for him the country as far north as Delhi.
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Husain was duped, and allowed Qutb Khān to leave his camp. He at once joined his cousin at Delhi, and warned him against Husain, whose military strength was still great and who had not abandoned the design of annexing Delhi to his dominions.
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Husain once more assembled his army for an attack on Delhi, and in March, 1479, arrived at the bank of the Jumna. This was the most promising of all his campaigns and the effect of his numerical superiority was everywhere apparent, but Qutb Khān Lodī, by an appeal to the memory of Husain’s mother, who had befriended him during his captivity in Jaunpur, so played upon the invader’s feelings that he induced him to make peace on obtaining from Buhlūl formal recognition of his tenure of all districts east of the Ganges, corresponding to the modern province of Rohilkhand. After concluding this treaty Husain began a leisurely retreat and Buhlūl perfidiously attacked him and captured a large number of elephants and horses laden with spoil and treasure, Husain’s minister, and about forty of his principal nobles. This success, disgracefully obtained, marks the turn of the tide in favour of Delhi, and Buhlūl pursued the demoralised army of Jaunpur and occupied the *parganas* of Kampil, Patiālī, Shamsābād, Suket, Koil, Mārhara and Jalesar. Husain, hard pressed by Buhlūl’s pursuit, turned and faced him, but was again defeated and was now obliged to acquiesce in Buhlūl’s retention of the large tract of territory which he had recovered and to agree that the frontier of the kingdom of Jaunpur should be withdrawn to Chhibrāmau, in the district now known as Farrukhābād.
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Husain retired to Rāprī and Buhlūl to Delhi, but the former, after a brief period of repose, again took the field to recover his lost territory and met Buhlūl at Senhā, where he suffered the heaviest defeat he had yet experienced. The plunder which fell into the hands of Buhlūl and the prestige which he gained with his victory established the superiority of Delhi and Buhlūl encamped at Chhibrāmau and shortly afterwards took the offensive against Husain and defeated him at Rāprī. Husain fled towards Gwalior, and after losing some of his wives and children in the passage of the Jumna, was attacked near Athgāth by the Bhadauriyas, a predatory tribe, who plundered his camp. Kirat Singh of Gwalior was still faithful to him, supplied him with money, troops, and transport, and escorted him as far as Kālpī on his way to Jaunpur. Buhlūl, after capturing Etāwah, which surrendered to him after a siege of three days, marched to attack Husain, who turned to meet him at Rāigāon Khāgā¹, where his front was protected by the Ganges, which postponed Buhlūl's attack for some months until Raja Tilok Chand of Baksar¹ joined his army and led it across the river by a ford, when Husain retreated rapidly to Phāphāmau², the raja of which place provided him with money, horses, and elephants, and escorted him in safety to Jaunpur. Buhlūl marched straight on Jaunpur and Husain fled towards Kanauj by way of Bahrāich, an unnecessarily circuitous route.
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Buhlūl followed him, overtook him on the banks of the Rahab, attacked him, and defeated him, capturing one of his wives. He then returned to Jaunpur, which he captured, and placed Mubārak Khān Lohānī in the city as governor. He also placed a garrison under the command of Qutb Khān Lodī in Majhaulī³, beyond the Gogra and then marched to Budaun, which had been nominally subject to Husain since the death of 'Ālam Shāh in 1478. Husain took advantage of his absence to re-assemble his army and march to Jaunpur, compelling Mubārak Khān to withdraw to Majhaulī. Husain marched thither, and Buhlūl's officers, who could not risk a battle, gained time by feigning to negotiate, and while Husain was thus permitting himself to be delayed, Buhlūl returned rapidly from Budaun, sent a force under his son Bārbak to relieve Majhaulī, and re-occupied Jaunpur. Husain, in despair, fled into Bihār, and Buhlūl followed him as far as Haldī, on the Ganges near Ballia, where he heard of the death of Qutb Khān Lodī at Majhaulī and, after halting to mourn for him, returned to Jaunpur, where in 1486 he placed his eldest surviving son Bārbak on the throne of that kingdom, and permitted him to coin money and to use the royal title. He then marched, by way of Chandwār, to Dholpur where the raja, as earnest of his submission, presented to him a large quantity of gold.
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From Dholpur he marched eighteen miles westward to Bārī, where Iqbāl Khān, the Muslim governor, also made his submission, and was permitted to retain his fief. Thence he marched to 'Ālampur, near Ranthambhor, plundered that district, and destroyed all the standing crops. Returning to Delhi he enjoyed some well-earned repose there and at Hissar, and, thus refreshed, marched to Gwalior, where Kirat Singh had for many years virtually maintained his independence by paying tribute to Jaunpur. Buhlūl was ill-prepared for such an enterprise as the siege of the fortress, and Kirat Singh was well content to purchase peace and liberty by the payment of eight millions of rupees. From Gwalior Buhlūl returned to Etāwah, where he made some administrative changes, and, on returning towards Delhi, was overtaken, near Suket, by his last illness, which produced a crop of intrigues regarding the succession. Bahlūl himself, who had provided for his second and eldest surviving son, Bārbak, by placing him on the throne of Jaunpur, seems to have intended that his third son, Nizām Khān (Sikandar Shāh) should succeed him, but the Afghān nobles objected to him on the ground that his mother, a favourite wife or concubine, was the daughter of a goldsmith, and prevailed upon the dying king to summon him to the camp, lest he should usurp the throne in Delhi;
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but the prince's mother and a few who favoured his cause were in the camp and secretly warned him that if he obeyed the order he would certainly be imprisoned by his father. Nizām Khān temporised and the nobles, who were almost unanimous in opposing his succession, some supporting Bārbak Shāh of Jaunpur, and others A'zam-i-Humāyūn, son of Khvāja Bāyazīd, Bahlūl's eldest son, urged Bahlūl to assert his authority, and an order was sent to Nizām Khān, warning him that if he did not immediately obey the summons his father would march to Delhi and punish him. Nizām Khān pitched his camp beyond the walls and announced that he was about to set out, but needed a few days in which to prepare for the journey. Meanwhile Bahlūl suddenly died, in the second week of July, 1489. Zībā, the goldsmith's daughter, boldly confronted the Lodī nobles with an assertion of her son's claim to the throne, and was abused to her face by 'Īsā Khān, Bahlūl's first cousin, who brusquely told her that the son of a goldsmith's daughter was not the man to fill a throne. His discourtesy injured his cause by exciting sympathy for the widow, and Khān Khānān Qarmalī rebuked him. 'Īsā Khān angrily replied that a servant had no right to interfere in the family affairs of the Lodīs, and the Khān Khānān retorted that if he was a servant he was the servant of Sikandar Shāh, the title by which Nizām Khān was already known to his adherents, and of none other.
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The army moved to Jalālī, where it was met by Nizām Khān, who, on July 17, 1489, was proclaimed king under the title of Sikandar Shāh.
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¹ In 25° 53′ N. and 81° 16′ E.
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¹ Thirty-four miles south-east of Unao town.
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² In 25° 32' N. and 81° 56' E.
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³ In 26° 17' N. and 83° 57' E., on the Little Gandak river.
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Sikandar was undoubtedly the fittest of all Bahlūl's sons to fill his father's throne, and his promptitude in joining the army settled the question of the succession, but some of the courtiers withdrew in sullen disaffection to their fiefs and Sikandar soon found it necessary to attack his uncle¹, 'Ālam Khān, who was making pretensions to independence in Rāprī and Chandwār. ‘Ālam Khān, after enduring a few days’ siege in Rāprī, fled and took refuge in Patiālī with ‘Īsā Khān, who was in rebellion in consequence of the insult which he had hurled at the king’s mother. Sikandar conferred the fief of Rāprī on Khān Khānān Lohānī and retired to Etāwah, where he spent seven months in reorganising the administration of the provinces, which had been thrown into confusion by governors and fief-holders appointed during the late reign and disaffected to his rule and in conciliating those who were prepared to accept his succession as an accomplished fact. He succeeded in persuading ‘Ālam Khān to leave the protection of ‘Īsā Khān and endeavoured to secure his fidelity by bestowing on him the fief of Etāwah, and he sent an embassy to his brother Bārbak in Jaunpur with the object of concluding a permanent treaty between that kingdom and Delhi, and marched in person against ‘Īsā Khān in Patiālī. ‘Īsā met him in the field, but was defeated, and so severely wounded that he survived his reconciliation with his nephew but a few days. Raja Ganesh, a Hindu officer who had espoused Bārbak’s cause, submitted to Sikandar and was rewarded with the fief of Patiālī.
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¹ According to Nizām-ud-dīn Ahmad 'Ālam Khān was Sikandar's brother but he may be satisfactorily identified with the 'Ālam Khān (Jalāl Shāh) who was a younger brother of Bahlūl.
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The mission to Jaunpur failed. Husain Sharqī, from his retreat in Bihār, had assiduously instigated Bārbak to attack his brother, in the hope that their quarrels would open a way for his return to Jaunpur, and Sikandar, apprised of his brother’s designs, marched to attack him. Bārbak advanced to Kanauj to meet him and suffered a defeat, in consequence of which he fled to Budaun. Sikandar pursued him, besieged him in that city, and after a few days compelled him to surrender. He was treated with great leniency and was replaced on the throne of Jaunpur, but merely as a king in name, for Sikandar distributed the rich fiefs of the kingdom among his own adherents, and even placed confidential agents in Bārbak’s household.
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After this success Sikandar marched to Kotala and Kālpī, dispossessed his nephew, A‘zam-i-Humāyūn, who had been a candidate for the crown, of these fiefs, and bestowed them upon Muhammad Khān Lodī. He next attacked, in Jhatra, Tātār Khān Lodī, who had been one of his bitterest opponents, compelled him to submit and generously restored him to his fief. Marching thence to Gwalior he received the submission of Raja Kirat Singh, invested him with a robe of honour as governor of the fortress and district, and marched to Bayāna, where the governor, Sharaf, son of Ahmad Jalvānī, appeared before him and, by a feigned submission, obtained a promise of the fiefs of Jalesar, Chandwār, Mārhara, and Suket on condition of his surrendering the keys of Bayāna. He was permitted to return for the keys but had no sooner regained the shelter of the fortress than he prepared to stand a siege. Sikandar marched to Āgra, which was held by Haibat Khān, a dependant of Sharaf, and, having entrusted the siege of that town to some of his officers, returned to Bayāna and after a short siege compelled Sharaf to surrender. He was permitted to retire to Gwalior, the fief of Bayāna was granted to Khān Khānān, and the king returned to Delhi.
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He had rested for no longer than four days in the capital when he received news of a serious rebellion in Jaunpur, where the Hindu landholders assembled an army of 100,000 horse and foot and put to death Sher Khān, brother of Mubārak Khān Lohānī, governor of Kara. Mubārak himself escaped from Kara, but was seized by his Hindu boatmen at a ford near the present city of Allahabad and delivered to the raja of Phāphāmau, who imprisoned him. Bārbak Shāh of Jaunpur was utterly unable to cope with this formidable insurrection, which seems to have been due to the intrigues of Husain Sharqī in Bihār, and withdrew to Daryābād, between Lucknow and Gonda, whence he joined Sikandar, who was marching on Jaunpur, at Dalmau on the Ganges. The raja of Phāphāmau, alarmed at Sikandar’s approach, released Mubārak Khān and sent him to the royal camp, but the king’s advance on Jaunpur was opposed by the rebel army, but he attacked it, defeated it with great slaughter, dispersed it, and took much plunder, and, continuing his march to Jaunpur, reinstated his brother and retired towards Oudh, where he proposed to enjoy the chase, but was almost immediately recalled by the news that Bārbak was helpless before the rebels. The facts of the case are obscure, but it appears that Bārbak had been coquetting with the rebels and also with Husain. Sikandar dealt promptly with him by sending some of his principal nobles to Jaunpur to arrest him, and he was brought before the king and delivered into the custody of Haibat Khān and ‘Umar Khān Shirvānī. From the neighbourhood of Jaunpur Sikandar marched to Chunār, where a number of Husain’s nobles were assembled. He defeated them but was not strong enough to attempt the siege of the fortress, and marched to Kuntit, on the Ganges, a dependency of Phāphāmau, where Bhīl, the raja of Phāphāmau, made his obeisance, and was confirmed in the possession of Kuntit, as a fief. Sikandar marched on to Arāīl, opposite to Allahabad, and the raja, who accompanied him, became apprehensive for his personal safety and fled, leaving his camp and baggage in the king's hands. Sikandar, to reassure him, courteously sent his property after him. Arāīl was laid waste, and the army marched to Dalmau by way of Kara, and thence to Shamsābād, where Sikandar halted for six months, visited Sambhal, and returned to Shamsābād, destroying on the way the inhabitants of two villages who had been guilty either of rebellion or brigandage.
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In October, 1494, after spending the rainy season at Shamsābād he marched against Bhīl of Phāphāmau, who remained obdurate, laid waste his territory, and defeated his son Narsingh in the field. The raja fled in the direction of Sundha¹, but died on the way, and Sikandar, unable, owing to scarcity of provisions, was obliged to push on to Jaunpur, where most of the horses of his army died, from the hardships of the campaign, according to the chroniclers, but in fact owing to the improvident habit of destroying both crops and stores of grain in a hostile province. The rebellious landholders, at whose head was Lakhmī Chand, a son of Raja Bhīl, urged Husain Sharqī to attack Sikandar, assuring him that nine-tenths of the latter's cavalry horses had perished, and Husain marched from Bihār with all the forces which he could assemble and 100 elephants. Sikandar, whose losses had been exaggerated and had not proved to be irreparable, marched southward, crossed the Ganges by the ford at Kuntit, placed a garrison in Chunār, and advanced to Benares, sending Khān Khānān to conciliate Sālibāhan, another son of Raja Bhīl. Thence he marched to attack Husain, who was within thirty-six miles of the city, and on his way was joined by Sālibāhan, whose adhesion had been secured by the promise of his father's territory. He had repaired his losses, and he inflicted a crushing defeat on Husain, and pursued him towards Patna with 100,000 horse. On learning that Husain had continued his flight from Patna he marched with his whole army to Bihār, and Husain, leaving Malik Kandū in the fortress of Bihār, fled to Kahalgāon (Colgong). Sikandar, after detaching a force which drove Kandū from Bihār, left some officers to complete the subjugation of that province and marched into Tirhut, where he received the allegiance of the raja and, having left Mubārak Khān Lohānī to collect the tribute imposed upon him, returned to Bihār.
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¹ In 82° 38′ E. and 25° 17′ N.
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This invasion of Bihār which, though held by the kings of Jaunpur in the day of their strength, had always been regarded as a province of Bengal, aroused the hostility of 'Alā-ud-dīn Husain Shāh, the active and warlike king of that country, who resented both the pursuit of his protégé and the violation of his frontiers. He hesitated to march in person against the king of Delhi, and sent his son Dāniyāl with an army to Bārh, where he was met by a force under Mahmūd Khān Lodī and Mubārak Khān Lohānī. Neither party had anything to gain by proceeding to extremities and the treaty executed by both contained the usual stipulation, meaningless when boundaries fluctuate and are ill defined, that neither the king of Delhi nor the sultan of Bengal was to invade the dominions of his neighbour, but the latter’s promise to abstain from harbouring Sikandar’s enemies was an admission that he had erred in espousing Husain’s cause.
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Sikandar remained for some time in Bihār and his army suffered from famine, perhaps the result of climatic conditions, but more probably caused and certainly aggravated by the devastating campaign in which it had been engaged. Grain became so dear that one of the taxes levied under the Islamic law was remitted, and Sikandar marched to Sāran, asserted his authority by removing some of the landholders from their fiefs and appointing nobles of his own clan in their place, and returned to Jaunpur, where he reorganised the administration of the distracted province and, having accomplished this task, demanded a daughter in marriage from Sālibāhan of Phāphāmau. He met with a refusal and attacked Sālibāhan’s stronghold, but failed to capture it and returned to Jaunpur, where he demanded from Mubārak Khān Lodī, to whom the collection of the revenue had been entrusted since the imprisonment of Bārbak, an account of his stewardship. Mubārak Khān, who had been guilty of wholesale peculation, was much alarmed and sought the intercession of several influential courtiers with a view to avoiding an inquiry, but his anxiety betrayed his guilt, and he was ordered to pay into the treasury the large sums which he had embezzled.
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During the king’s stay at Jaunpur the turbulent conduct of some of his nobles aroused his displeasure and his suspicions. One accidentally struck another on the head with his stick while playing polo with the king and the injured man’s brother promptly attacked Haibat Khān, the unintentional offender, and a disturbance arose. The combatants were separated, but renewed their combat on the polo ground on the following day, and the king caused one of them to be flogged. Being apprehensive of the effect of this punishment on his nobles, and of the temper of men who did not hesitate to belabour one another with sticks in his presence, he took precautions to secure his personal safety. Selecting a number of nobles on whom he believed he could rely, he placed them on a roster for the duty of mounting guard over his palace and person at night. These nobles, either originally disaffected or rendered so by an irksome duty, conspired to depose him and to raise to the throne his younger brother Fath Khān, the seventh son of Buhlūl. The young prince privately repeated their proposals to his mother and a holy man, who advised him to disclose the matter to the king without delay. This he did, and the conspirators, twenty-two in number, were banished from court.
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In 1499 Sikandar left Jaunpur for Sambhal, where he remained for four years, engaged in organising the administration of the trans-Gangetic province, and in pleasure, sport, and polo. Shortly after his arrival at Sambhal he received complaints of the oppressive behaviour of Asghar, whom he had left at Delhi as governor of the city, and ordered Khavāss Khān, who held the fief of Māchīwāra, in the present district of Lūdhiāna, to march to Delhi, seize the offender, and send him to court. Before Khavāss Khān could reach the city Asghar left it and submitted himself to the king, who caused him to be imprisoned and Khavāss Khān occupied Delhi without opposition and assumed the vacant office of governor.
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Sikandar had an opportunity while at Sambhal of displaying the bigotry which was a prominent feature of his character. A Brāhman of Bengal excited some interest and, among precisians, much indignation, by publicly maintaining that the Muhammadan and Hindu religions were both true, and were but different paths by which God might be approached. A‘zam-i-Humāyūn, governor of Bihār, was directed to send the daring preacher and two rival doctors of the Islamic law to court, and theologians were summoned from various parts of the kingdom to consider whether it was permissible to preach peace. They decided that since the Brāhman had admitted the truth of Islam he should be invited to embrace it, with the alternative of death in the event of refusal. The decision commended itself to Sikandar and the penalty was exacted from the Brāhman, who refused to change his faith.
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An incident which happened at this time throws some light on the nature of the dominion of the Lodīs in the Punjab, the province in which they had originally established themselves. They should certainly have been able, had they commanded the resources of this province, to crush at once the kingdom of Jaunpur, which for a long time contended with them on equal terms, to establish themselves as undisputed lords of the Doāb, and to recover the fortress and province of Gwalior, which had been a Muhammadan possession for more than a century and a half until, in the troublous times of [Figure: INDIA *in 1525* The Political boundaries are shown thus:----- Countries and Peoples thus... ... BENGAL Towns . . . . . Parashūr Rivers . . . . . *Mahānadī* Scales 50 0 50 100 200 English Miles 100 0 100 200 300
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Tīmūr’s invasion, it was annexed by the Tonwar Rājputs; but the hold of the Lodīs on the Punjab was precarious. It was held for them by their relations and dependants, but solidarity has never been an Afghan characteristic, and the Lodīs seem never to have ventured to tax the loyalty of their officials in the Punjab too highly. In the discontents of the next twenty-five years the Punjab was the only part of their dominions to welcome a foreign invader, and Buhlūl, Sikandar, and Ibrāhīm were content with such acknowledgement of their supremacy as was indicated by occasional remittances of tribute or revenue, and did not call upon their officers in the Punjab to furnish large contingents for the subjugation of Hindūstān. In 1500 Sa‘īd Khān Shirvānī came from Lahore to Sambhal to pay his respects to the king, but was banished on suspicion of disaffection and, with some other discontented nobles, took refuge with Mān Singh, raja of Gwalior. The raja, with a view to deprecating Sikandar’s wrath, sent as envoy to his court a eunuch named Raihān, with valuable presents, but the envoy was less conciliatory than his master, and returned impudent answers to some questions put to him by Sikandar. He was accordingly dismissed with an intimation that the raja would do well to look to himself.
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Sikandar soon found the opportunity which he sought. Khān Jahān Qarmalī, governor of Bayāna, died, and though his two sons were for a short time permitted to manage the affairs of their father’s fief their experience was not equal to the task, and they were summoned to Sambhal, where less important fiefs were bestowed upon them. Khavāss Khān, governor of Delhi, was appointed to Bayāna, and his son Ismā‘īl Khān succeeded him in the capital. His hands were strengthened in his new post by the appointment of Safdar Khān as governor of Āgra, then a dependency of Bayāna, and ‘Ālam Khān, governor of Mewāt, and Khān Khānān Lohānī, governor of Rāprī, were ordered to cooperate with him against Bināyik Deo, raja of Dholpur. A combined attack was made on Dholpur, but the royal officers were repulsed with loss and Sikandar marched, on March 15, 1502, from Sambhal towards Dholpur. On his approach Bināyik Deo fled to Gwalior, leaving his officers to defend Dholpur, but they followed their master’s example and Sikandar occupied the fortress and sacked the town. The conquerors committed a senseless act of revenge by destroying the groves of trees which extended for a distance of fourteen miles round it.
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Sikandar halted for a month at Dholpur, placed Ādam Khān Lodī there as governor, and marched towards Gwalior. He crossed the Chambal and halted for two months on the banks of the Āsan, where the army suffered so much from a pestilence, probably cholera, that all thought of advancing to Gwalior was abandoned. The Muslim chroniclers state that Mān Singh expelled from Gwalior Sikandar's nobles who had taken refuge with him, visited the camp to make his submission, and left his son Bikramājīt, or Vikramāditya, in attendance on the king, but as Sikandar was in no position to bring pressure to bear upon Mān Singh, and found it necessary to receive Bināyik Deo and to reinstate him in Dholpur it is improbable that Mān Singh visited the royal camp. If he sent his son thither it was in the capacity of an envoy and the reinstatement of Bināyik Deo was demanded as the price of the expulsion of the refugees, for Sikandar was at the moment eager for peace, though the peace which he made was illusory, for on his return to Āgra he transferred his capital from Delhi to that city, in order to facilitate the prosecution of his designs against Gwalior. This is the first occasion on which Āgra, which acquired such importance under the Mughul emperors, comes prominently into notice, for it had hitherto been a dependency of the more important fortress of Bayāna.
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The account of Sikandar's subsequent operations illustrates the strength of the raja of Gwalior and the extent of his territories, for the king did not venture to attack Gwalior itself, but attempted the systematic reduction and conquest of fortresses and districts subject or tributary to Mān Singh. The first of these was Mandrāel¹, for the siege of which he prepared by devastating the villages between it and Gwalior. In March, 1505, he marched against Mandrāel, which surrendered to him. He destroyed Hindu temples in the town and erected mosques on their sites, and plundered and laid waste the districts surrounding the fortress. This success emboldened him to remove Bināyik Deo from Dholpur on his return to Āgra and to appoint Malik Qamar-ud-dīn governor of that fortress and district.
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¹ In 77° 18′ E. and 26° 18′ N.
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On July 6 a most destructive earthquake occurred in Āgra. The area affected by it was extraordinarily large. It was general throughout India, it is mentioned by Bābur in his memoirs, and it is said by Budaunī to have extended to Persia.
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In October, after the rainy season, Sikandar renewed hostilities against Gwalior. After a short halt at Dholpur he established his headquarters on the banks of the Chambal, and, leaving his camp there, led an expedition into Gwalior country. The direction in which he marched is uncertain, but the Hindus, who fled to the hills and jungles, were slaughtered and enslaved in large numbers, and the country was laid waste. The work of devastation was so complete that the invaders suffered from scarcity of food until a large caravan of Banjāras, carrying grain and other provisions, was captured. Mān Singh was not inactive, and Sikandar, as he approached his camp, observed precautions not habitual to him and threw out an advanced guard on the march and outposts when halted, suspecting some sudden manœuvre. His precautions were opportune for, as he was retiring towards his camp on the Chambal, Mān Singh laid an ambush for his army. The officers whose troops were exposed to the sudden and unexpected attack displayed great valour, and held the enemy until succour arrived from the main body of the army, when the Hindus were defeated with great slaughter. As the rainy season was approaching, in which operations were difficult, the only result of this success was to secure Sikandar's retreat, and he retired to Āgra, but as soon as the rains abated marched to besiege the fortress of Utgīr. The siege was pressed with such vigour that the walls were soon breached in many places and the fortress was carried by assault, the Hindus fighting desperately to the last. Utgīr shared the fate of Mandlāer, and Makan and Mujāhid Khān, the latter of whom had remained at Dholpur, were appointed to the command of the new acquisition, but it was discovered, after the capture of the fortress, that Mujāhid had been in correspondence with the raja of Utgīr, and had undertaken, in consideration of a bribe, to dissuade Sikandar from attacking it. Mullā Jaman, one of his principal followers, who was with the army, was arrested, and orders for the arrest of Mubārak Khān himself were sent to Dholpur. After the capture of Utgīr, Sikandar again retired to Āgra, and by some extraordinary error the army was led by a route in which it endured the torments of thirst, and when water was found many of the sufferers drank so greedily of it as to cause death. The usual routes from Utgīr to Āgra were well supplied with water, and the selection of a waterless route suggests apprehensions of another attack by Mān Singh.
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Sikandar again spent the rainy season at Āgra, and early in 1508 marched to attack Narwar, usually included in the kingdom of Mālwa, but now, apparently, subject to Gwalior. He first sent Jalāl Khān Lodī, governor of Kālpī, against the fortress, and followed him from Āgra. On his arrival at Narwar Jalāl Khān drew up his army to receive him, and he was so impressed by its strength and warlike appearance as to become jealous of its leader's power and apprehensive of his motives, and resolved to degrade him.
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Some days' desultory fighting was followed by a general attack on the fortress, which was repulsed with heavy loss, and Sikandar invested the place with the object of reducing it by famine. During this period of comparative leisure he was occupied in compassing the ruin of Jalāl Khān. Having attracted all his best officers into his own service he broke up his contingent, and sent him in custody in Utgīr.
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Under the stress of famine and want of water the garrison of Utgīr surrendered on terms and Sikandar entered the fortress and, after his custom, destroyed Hindu temples and on their sites raised mosques, which he endowed with lands in the district.
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At this time Shihāb-ud-dīn, son of Nāsir-ud-dīn Khaljī of Mālwa, who had been in rebellion against his father¹ and, having been defeated by him, was now a fugitive, arrived at Siprī, near Narwar, and expressed his readiness to enter Sikandar's service. Sikandar sent him a horse and a robe of honour, but negotiations proceeded no further.
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¹ See Chapter xiv.
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Sikandar, on leaving Narwar, encamped on the banks of the Sindh, in its neighbourhood. Considering the importance of the fortress, and its distance from his capital, he judged it expedient to strengthen its defences, and encircled it with a fresh line of fortifications. He then marched to the district of Athgāth, which was disturbed by Hindu rebels, against whom he carried out some successful and destructive operations, and, after establishing military posts throughout the district, returned, in the summer of 1509, to Āgra.
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At the close of the rainy season he indulged in a tour to Dholpur, bent only on sport and pleasure, but while he was thus employed fortune added another province to his kingdom. 'Alī Khān and Abu Bakr, brothers of Muhammad Khān, the independent ruler of the small state of Nāgaur, had conspired against their brother and, on their guilt being detected, fled to Sikandar's court and endeavoured to enlist his aid by stories of Muhammad's tyranny, but he adroitly forestalled them by sending gifts to Sikandar and acknowledging him as their sovereign.
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Dūngar, lately raja of Utgīr, had, after the capture of his stronghold, accepted Islam, and was now suffering at the hands of his former co-religionists. Sulaimān, son of Khān Khānān Qarmalī, was directed to go to his aid, but demurred, ostensibly on the ground that he was unwilling to serve at a distance from court. Sikandar, incensed by his pusillanimity, dismissed him in disgrace to the *pargana* of Indrī, in the Sahāranpur district, which was assigned to him for his maintenance, and permitted the army to plunder his camp.
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Troubles in Mālwa now supplied Sikandar with a pretext for interfering in the affairs of that kingdom. Sāhib Khān, the eldest son of Nāsir-ud-dīn Khaljī, had been proclaimed king by a faction, and had at first maintained himself against his younger brother, Mahmūd II, but had eventually fled before him and was now, in 1513, under the protection of Bahjat Khān, governor of Chanderī, who had proclaimed him under the title of Muhammad Shāh¹ and sought aid of Sikandar. Sikandar recognised the prince as king of Mālwa, but Sa‘īd Khān and ‘Imād-ul-Mulk, whom he sent to his aid with 12,000 horse, demanded that Bahjat Khān should cause the *khutba* to be recited in the name of the king of Delhi, and, on his hesitating to comply with the request, retired, leaving him exposed to the wrath of Mahmūd II, who, however, accepted his conditional surrender and recognised Sāhib Khān as governor of the districts of Rāisen, Bhīlsa, and Dhāmonī; but Sāhib Khān mistrusted Bahjat Khān and, on November 8, fled from Chanderī and took refuge with Sikandar.
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¹ See Chapter xiv.
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Sikandar sent Sa‘īd Khān Lodī, Shaikh Jamāl Qarmalī, Rāi Jagar Sen Kachhwāha, Khizr Khān, and Khvāja Ahmad to Chanderī to establish his authority there and to govern the province nominally on behalf of Muhammad Shāh of Mālwa, but actually as a fief of Delhi.
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Husain Khān Qarmalī, governor of the recently acquired district of Sāran, now fell into disfavour for some reason not recorded, and, having been dismissed in favour of Hājī Sārang, fled to Bengal and took refuge with ‘Alā-ud-dīn Husain.
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Sikandar had provided for ‘Alī Khān of Nāgaur, who had fled from the wrath of his brother, Muhammad Khān, by giving him a fief on the borders of the district of Ranthambhor, which was then held for Mahmūd II of Mālwa by Daulat Khān, a prince of the Khaljī family. ‘Alī Khān tampered with Daulat Khān and, having induced him to promise that he would transfer his allegiance to Delhi, reported his success to Sikandar, who marched in a leisurely manner towards Ranthambhor. At Bayāna he was visited by Daulat Khān and his mother, but discovered, when the topic of the surrender of the fortress was broached, that ‘Alī Khān was playing a double game, and had secretly urged Daulat Khān not to surrender it. ‘Alī Khān was punished by being removed from his fief, which was conferred on his brother Abu Bakr, and Daulat Khān suffered nothing worse than reproaches for his duplicity.
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From Bayāna Sikandar returned by way of Dholpur to Āgra, where he fell sick. He suffered from a quinsy and from fever, but struggled against his malady and insisted on attending as usual to business of state. He was choked in attempting to swallow a morsel of food, and died on November 21, 1517.
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He was the greatest of the three kings of his house and carried out with conspicuous success the task left unfinished by his father. We hear little of the Punjab during his reign and he drew no troops from it to aid him in his eastern campaigns, but there are indications that it was more tranquil and more obedient to the crown than it had been in his father's reign. His vigorous administration amply justified the choice of the minority which, in the face of strong opposition, raised him to the throne, and his selection saved the kingdom from becoming the plaything of an oligarchy of turbulent, ignorant, and haughty Afghāns. His weakest action was his support of his hopelessly incompetent brother Bārbak, but this weakness was an amiable trait in a character by no means rich in such traits. He seems to have had a sincere affection for his brother, and to have felt that he owed him some reparation for having supplanted him in his birthright, but when he discovered that leniency was a mistaken policy he knew how to act.
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The greatest blot on his character was his relentless bigotry. The accounts of his conquests, doubtless exaggerated by pious historians, resemble those of the raids of the protagonists of Islam in India. The wholesale destruction of temples was not the best method of conciliating the Hindus of a conquered district and the murder of a Brāhman whose only offence was the desire for an accommodation between the religions of the conquerors and the conquered was not a politic act, but Sikandar's mind was warped by habitual association with theologians.
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After his death the choice of the Lodī nobles fell upon his eldest son, Ibrāhīm, who was raised to the throne at Āgra on November 21, 1517, but a turbulent faction advocated, for its own selfish ends, a partition of the kingdom, and secured the elevation of Jalāl Khān, who was either a younger brother of Ibrāhīm or his uncle, the youngest son of Buhlūl, to the throne of Jaunpur, and carried him off to that city. Before he was established there the influence of Khānjahān Lohānī, governor of Rāprī, who vehemently condemned the suicidal policy of dividing the kingdom, secured an order for his recall, the delivery of which was entrusted to prince Haibat Khān, 'the Wolf-slayer.' His efforts were powerless to induce Jalāl Khān, who was loth to forgo a kingdom, and naturally suspected Ibrāhīm, to leave Jaunpur, and the envoy was reduced to the necessity of tampering with the fidelity of Jalāl Khān's adherents in Jaunpur. With these his efforts and the profusion of Ibrāhīm were more successful, and they forsook the prince's cause. Jalāl Khān, on discovering their defection, retired from Jaunpur, where he could no longer maintain himself, to Kālpī, where he caused the *khutba* to be recited in his name and pretended to independence. Here he found himself in proximity to A‘zam-i-Humāyūn Shirvānī, who was besieging Kālinjar in Ibrāhīm's interest, though he was lukewarm in his cause. Jalāl Khān's position, which interrupted A‘zam-i-Humāyūn's communications with the capital, enabled him to deal on very favourable terms with him, and he experienced little difficulty in securing his adherence. The two agreed that their first step should be the recovery of Jaunpur, and with this object in view they attacked Sa‘īd Khān, governor of Oudh, who, having no force sufficient to oppose them, retired to Lucknow and reported his situation to Ibrāhīm, who secured his position at Delhi by placing his brothers in confinement in Hānsī, and led a large army against the rebels. Before he had reached Kanauj his anxiety was allayed by the news that A‘zam-i-Humāyūn had quarrelled with Jalāl Khān and was hastening to make his submission. He received him well, and at the same time was enabled to welcome Malik Qāsim Khān, governor of Sambhal, who had suppressed a rebellion headed by a Hindu landholder in the Koil district. He also received at Kanauj most of the fief-holders of the province of Jaunpur, and dispatched A‘zam-i-Humāyūn and other officers against Jalāl Khān, who was at Kālpī. Before the arrival of this army Jalāl Khān, leaving a garrison in Kālpī, marched with 30,000 horse and a number of elephants on Āgra. The royal troops captured Kālpī after a few days' siege, and sacked the city, and Jalāl Khān announced his intention of avenging its wrongs on Āgra, but Ibrāhīm dispatched a force under Malik Ādam to cover the approach to Āgra. This detachment was not strong enough to try conclusions with Jalāl Khān's great army, but its leader was a host in himself, and contrived, by opening negotiations, to delay Jalāl Khān until reinforcements arrived, when he changed his tone and demanded that the prince should surrender his insignia of royalty and make his submission, promising, in return for compliance with the demand, to commend him to Ibrāhīm and to recommend his retention of the government of Kālpī. Jalāl Khān, who suspected the fidelity of his troops, complied, but Ibrāhīm refused to ratify the terms half promised by his lieutenant, and marched to attack the prince, who fled and took refuge with the raja of Gwalior.
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