The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c22.39

v3.c22.39

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.