The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c27.67

v3.c27.67

It was now necessary to formulate the foreign policy of the kingdom with respect to the territories on its northern frontier, Gujarāt and Mālwa, which had declared their independence of Delhi in 1396 and 1401, and the small state of Khāndesh, which had been established in 1382 by Malik Rāja, a partisan of Bahrām Khān Māzandarānī who had fled from the Deccan. The kingdom of the Bahmanids, freed from the menace of its southern neighbour, would have been stronger than any one of these states, stronger, perhaps, than all together, but as matters stood Mālwa was only slightly weaker than the Deccan and Gujarāt equal to it, or perhaps slightly stronger, while the small state of Khāndesh could not have stood alone under any conditions, and was formidable only by reason of the support which one or other of its powerful neighbours was ever ready to lend it.