The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c28.25

v3.c28.25

The local troops in Telingāna were instructed to deal with the Hindus while the ministers with the rest of the royal army, carrying with them the young king, met the army of Mālwa in the neighbourhood of Kandhār. The wings of the invading army were put to flight and the day would have been won for the Deccan had not Mahmūd I of Mālwa happened to hit the elephant of Sikandar Khān, the young king’s tutor, in the forehead with an arrow. The beast, maddened with pain, turned and fled, trampling down many in its flight, and Sikandar Khān bore the young king with him from the field. The army of the Deccan, no longer perceiving the royal elephant, began to retire in confusion, and, overtaking the king and Sikandar Khān, bore them back with them to Bīdar. Here Khvāja Jahān threw Sikandar Khān into prison, but his incarceration, owing to the number and influence of his supporters, created dissensions which encouraged Mahmūd of Mālwa to advance on the capital, and the queen-mother carried her son to Fīrūzābād, where he was out of danger. Mahmūd of Mālwa captured the town of Bīdar after a siege of seventeen days, but the citadel held out, and Mahmūd Begarha, in response to an appeal from the young king’s ministers, appeared on the frontier with 80,000 horse, and was joined by Mahmūd Gāvān who, with 20,000 horse placed at his disposal by the king of Gujarāt and a force of equal strength assembled by himself threatened the communications of the army of Mālwa. Mahmūd of Mālwa, thus menaced, retreated, and was much harassed by Mahmūd Gāvān. His troops also suffered severely in their passage through the hills of the Melghāt, into which he plunged in order to shake off his pursuers.