The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.s2.114

v3.c29.s2.114

Mokal's reign was not distinguished by any feats of arms. The bards attribute to him a victory over the king of Delhi, but no contemporary king of Delhi was in a position to attack the Rānā of Chitor, and if there is any foundation for the bard's story Mokal must be suspected of refusing an asylum to Mahmūd, the last of the Tughluq dynasty, when he was fleeing from Delhi after his defeat by Tīmūr. Mokal was assassinated in 1433 by two of his uncles, natural sons of his grandfather, they having interpreted an innocent question put by him as a reflection on their birth. He was succeeded by his son Kūmbha, one of the greatest of the princes of Chitor, a soldier, a poet, a man of letters, and a builder to whom Mewār owes some of her finest monuments. The temples of Kūmbha Sham at Mount Ābū and Rishabhadeva in the Sadri pass, 'leading from the western descent of the highlands of Mewār,' still stand as memorials of his devotion. 'Of eighty-four fortresses for the defence of Mewār, thirty-two were erected by Kūmbha. Inferior only to Chitor is that stupendous work called after him' Kūmbhalgarh, 'the fort of Kūmbha.' He captured Nāgaur and gained many successes over his enemies in the intestinal feuds of the Rājputs, but the ascription to him of a great victory over Mahmūd I of Mālwa, whom he is said to have taken prisoner, and to have released after six months of captivity, is an error. Kūmbha was not fortunate in his campaigns against Mahmūd I, which have been described in Chapter XIV, and if 'the Pillar of Victory' at Chitor does indeed describe victories over that king it resembles the bardic chronicles. Mewār's victory over Mālwa was gained by Sangrama, Kūmbha's grandson, over Mahmūd II of Mālwa, whom he defeated and took prisoner near Gāgraun in 1517. Kūmbha was stabbed to death in 1468, after a reign of thirty-five years, by his son Uda, but the parricide was attacked and defeated by his brother Rāimall, and is said to have fled to Delhi, and to have offered a daughter in marriage to the Muslim king as the price of his aid in seating him on his throne, but no mention is made by Muslim historians either of this event or of a subsequent Muhammadan invasion of Mewār described by the bards, and Buhlūl Lodī, who was then reigning at Delhi, was otherwise too deeply engaged to embark on such a campaign. Uda is said to have been struck by lightning and killed, as he was leaving the king's presence at Delhi, but however this may be, no more is heard of him, and Rāimall kept the throne. He was a warlike prince, but he certainly did not, as recorded in the Rājput annals, carry on an interminable strife with Ghiyās-ud-dīn Khaljī of Mālwa, a slothful and unwarlike prince who hardly ever left his palace, but it is not improbable that Rāimall raided the frontiers of Mālwa.