The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.s2.126

v3.c29.s2.126

It is impossible to connect this legend with any historical event, but it may possibly be a wilful perversion of the defeat of the Jādons by the Rāthors, for the annals proceed to relate that after the retirement of the Muslim garrison Mālojī Rāthor, chief of Mewa, made preparations for occupying and colonizing the deserted city, but was expelled by the Bhātī chiefs, Dūda and Tilak Singh, the former of whom was elected Rāwal, and reigned from 1295 to 1306. The bards of Jaisalmer, no whit inferior to those of other states in imagination, thus describe the end of Dūda's reign. 'He even extended his raids to Ajmer, and carried off the stud of Fīrūz Shāh from the Anasāgar (lake), where they were accustomed to be watered. This indignity provoked another attack upon Jaisalmer, attended with the same disastrous results. Again the *sakha* was performed, in which sixteen thousand females were destroyed; and Dūda, with Tilak Singh and seventeen hundred of the clan, fell in battle, after he had occupied the *gaddī* ten years.' This statement is quoted merely in order to display the shameless mendacity of the bardic annals. Fīrūz Shāh was Jalāl-ud-dīn Fīrūz Khaljī, the uncle and predecessor of 'Alā-ud-dīn, who is said to have taken Jaisalmer in the previous year. It may be one more perversion of a defeat at the hands of the Rāthors.