The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.s2.146

v3.c29.s2.146

Of Kherla more is known. The fortress is situated near the highway between Hindūstān and the Deccan, and could not fail to attract attention. The Muslim kings of the Deccan refrained from molesting this state until, in 1398, Narsingh, the Gond raja, taking advantage of Fīrūz Shāh’s preoccupation with Vijayanagar, and instigated by the Muslim rulers of Mālwa and Khāndesh, invaded and ravaged Berar. He was driven out of that province and obliged to swear fealty to Fīrūz. Subsequent relations between the three states, the Deccan, Mālwa, and Kherla, have been described in Chapter xv. In the reign of Ahmad Shāh, brother and successor of Fīrūz, it was agreed that the allegiance of Kherla should be transferred to Mālwa, and the king of Mālwa afterwards captured the fortress and exterminated the Gond dynasty. Kherla appears in the *Āīn-i-Akbarī* as a district in the province of Berar.