Twilight of the Sultanate c13.s3.61

c13.s3.61

Why did the Sharqīs who were in no way second to the Sultans of Delhi in the arts of war and peace, fail against them? The two kingdoms can safely be granted a status of equality,¹¹³ for, if the Afghans, and even their predecessors the Saiyyads, could invoke the sympathies of Gujarat (as in 1409-10) and Malwa (as in 1433 and 1468) the Rajas of Gwalior, Rewa and Bengal used to come to the rescue of the Sharqīs. But in the wars between the two, one is struck by the constant retreats of both the armies sometimes without engaging in any major battle, always without achieving final results except imperfect truces for specific periods. The war between the two kingdoms was, therefore, a war of nerves. As time passed the army of the Sultanate grew very strong. Thousands of Afghans of various tribes from Roh joined its ranks. The Afghans were fine marksmen and it was their excellence in archery ¹¹⁴ that nullified Sharqī superiority in numbers. It had many able generals who have been constantly referred to in these pages, while on the side of the Sharqīs we hardly hear of any great commanders. Even then Bahlūl Lodī worked with caution and remained on the defensive for two decades. On the contrary the initial successes of the Sharqīs made them arrogant and even careless. The last campaign of Husain to Delhi shows that he had marched to the very environs of Delhi without adequate preparations, so that on return after the usual truce he could not manage an organised retreat.