Twilight of the Sultanate c13.s5.3

c13.s5.3

The Doab was no less difficult to manage. The Rajputs settled in the region between Etah and Etawah on the west and Farrukhabad in the east had formed the backbone of resistance to the Turkish sultans ever since the inception of Muslim rule in Uttar Pradesh. Tīmūr's avalanche had swept the Sultanate and set them free. Till the time of Akbar these people more or less remained unsubdued. A glimpse of their daring life has been given by Abul Fazl. "The people inhabiting the villages round Saket," writes he, "stood unrivalled for their rebellious spirit and ungratefulness ; the eye of the age never saw rebels . . . like them. They were not only themselves disorderly but kept the villages and their inhabitants in a state of disorder and they lived a bold sort of life . . . ."¹³⁶ The chiefs of this region, which lay between Delhi and Jaunpur, took every advantage of the Lodi-Sharqī conflict, changed sides at convenience and created constant difficulties for the Sultanate. Bahlūl managed them as best as he could, at times by humouring and at others by hammering them. The control of the turbulent chiefs of this region was a great achievement for Bahlūl, although the smallness of the area made it hardly appear as an achievement.¹³⁷