Twilight of the Sultanate c14.s7.7

c14.s7.7

This happened, according to all annalists, after A. D. 1500, that is, after about twenty years of Sikandar's accession. Up to that time no incident of this kind has been mentioned. Even in this case Sikandar had acted judiciously; he had condemned Bodhan only after a long trial. But some other acts of his, which are boastfully mentioned by Persian chroniclers, do defy justification. These are not given chronologically and we have no context of circumstances to find an explanation for them. It is said that in Mathura "and other places" he turned temples into mosques, and established Muslim Sarais, colleges and bazārs in the Hindu places of worship.¹⁶⁵ The author of the *Tārīkh-i-Dāūdī* adds that idols were given to butchers who used them as meat-weights.¹⁶⁶ Mathura, one of the most venerable cities of the Hindus, associated with the life of Lord Krishna, had the strange fate of being situated between the two capitals of the Sultanate—Agra and Delhi. Time and again it suffered from the ravages of the iconoclasts right up to the time of Aurangzeb. That Sikandar's bigotry found expression there is not surprising. But what were the "other places"? Details given hint at Allahabad and Varanasi. It is mentioned that barbers were forbidden from shaving the Hindus at Mathura.¹⁶⁷ Even bathing at these holy places was discouraged. Today the Sultan's ordinances excite laughter rather than anger. To what extent they could have been enforced is difficult to say, but it is difficult to believe that all the Hindus of Mathura, Allahabad and Varanasi would have permitted themselves to look like chimpanzees because of the Sultan's orders. Similarly the assertion that Sultan Sikandar "levelled to the ground all the places of worship of the Kafirs and left neither their name nor any vestige of them"¹⁶⁸ is also highly exaggerated. Some other incidents of his bigotry relate to his releasing from jail and giving an important assignment to a Hindu prisoner who agreed to embrace Islam,¹⁶⁹ and punishing Ahmad Khan Lodī for showing consideration to the Hindus.¹⁷⁰