Twilight of the Sultanate c8.s4.13

c8.s4.13

Mahmūd Khaljī I died in 1469 after a long reign of thirty-four years. He was succeeded by two slothful monarchs—Ghayāsuddīn (1469-1500) and his son Nāsiruddīn (1500-10)—whose main occupation was the administration of their harems. The latter was succeeded by his son Mahmūd II in 1510, but only after a long civil war in which Sikandar Lodī gained many districts of the Malwa kingdom. By this time the power of Mewar and Gujarat was in the ascendant. In Malwa the nobles were fishing in the waters troubled by the civil war. To curb the power of his intriguing nobles Mahmūd II appointed as his Prime Minister, Medinī Rai (Purbīyā), a Rajput chief of a small district in eastern Malwa but well known for his valour. Medinī Rai soon acquired supreme power in the state by filling offices of responsibility with his own trusted lieutenants. At this the sultan grew suspicious of his powerful but loyal minister, and he called in the aid of Muzaffar Shāh Gujaratī to expel him. But Medinī Rai with the aid of Sangrām Singh of Mewar inflicted a crushing defeat on his sovereign in 1519. Mahmūd was captured and carried away to Chittor by Rana Sangā who was in a position to annex Malwa, but he released and reinstated Mahmūd after the right royal Rajput fashion.¹⁰³