The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c11.s6.14

c11.s6.14

Child captives were preferred to grown up men. It may be recollected that in his campaigns in Katehar, Balban massacred mercilessly, sparing only boys of eight or nine.¹³⁴ The age factor is material. As these boys grew in years, they gradually forgot their parents and even their native places and developed loyalty only to the king. They could thus be reared as Janessaries were brought up in the Ottoman Empire. The price-schedule of Sultan Alauddin Khalji is evidence of the importance attached to boy-slaves. In his time, while the price of a handsome slave was twenty to 30 *tankahs* and that of a slave-servant ten to 15 *tankahs*, the price of a child slave (*ghulam bachchgan naukari*) was fixed at 70 to 80 *tankahs*.¹³⁵ Therefore during a campaign it was aimed at capturing lots of children. But no Hindus wished their children to become slaves, and in the face of an impending defeat Hindu mothers used to burn their little children in the fire of *Jauhar*¹³⁶ rather than let them fall into the hands of the enemy to lead the life of perpetual bondage and sometimes meet a most detestable death.¹³⁷