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History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c2: Preface

History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c2

Language
English

Preface

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My original intention was to write a complete history of the Tughluq dynasty based on original sources dealing with the various phases of state activity, but Sir Denison Ross and Sir Wolseley Haig advised me to confine myself to the reigns of the first two Sultans. Sir Wolseley Haig, who had devoted much time to the study of Indian history, wrote to me that there were highly controversial problems connected with the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq which deserved careful and impartial investigation. The first European writer to depart from the accepted views about Muhammad bin Tughluq's character and policy was the late Mr. Gardner Brown who was connected for some time with the old University of Allahabad. His article in the Journal of the U. P. Historical Society stimulated me to pursue the enquiry further and to place before scholars a correct interpretation of that unfortunate ruler's plans and policies. In writing this work I have primarily relied upon the original sources which have been used with all possible care. It may be that scholars will differ from the views expressed in this thesis but I can claim for myself that I have tried to investigate the truth, to bring out the significance of facts unknown or ill-understood and to redeem a great historical personage from the unmerited obloquy and condemnation of misinformed or uncritical historians. In the vast field of truth, one might say:

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Search while thou wilt ; and let thy reason go,
To ransom truth, e'en to the abyss below,
Rally the scattered causes ; and that line
Which Nature twists be able to untwine.

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1936 THE INDIAN PRESS, LTD. ALLAHABAD of Barani, and the ladies of the royal haram were also subjected to life for their master. The *Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi* also writes that he was a man of low caste. Hajji describes him in some places as پروار (parwar) and in others as پرواز (parwaz). Badaoni following Barani and the *Tabqat* writes پرواز (parwaz) while Firishta erroneously, it seems, makes it into Parwaz; پرواز (parwaz). Ibn Batutah's statement that Khusrau was originally a Hindu is quite correct. The author of the *Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi* gives Khusrau's early history and writes that it was during the sack of Malwa that he had fallen with his brother into the hands of the Muhammadans. He was included in a special corps of slaves and gradually rose to fame under Qutb-al-Din Mubarak Shah. Only this historian gives us these facts. A little later he adds that there was defect in Khusrau's caste which clearly means that he was a man of low origin. Some texts of Barani have پروار which may be a term of contempt employed to designate a man of admittedly low origin. Baraon means (Steingrass, p. 169) a sweeper of the streets, a dustman. Barani also uses the word Barwar which is probably used for Parwari. Parwari is "an individual of low caste, chiefly employed as village watchmen, gate-keepers, porters, etc. Of the three terms for this people परवारी, भेड़, महर the first is a courteous or conciliating term; the second is a term of reviling; the third is a mere appellative without implication." (Molesworth, "Marathi-English Dictionary," second edition, p. 492). "The Parwaris" are Hindu outcastes, literally the term means "dwellers without walls." "The Parwaris should not by right be called outcastes, seeing that they have caste of their own, obey its rules, and squabble among themselves for precedence with a pertinacity worthy of ambassadors. They are called Atisudras or inferior Sudras, and Antyaja or last born. Any person minutely acquainted with the manners and customs (or customs and absence of manners) of the Parwaris can only consider their exclusion from the town limits as a necessary measure of sanitary police and the abhorrence of personal contact with them as the natural feeling of any man who holds his corporeal frame (as the Hindus do) to be the image of God." Indian Antiquary, 1874, p. 130. The Barbars are mentioned in the Bombay Gazetteer (Vol. I, Part I, p. 173) as a low non-Aryan tribe. The origin of the Barbars is discussed at length in note III (i) on page 174. Buhler writes, (Indian Ant, VI, p. 167) Varvarakas are one of the non-Aryan Tribes which are settled in great numbers in North Gujarat, Koli, Bhil or Mer. Sidhraj's contests with the Barbarkas seem to refer to what Tod describes (West India, pp. 173, 195, as the inroads of mountaineers and foresters on the plains of Gujarat during the 11th and 12th centuries. The name of Barbar is of great age and is spread from India to Morocco. It seems Parwari or Parwar and Barbar signify pretty nearly the same thing. The Barwars of Barani were a low class people in Gujarat were mostly Hindus.

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Briggs adds in a footnote (I. P. 387):—"The Parwari is a Hindu outcast who eats flesh of all kinds and is deemed so unclean as not to be admitted to build a house within the town." Some European scholars have fallen into great error about Khusrau's caste. James Bird (History of Gujarat, translated from the Mirat-i-Ahmaddi, p. 167) is utterly wrong in saying that Hasan was a Rajput of the Parmar tribe. He confounds the Parwari with the Parmar clan of the Rajputs. Bayley in a footnote in his "Local Muhammadan Dynasties of Gujarat" (p. 41) also wrongly says that the word in the text (referring to the Mirat-i-Ahmadi) seems intended for Parmar and the expressions used with it would rather lead to the belief that the two brothers belonged to some powerful tribe was a prompt response and he never grudged to render the help I needed. My gratitude is in a large measure due to Professor L. F. Rushbrook-Williams but for whose never-failing kindness and support this work would have been impossible. It was he who showed me the way to historical research and but for whose encouragement and assistance, I would have been dealing to-day with litigants and their causes in courts of law. To Mahamahopadhyaya Dr. Ganganatha Jha, the learned Vice-Chancellor of the Allahabad University, I am deeply indebted for help in procuring MSS. from various quarters. I am also grateful to the authorities of the India Office, the Bankipore, the Imperial, and the Asiatic Society of Bengal libraries who always gave me facilities of consulting the MSS. in their possession. To my colleagues of the History Department I am thankful for their suggestions and criticisms.

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The remaining history of the Tughluq dynasty will be concluded in another volume which is in the course of preparation. The materials for the reigns of Firuz Tughluq and his successors have been collected and utilised, and I hope to be able before long to place before students of history many new facts about the character and policy of that theocratic monarch and the decline and fall of the empire after his death.

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UNIVERSITY OF ALLAHABAD, February 26, 1936.

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ISHWARI PRASAD.

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became Ākhur Beg (superintendent of the royal stables). According to Ibn Batūṭah, robes of honour were sent to the provincial governors, and all accepted them except Ghazi Malik, the governor of Dipalpur, who threw his Khil'at aside and treated it with contempt. Jahariyā, the murderer of Qutb-al-Din, was rewarded for his services and Khusrau signified his gratitude by lavishing honours and favours upon him. The treasures of the state were rifled, and largesses were scattered among the people to obtain their support. Though Khusrau had assumed the title of Nāsir-al-Din, he began to make an attempt to establish Hindu supremacy, and for this he collected around him a large number of outcasts from Gujarat—a corps of his own kinsmen who were bound to him by ties which could not be easily broken. Such a clique was necessary to maintain his power in the midst of hostile foes. Barani writes that Islam was treated with contempt; the Quran was desecrated and placed in the niches of mosques, on which were enthroned idols to the grief and disgust of the faithful. Ibn Batūṭah who is less orthodox than Barani describes this sudden revolution by saying that Hindus were appointed to high offices, and an order was promulgated forbidding the slaughter of cows.²⁵ The Muslims were deprived of their property and their wives and daughters, and the number of wicked men increased. Making allowance for the exaggeration of which Ibn Batūṭah's Muslim informants may have been guilty, it must be admitted that for a time the ascendancy of a Hindu convert was established at Dihli. The Court nobles were divided into factions; there were some whose obeisance was purchased by means of gold, while the helplessness of others made them acquiesce in the new order of things. The Sultanate of Dihli had lost its prestige, and if a powerful Hindu Raja had organised a confederacy of his fellow-princes, he might have easily obtained possession of Dihli, and the power of the Muhammadans might have been well-nigh extinguished. But the unclean Parwarī, left alone, perished in complete isolation. How could he permanently found a Hindu state upon the support of satellites whom everyone hated and despised? Besides, the 'Alai nobles were filled with pain and grief at his usurpation of the royal authority. Among these discontented nobles was Fakhr-al-Din Juna whom the usurper had tried to conciliate by

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²⁵ Ibn Batutah III, p. 200.

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