History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c7.16.2

c7.16.2

For several years he had been Amir Ākhur and Vakil-i-dar under Qutb-al-Din Mubarak Shah, and was the chief instrument in helping to put an end to the regime of the unclean Khusrau. He was equally gifted with warlike qualities. As Crown Prince he had led expeditions in the Deccan against the Hindu chiefs, and had in one of his campaigns obtained a victory over the stubborn Pratap Rudra Deva II, the Kākatīya Raja of Warangal of which an account has been given in the last chapter. The empire which Muhammad inherited extended over a large part of the Indian peninsula; in the north it included the whole of the Gangetic valley, the plains of the Punjab as far as Lahore and the entire strip of land stretching from the Indus down to Kambayat and Gujarat; in the east it comprised Bengal and towards the close of his life Ghiyas had reasserted his authority over Lakhnauti and Sonargaon. In the central region that lies between the Gangetic plain and the Deccan, Dhar, Malwa, Ujjain and Gwalior acknowledged the suzerainty of Dihli. Further south, the empire exercised sway over the eastern portion of Khandesh, Berar, Haiderabad and a strip of land along the eastern coast of the modern Madras Presidency. There is clear evidence to prove that the imperial arms had penetrated as far as Rajmundri or the eastern Madras coast. The present Sultan had gone there as Crown Prince in his father's reign in 1324 A.D.