History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c7.63.2

c7.63.2

The Doab was, as it had long been, the richest and most fertile part of Hindustan, and its refractory inhabitants had given not a little trouble to the rulers of Dihli. There is plenty of evidence of this in Barani's *Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi* and in the *Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi* which describes at length the attempts of the later Tughluqs to suppress the rebellions in the Doab. Whenever a change of dynasties or rulers occurred, the people of the Doab were the first to revolt, and civil wars often broke out in which the rival protagonists changed sides with astonishing rapidity and fought with a savage ferocity. The importance of the Doab has continued unabated, and every adventurer who rose to the surface in the 18th century coveted its possession and exerted himself to establish his hold upon it. Even Mahdaji Sindhia, one of the ablest and most farseeing statesmen of the period deemed it necessary to establish himself in the Doab in order to keep his hold over the decrepit empire of the Mughals. It is almost a truism to say that whoever possesses the Doab and keeps its inhabitants under firm control not only acquires possession of vast material resources, but commands the whole of Hindustan. 'Ala-al-Din had harshly dealt with the Khūts, muqaddams and Balāhars of the Doab, who possessed the great reservoir of wealth upon which the rulers of Dihli could draw in time of need for the maintenance of their power.