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The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c19.s4: Conquest of the North

The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c19.s4

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Conquest of the North

Gujarat

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In 1299 he despatched an army under Ulugh Khan and Nasrat Khan for the conquest of Gujarat. That flourishing kingdom with its capital at Anhilwara (modern Patna), though raided more than once, had never been subdued by any Turkish invaders. It was ruled by the Baghela ruler, Karan. The Delhi army besieged Anhilwara and captured it, and Karan's wife, Kamla Devi, fell into the hands of the invaders. But Raja Karan escaped with his daughter, Deval Devi, and took shelter with Rama Chandra of Devagiri. The entire kingdom was occupied. Nasrat Khan found at Cambay a Hindu eunuch, named Kafur, whom he sent with the rich booty to Delhi. This boy eventually rose to be the prime minister of Ala-uddin's kingdom. The rejoicing of the victors was disturbed by a rebellion of the new Muslims, or Mongols settled in India, on the question of the division of the spoils. They were, however, ruthlessly put down and almost exterminated.

Ranthambhor

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Ala-ud-din's next expedition was directed against the fortress of Ranthambhor, formerly a Muslim outpost in Rajasthan, but at that time ruled by Hamir Deva, a descendant of the famous Chauhan king, Prithviraj II. There were two causes of the expedition. Firstly, it was a pious duty to recover a fortress that had formed part of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi. Secondly, Hamir Deva had given shelter to some of the rebellious New Muslims and Ala-ud-din thought it desirable to punish him for this audacity. Accordingly, Ulugh Khan and Nasrat Khan were sent against Hamir Deva. They occupied Jhain and besieged Ranthambhor, but were beaten. Nasrat Khan was killed and Jhain was recovered by the Rajputs. Ala-ud-din was obliged to proceed to Ranthambhor in person. The siege lasted for one full year and yet there seemed no prospect of success. The Sultan, therefore, had recourse to treachery. Hamir Deva's prime minister, Ran Mal, was seduced and, with his collusion, the siege was brought to a successful conclusion. The besiegers escaladed the walls of the fortress and obtained possession of it (July 1301). Hamir Deva and his family and the remnant of the garrison were put to the sword. Ran Mal paid the penalty for his defection and was put to death at the Sultan's orders. Ala-ud-din returned victorious to Delhi.

Chittor

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The Guhilots of Mewar had come into conflict with Iltutmish on account of their pre-eminent position among our indigenous rulers and had repulsed that Sultan's attack on their kingdom. After Iltutmish's death Delhi made little attempt to reduce that powerful state to submission. Early in 1303, however, Ala-ud-din resolved to conquer it and, starting from Delhi on 28th January, besieged its capital Chittor. It is said that his principal motive was to secure Padmini, the peerless queen of the reigning king, Ratna Singh, and reputed to be the most beautiful and accomplished woman in the country. Modern writers, like G. H. Ojha, Dr. K. S. Lal and others, have rejected this story as a later concoction. Although Ala-ud-din's ambition to establish his claim to be the ruler of the whole of India and his realisation of the fact that as long as Mewar remained independent he would not be able to make good that claim were enough reasons for undertaking the expedition, there is evidence, as we shall presently see, to believe that the Sultan did covet the fair Padmini. He surrounded the fort and pitched his white canopy on the top of an adjacent hillock, known as Chittauri. But all his attempts to capture the fort failed and the siege lasted for about five months. The brave Rajputs put up such a stout defence as elicited the admiration even of their foes. But it was futile to carry on an unequal struggle and Rana Ratna Singh had to submit (26th August, 1303). The women performed the awful rite of *jauhar* to save their honour and the exasperated Ala-ud-din gave brutal orders for the slaughter of his brave enemies. Amir Khusrav, who was an eye witness, says that 30,000 Rajputs were killed in one day. The victorious Sultan left for Delhi after appointing his eldest son, Khizr Khan, governor of Chittor and naming it Khizrabad.

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Chittor could not be held for long by the Khaljis owing, probably, to the constant trouble the patriotic Rajputs gave to the new administration. In 1311 Khizr Khan abandoned his post and the Sultan was obliged to appoint in his place a friendly chief named Maldeva, who was expected to keep the Guhilots in good humour and pay a tribute to Delhi. Soon after Ala-ud-din’s death, Rana Hamir, the head of the junior branch of the Guhilot ruling family, drove away Maldeva and recovered possession of his ancestral State and its capital Chittor.

The Padmini episode

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It has been mentioned that modern scholars have rejected as unhistorical the story that, baffled in his design to obtain possession of the fair Padmini, Ala-ud-din agreed to raise the siege and retire, if Ratna Singh only showed her beautiful face in a mirror, that he had the Rana arrested as soon as the latter conducted the gratified Sultan out of the fort to the latter’s tents, and that he was rescued by the igenuity of his gifted spouse. Their reasons for rejecting the story are : (1) Amir Khusrav, who accompanied Ala-ud-din to Chittor and was present during the siege, has said nothing about it; (2) other contemporary writers, too, have made no mention of it; and (3) the story is a literary concoction of Malik Muhammad Jayasi, who wrote his *Padmavat* in 1540 A.D., and all the later writers have borrowed it from him. These arguments are based on a superficial reading of Khusrav’s works and are fallacious. Amir Khusrav does throw a hint about the episode when he compares Ala-ud-din with Solomon, refers to his Seba as being in the fort of Chittor, and of himself as ‘Hud-Hud’, the bird that brought the news of the beautiful Bilquis, the queen of Seba,² to king Solomon of Ethiopia.³ Khusrav’s narrative makes it clear that Ala-ud-din entered the fort, accompanied by him, before it had capitulated “a fort to which birds were unable to fly." The Rana came to Ala-ud-din’s tents and submitted only after the Sultan had returned from the fort. After the Rana’s submission the massacre of 30,000 Hindus took place by the disappointed Sultan’s orders.⁴ Reading between the lines brings to light the main incidents of the story. Khusrav, who was a court poet, was not in a position to write anything more than he actually did. And we know that he had omitted many an unpalatable truth, such as, Ala-ud-din’s murder of his uncle Jalal-ud-din, the Sultan’s defeat at the hands of the Mongols, the Mongol siege of Delhi, etc. It is wrong to say, as Ojha, K. S. Lal and others have contended, that the incident was concocted by Jayasi. The fact is that Jayasi wrote out a romance, the plot of which he had derived from Amir Khusrav’s *Khazain-ul-Futuh*. Most of the romantic details of Jayasi’s *Padmavat* are imaginary; but the main plot of the story that Padmini was coveted by Ala-ud-din and was shown in a mirror to the lustful Sultan, who had her husband arrested, is most probably based on historical truth. It seems the women performed *jauhar* after Ratna Singh’s arrest and then the Rajputs fell on the invaders and rescued the Rana. But they were cut down to a man and the fort and the country passed into Ala-ud-din’s hands.

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² Mr. Shrinetra Pande in his *History of Medieval India* (Hindi ed.) attempts to argue in favour of older writers and compares ‘the queen of Seba’ with ‘wealth’, an inanimate object. He ignores Habib’s note that probably the poet refers to the fair Padmini.

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³ Khusrav’s *Khazain-ul-Futuh*, translated by M. Habib, p. 48.

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⁴ *Ibid*, p. 49.

Malwa

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In 1305 Ain-ul-mulk Multani was directed to proceed to Jalor and Ujjain with a view to reduce the province of Malwa which is adjacent to Rajasthan, a major portion of which had already passed under the control of Delhi. Ain-ul-mulk fought a very severe battle with Raja Harananda on 9th December, 1305, and defeated him. The victory enabled the Delhi army to occupy Ujjain, Mandu, Dhar and Chanderi. Ala-ud-din appointed a governor to take charge of these places. Kanera Deva of Jalor also submitted and acknowledged the Sultan to be his suzerain.

Marwar

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In or about 1308 the Sultan made arrangements for the conquest of Marwar, the only important region in Rajasthan that had so far eluded Turkish attempt at its subjugation. The Delhi army now besieged Siwana, the most important stronghold in that part of the country. The siege lasted for a long time and there seemed to be little prospect of its successful termination. Ala-ud-din’s patience was tired and he himself proceeded to the place and infused such vigour into the operations that the king of Marwar, Sitala Deva, agreed to sue for peace. He was compelled to appear before the Sultan and was allowed to remain in possession of the fort. But his country was occupied and divided among the Delhi nobles.

Jalor

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Though Raja Kanera Deva of Jalor had sworn allegiance to the Sultan in 1305, he indulged in loose talk and boasted that he would be prepared at any time to meet Ala-ud-din in the field. This enraged the Sultan and, in order to humiliate the Raja, he sent an army against him under the command of a female servant of his palace, named Gul-i-Bihisht. She besieged Jalor. Kanera Deva was so hard-pressed that he was about to surrender when she died. Her son was defeated and killed by the Rajputs. But when some additional troops under Kamal-ud-din Gurg reached Jalor, the Delhi army defeated the Raja and put him and his relations to death. Jalor was then annexed.

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The conquest of northern India was now almost complete and Ala-ud-din’s empire extended over the whole of that region except Kashmir, Nepal, Assam and a part of the north-western Panjab.

Cites (8)