History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c19.s3.9

c19.s3.9

The royal family was probably spared from extermination owing to the political foresight of Siḥābuddin, who must have thought that concentration of all power in the hands of his Viceroy at Delhi might tempt the latter to hatch the egg of independence; and moreover, the loyalty of these distant conquests would best remain assured under such feudatories as owed their position to the Sultan’s protection and generosity. But the sudden assassination of Siḥābuddin by a fanatic of the Mulhidah sect in 602 *Hijri* or 1205-06 A. D. gave Qutbuddin the opportunity of becoming king of Hindustan, which he was duly proclaimed by the Moslem generals and nobles at Delhi, and was also accepted by the unambitious brother of Siḥābuddin. Henceforth Qutbuddin and his able lieutenant Altamash were free to reduce the whole of Northern India and to place Moslem rule on permanent foundations. We have no evidence as to how and when the last vestiges of Hindu authority in Kanauj were destroyed, but from a coin it is certain that during the reign of Altamash the land-revenue of Kanauj went to the Imperial coffers at Delhi.² Besides, the *Tabaqāt-i-Nāsirī* testifies that in *Hijri* 623 or 1226 A. D. the territory of Oudh was placed in charge of Malik Nāsir-uddin Mahmud, who overcame the “refractory infidels,” and brought a “considerable number under obedience.”³ This shows that by this date the Moslems were absolute masters of the Ganges-Jumna Doab, and their governors were ruling over the different provinces of the kingdom. Thus Kanauj, which had held pre-eminence in northern India for nearly six centuries and had been the centre of many a proud dynasty, ceased to exist as an independent Hindu state and soon sank into insignificance. Well may the hectic career of Kanauj remind one of the following stanza of Bhartrihari, the epitaph of its glories :