A History of Agriculture in India v2.c58.s1.3

v2.c58.s1.3

ULUGH KHAN, the parricide, ascended the throne in A.D. 1325 and assumed the name of Muhammad-bin-Tughlak, as he is known in history books. He was a most extra-ordinary man, a keen student of Persian poetry, a philosopher and a mathematician. He had good knowledge of logic and the philosophy of the Greeks. He had a scientific mind and he used to attend sick persons for the purpose of watching the symptoms of extraordinary diseases. At the same time he was cruel and recklessly spilled human blood. Ibn Battuta describing the character of the Sultan, says, ‘This king is of all men the most addicted to the making of gifts and the shedding of blood. His gate is never without some poor man enriched or some living man executed, and there are current amongst the people many stories of his generosity and courage and of his cruelty and violence towards criminals. He slew both small and great, and spared not the learned, the pious, or the noble. Daily there were brought to the council-hall men in chains, fetters, and bonds, and they were led away, some to execution, some to torture, some to scourging. May God preserve us from such calamities!’¹ Some of his schemes indicates that he was a megalomaniac and not fully sane, e.g. plan for conquest of China by sending an expedition across the Himalayas and transfer of capital from Delhi to Deogir in Deccan. On his return from Deogir on one occasion he caused a tooth which he had lost to be interred in a magnificent stone mausoleum, which is still in existence at Bhir.