A History of Agriculture in India v2.c58.s10: Transfer of Capital from Delhi to Deogir in Deccan

A History of Agriculture in India v2.c58.s10

Language: English

Transfer of Capital from Delhi to Deogir in Deccan

v2.c58.s10.1

'A project of Sultan Muhammad, which was ruinous to the capital of the empire, and distressing to the chief men of the country', says Barni, 'was what of making Deogir his capital, under the title of Daulatabad. This place held a central situation: Delhi, Gujarat, Lakhnauti, Sat-ganw, Sunar-ganw, Tilang, Ma'bar, Dhur-samundar, and Kampila were about equidistant from thence, there being but a slight difference in the distances. Without any consultation, and without carefully looking into the advantages and disadvantages on every side, he brought ruins upon Delhi, that city which, for 170 or 180 years, had grown in prosperity, and rivalled Baghdad and Cairo. The city, with its sarais, and its suburbs and villages, spread over four or five kos. All was destroyed. So complete was the ruin that not a cat or a dog was left among the buildings of the city, in its palaces or in its suburbs. Troops of the natives, with their families and dependents, wives and children, men-servants and maid-servants, were forced to remove. The people, who for many years and for generations had been natives and inhabitants of the land, were broken-hearted. Many, from the toils of the long journey, perished on the road, and those who arrived at Deogir could not endure the pain of exile. In despondency they pined to death. All around Deogir, which is an infidel land, there sprung up graveyards of Musulmans. The Sultan was bounteous in his liberality and favours to the emigrants, both on their journey and on their arrival; but they were tender, and they could not endure the exile and suffering. They laid down their heads in that heathen land, and of all the multitudes of emigrants, few only survived to return to their home. Thus this city, the envy of the cities of the inhabited world, was reduced to ruin. The Sultan brought learned men and gentlemen, tradesmen and landholders, into the city (Delhi) from certain towns in his territory, and made them reside there. But this importation of strangers did not populate the city; many of them died there, and more returned to their native homes. These changes and alterations were the cause of great injury to the country.’⁵

v2.c58.s10.2

⁵ Zia-ud-din Barni, *Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India*..., Vol. III, pp. 238, 239

v2.c58.s10.3

Another explanation given for the change of capital was the Sultan’s annoyance with the inhabitants of Delhi who wrote letters full of insults and invectives against him. ‘They sealed them up, and writing upon them these words, “By the head of the king of the world, no one but himself must read this writing,” they threw them at night into the hall of audience. When the Sultan opened them he found that they contained insults and invectives against himself. He decided to ruin Delhi; so he purchased all the houses and inns from the inhabitants, paid them the price, and then ordered them to remove to Daulatabad. At first they were unwilling to obey, but the crier of the monarch proclaimed that no one must be found in Delhi after three days.

v2.c58.s10.4

‘A person in whom I felt confidence assured me that the Sultan mounted one evening upon the roof of his palace, and, casting his eyes over the city of Delhi, in which there was neither fire, smoke, nor light, he said, “Now my heart is satisfied, and my feelings are appeased.” When we entered this capital we found it in the state which has been described. It was empty, abandoned, and had but a small population.’⁶

v2.c58.s10.5

⁶ Gibb, H.A.R., *Travels of Ibn Battuta*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India*...., Vol. III, pp. 613, 614

v2.c58.s10.6

ISSUE OF COPPER MONEY AS SUBSTITUTE FOR SILVER MONEY

v2.c58.s10.7

Hard-pressed for cash to meet the expenditure on a large army, he devised an ingenious solution. He had heard about use of paper currency of Kublai Khan in China⁷, and of the parchment currency of the Il-Khans of Iran. If a piece of paper bearing the authentication of a king could pass on as money, then why not tokens in copper? He issued copper tokens, to pass current for the silver tanka of 140 grains. As a results of this experiment, the entire economy was shattered. Barni states, 'The project did great harm to the country. It increased the daring and arrogance of the disaffected in Hindustan, and augmented the pride and prosperity of all the Hindus. This was the issue of copper money. The Sultan, in his lofty ambition, had conceived it to be his work to subdue the whole habitable world and bring it under his rule. To accomplish this impossible design, an army of countless numbers was necessary, and this could not be obtained without plenty of money. The Sultan's bounty and munificence had caused a great deficiency in the treasury, so he introduced his copper money, and gave orders that it should be used in buying and selling, and should pass current, just as the gold and silver coins had passed. The promulgation of this edict turned the house of every Hindu into a mint, and the Hindus of the various provinces coined krors and lacs of copper coins. With these they paid their tribute, and with these they purchased horses, arms, and fine things of all kinds. The rais, the village headmen and landowners, grew rich and strong upon these copper coins, but the State was impoverished. No long time passed before distant countries would take the copper tanka only as copper. In those places where fear of the Sultan's edict prevailed, the gold tanka rose to be worth a hundred of (the copper) tankas. Every goldsmith struck copper coins in his workshop, and the treasury was filled with these copper coins. So low did they fall that they were not valued more than pebbles or potsherds. The old coin, from its great scarcity, rose four-fold and five-fold in value. When trade was interrupted on every side, and when the copper tankas had become more worth'ess than clods, and of no use, the Sultan repealed his edict, and in great wrath he proclaimed that whoever possessed copper coins should bring them to the treasury, and receive the old gold coins in exchange. Thousands of men from various quarters, who possessed thousands of these copper coins, and, caring nothing for them, had flung them into corners along with their copper pots, now brought them to the treasury, and received in exchange gold tankas and silver tankas, shash-ganis and du-ganis, which they carried to their homes. So many of these copper tankas were brought to the treasury that heaps of them rose up in Tughlakabad like mountains. Great

v2.c58.s10.8

[^]: Ibn Battuta giving an account of his travels in China states, 'The Chinese use neither (gold) dinars nor (silver) dirhams in their commerce. All the gold and silver that comes into their country is cast by them into ingots, as we have described. Their buying and selling is carried on exclusively by means of pieces of paper, each of the size of the palm of the hand, and stamped with the Sultan's seal. Twenty-five of these pieces of paper are called a balisht, which takes the place of the dinar with us (as the unit of currency). When these notes become torn by handling, one takes them to an office corresponding to our mint, and receives their equivalent in new notes on delivering up the old ones.'

v2.c58.s10.9

[Figure: INDIA

v2.c58.s10.10

KASHMIR HIMALAYAS R. Chenab R. Jhelum R. Ravi LAHORE MULTAN R. Sutlej R. Indus UCH SIVASTAN R. Jumna Delhi Ko BUDAUN OUDH R. Gogra R. Gumti R. Ganges KANAUJ Kanauj LAKHNAUTI BIHAR KAMARU (KAMARUPA) R. Brahmaputra Gwalior R. Chambal MALWA Ujjain KARA I N D I A R. Narbada R. Tapti R. Mahanadi JAINAGAR (ORISSA) Sudkawan (Chittagong) GUJARAT Girnar BH DEOGIR Deogir (Daulatabad) R. Godavari TELENGANA Gulberga Warangal R. Krishna Sindabur (Goa) R. Tungabhadra R. Kaveri DVARA SAMUDRA MABAR MALABAR Manjarur (Mangalore) Jurfattan (Cannanore) Calicut Madura Kawlam (Quilon) SAYLAN (SARANDIB) LAKSHADWEEP (INDIA) Independent Areas ANDMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS (INDIA)]

Cites (3)

تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic
Sonargaon
Tārīkh-i Fīrūzshāhī — Shams-i Sirāj ʿAfīf