XIV

THE KINGDOM OF MALWA

 

Reconquest of Ajmer

In 1455 he again attacked the Rana, marching to Chitor and ravaging his dominions. Kumbha attempted to purchase peace by a large indemnity, but as the money sent bore his own name and device it was indignantly returned, and the devastation of the country continued. Mahmud retired to Mandu for the rainy season, but returned, when it was past, to Mandasor, and began the systematic conquest of that region. He occupied a standing camp, and sent his troops in all directions to lay waste the country. While he was thus employed it was suggested to him that it would be a work of merit to recover from the idolaters the city of Ajmer, which contained the holy shrine of Shaikh Muinuddin Chishti, and he marched rapidly on the city and invested it. Gajanhar, the Rajput commander, made daily sorties, all of which were unsuccessful, and on the fifth day of the investment ordered a general sortie, which was driven back into the city. The pursuers entered with the pursued, and the city was won after great slaughter in the streets. Mahmud paid his devotions at the shrine, appointed Khvaja Nimatullah, whom he entitled Saif Khan, governor of the city, founded a mosque, and marched to Mandalgarh. Temples were destroyed and the country was devastated in the neighborhood of this fortress, the siege was opened, and the approaches were carried up to the walls. On October 19, 1457, the place was carried by assault, with great slaughter. A remnant of the garrison shut itself up in the citadel, but was compelled by want of water to surrender, and the lives of the men were redeemed by a promise to pay 1,000,000 tangas. The temples in the fortress were overthrown, a mosque was built of their stones, and Mahmud turned again towards Chitor, sending columns in different directions to harass the Rajputs and reduce them to obedience. Bundi was captured by one column, various districts were harried and placed under contributions of tribute by others, and heavy indemnities were exacted from the raja of Kumbhalgarh and the raja of Dungarpur, whose fortresses were too strong to be taken without tedious sieges, to which Mahmud was not disposed to devote his time.

After this protracted and successful campaign he returned to Mandu, and in 1461 was induced to embark on a disastrous expedition to the Deccan.

Nizamul Mulk Ghuri, who was perhaps related to Mahmud, was a noble at the court of Humayun Shah, known as the Tyrant—the most brutal and depraved of the line of Bahman. He was traduced at his master's court, and the tyrant caused him to be assassinated. His family escaped to Mandu and besought Mahmud to avenge his death, and the invitation was welcomed by Mahmud, who composed a recent quarrel with Adil Khan II of Khandesh and invaded the Deccan. The tyrant Humayun had been removed, and had been succeeded by his infant son, Nizam Shah, who was carried into the field by his nobles. When the two armies met, that of the Deccan gained some slight advantage, but the precipitate action of a slave named Sikandar Khan, who had charge of the person of the child king, decided the fate of the day. He conceived his master’s life to be in danger, carried him from the field, and delivered him to his mother, who was at Firuzabad, in the south of his dominions.

After this victory Mahmud occupied Berar and the northern Deccan, entered Bidar, the capital, and besieged the citadel, but meanwhile the guardians of the young Nizam Shah had sought aid of Mahmud Bigarha of Gujarat, who had arrived on the frontier of the kingdom with 80,000 horses. Mahmud Cavan, one of Nizam’s two ministers, marched by Bir to meet him and assembled a force of 20,000 horses. Mahmud Bigarha placed a similar force at his disposal and Mahmud Khalji found his direct line of retreat barred. He retired hastily by way of eastern Berar, followed by Mahmud Gavan, who cut off his supplies and so harassed him that he abandoned his elephants, after having blinded them, and burnt his heavy baggage. His retreat soon became a rout, and to avoid his pursuers he plunged into the forests of the Melghat, where his army was nearly destroyed. Over 5000 perished of thirst, and the Korkus fell upon the remnant and slaughtered large numbers. Mahmud put the Korku chieftain to death, but his vengeance could not save his army, few of whom returned to Mandu.

He learnt little from this disaster and later in 1462, again invaded the Deccan with 90,000 horses, but the army of the Deccan was drawn up to meet him at Daulatabad, and the sultan of Gujarat once more marched to Nandurbar. On this occasion Mahmud Khalji retired before it was too late, and again traversed the Melghat on his homeward way, but his march was now leisurely, and his troops suffered from nothing more serious than the difficulty of the roads.

In 1465 Mahmud was much gratified by the arrival at Mandu of Sharaful Mulk, an envoy from al-Mustanjid Billah Yusuf, the puppet Abbasid Caliph of Egypt, who brought for him a robe of honor and a patent of sovereignty. The honor was an empty one, such patents being issued chiefly for the purpose of filling the coffers of the needy pontiffs who were in theory the Commanders of the Faithful, and in practice obsequious courtiers of the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt, but it was highly prized by the lesser sultans in India.

Mahmud recovers Kherla

Nizamul Mulk, an officer of Nizam Shah of the Deccan, now led a large army against the fortress of Kherla. Sirajul Mulk, who held it for Malwa, was helplessly drunk when the enemy arrived before the fortress, but his son attempted to withstand the invader. He was defeated and fled, and Nizamul Mulk occupied Kherla. Mahmud retaliated by sending Maqbul Khan against Ellichpur, the capital of Berar, and though he failed to capture the city he laid waste the fertile district in which it stood and returned to Mandu with much spoil, but in the following year a treaty of peace was concluded with Muhammad III, who had succeeded his brother Nizam on the throne of the Deccan and Mahmud's possession of Kherla was confirmed but the integrity of Berar, with that exception, was maintained.

In the same year Mahmud marched to Kumbhalgarh and besieged Rana Kumbha, who was then in that fortress. Learning that Chitor was denuded of troops, Mahmud ordered his officers to assemble an army, as quietly and unostentatiously as possible, at Khaljipur, hard by Mandasor, in order that a sudden descent might be made on the Rana's capital, but Kumbha discovered the design and sallied from Kumbhalgarh to attack him. He was defeated, but succeeded in making good his retreat to Chitor, and as the opportunity of surprising the fortress had been lost Mahmud returned to Mandu. While he had been thus engaged Sher Khan, a Turkish officer in his service, had captured Amreli in Kathiawar and slain its raja, Chita.

Muhammad III of the Deccan had broken the treaty of 1466 by tampering with the loyalty of Maqbul Khan, Mahmud’s governor of Kherla, who transferred his allegiance to the southern kingdom and surrendered the fortress to the son of the raja whom Mahmud had imprisoned. Mahmud’s sons, Taj Khan and Ahmad Khan, made a forced march to Kherla, defeated the raja's son, put him to flight, and re-occupied the fortress. The Gonds with whom he took refuge, on hearing that Taj Khan was preparing to attack them, sent the fugitive to him in chains. Mahmud visited Kherla, and marched thence to Sarangpur, where he received Khvaja Kamaluddin Astarabadi, an envoy from Timur’s great-grandson, Sultan Abu­Said, king of Transoxiana, Khurasan, and Balkh. When the envoy departed he was accompanied by Shaikhzada Alauddin, whom Mahmud sent as his envoy to Abu-Said.

In 1468 the landholders of Kachwara raided some of the districts of Malwa, and Mahmud at once marched to punish them. His son Ghiyasuddin built, in an incredibly short space of time, a fortress which he named Jalalpur, on the border of Kachwara, which was occupied by a garrison which curbed the predatory tendencies of the rebels.

In the same year Mahmud marched to Chanderi, and thence sent Sher Khan and Fath Khan to capture the town of Karahra, 160 miles distant from his camp. They invested the place and pushed forward their parallels until they were able to throw lighted combustibles into one quarter of the town. The fire spread, and destroyed 3000 houses, and the town was captured without difficulty, no fewer than 7000 prisoners being taken. Mahmud was informed at Chanderi of the outbreak of the conflagration, and is said to have ridden in one night from that town to Karahra in order to witness the discomfiture of the unbelievers, but this is hardly credible.

In the course of this expedition Mahmud received, on February 20, 1469, Shaikhzada Muhammad Qarmali, Qutb Khan Lodi, and Kapur Chand, son of Kari Singh, raja of Gwalior, who came as envoys from Buhlul Lodi, king of Delhi, to seek his help against Husain Shah of Jaunpur, whose repeated attempts to gain possession of Delhi gave its master no rest and appeared, at this time, to be certain of success. Bayana was held out as the bait, and Mahmud promised, in return for the cession of this district, to supply Buhlul with 6000 horse whenever he might have need of them.

After the dismissal of this mission Mahmud returned to Mandu, exhausted with unceasing warfare. He was now sixty-eight years of age, and during a reign of more than thirty-three years he had preferred the song of the lark to the cheep of the mouse, and to be worn out rather than rusted out. In the course of his return march to his capital he suffered severely from the fierce heat of an Indian summer, and on June 1, 1469, shortly after his arrival at Mandu, he expired.

He was the greatest of the Muslim kings of Malwa, which reached its greatest extent during his reign. His ambition may be measured by his attempts to conquer Delhi, Gujarat, Chitor, and the Deccan, in all of which he failed, but against his failures must be set his signal successes against the Rana Kumbha and many minor Rajput chieftains, his enlargement of the frontiers of his kingdom, and the high estimation in which he was held by his contemporaries. His recognition by the phantom Caliph, worthless though it was, proved, at least, that his fame had reached distant Egypt, and the mission from Sultan Abu-Said conveyed to him the more valuable regard of a king in fact as well as in name. He earned a reputation as a builder, and one of his works was a column of victory at Mandu, erected to commemorate his successes against Rana Kumbha of Chitor. The more famous column of victory at Chitor is said to commemorate victories over Mahmud of Gujarat and Mahmud of Malwa. If this is so it, 'like some tall bully lifts its head and lies'. Mahmud I failed to capture Chitor, but the Rana never gained any important victory over him. The successes of the Gahlots against Malwa were gained by Sangrama Singh, not by Kumbha, against Mahmud II, not Mahmud I.

Mahmud was a good Muslim. He substituted the unpractical and inconvenient lunar calendar, sacred to Islam, for the solar calendar in all public offices, he destroyed temples and idols and slew or enslaved their worshippers, and he was so scrupulous about meats that when he was besieging the citadel of Bidar he harassed the saint Khalilullah Butshikan, son of Shah Nimatullah of Mahan, with questions regarding a supply of lawful vegetables for his table. The saint expressed surprise that one who was engaged in attacking a brother Muslim and slaying his subjects should be so scrupulous in the matter of his food. Mahmud acknowledged, with some embarrassment, the justice of the rebuke, but pleaded that the laws of the faith had never sufficed to curb the ambition of kings.

Ghiyasuddin