Abraham Eraly - The Age of Wrath - A History of the Delhi Sultanate

IN 1309, THE very year after Malik Kafur returned to Delhi from Devagiri, Ala-ud-din sent him again into the peninsula, this time against Warangal, ruled by Prataparudra Deva of the Kakatiya dynasty. This was the second expedition that Ala-ud-din sent against Warangal. Six years earlier he had sent an army into the kingdom under the command of Fakhr-ud-din Jauna, the future Muhammad Tughluq. For some inexplicable reason Muhammad took the difficult and unfamiliar eastern route, through Orissa, to invade Warangal. Predictably, as in nearly everything that Muhammad would later do as sultan, the campaign failed disastrously — it was beset by the difficulties of the route and by incessant rains, and the army suffered a humiliating defeat in Warangal, and had to retreat in disarray.

Ala-ud-din’s objective in his new campaign against Warangal was to gather booty and obtain tribute, so he instructed Malik Kafur that if the raja surrendered his treasure, elephants and horses, and agreed to send a yearly tribute, he ‘should accept these terms and not press the raja too hard.’ The Sultanate army this time sensibly took the traditional western route, and was on the way able to secure assistance and reinforcements from Ramadeva of Devagiri. The raja, notes Barani, ‘sent men forward to all villages on the route, as far as the border of Warangal, with orders for the collection of fodder and provisions for the army, and warning that if even a bit of rope was lost [by the army] they would have to answer for it. He sent on all stragglers to rejoin the army, and he added to it a force of Marathas, both horse and foot. He himself accompanied the march several stages, and then took leave and returned.’

The raja of Warangal was reputed to have a huge army, and his fort had, apart from its stone walls, a strong earthen wall around it, which was so well-compacted that stones from catapults rebounded from it like nuts, according to medieval sources. The fort was also girded by two deep moats, one around the earthen wall, and the other around the fort itself. Predictably, the Sultanate army faced stubborn resistance there, but they eventually managed to fill up the outer moat, then breach the earthen wall, and storm the main fort. The raja then surrendered, and, according to Barani, presented to Kafur ‘100 elephants, 7000 horses, and large quantities of jewels and valuables. He (Kafur) also took from him a written engagement to annually send treasure and elephants [to Delhi].’

Among the treasures that Kafur got in Warangal was a fabulous diamond, which Amir Khusrav describes as ‘unparalleled in the whole world.’ It probably was the famed Koh-i-Nur (Mountain of Light) diamond, which the Mughal emperor Babur got in Agra when he captured the city in 1526, and which eventually, after it changed hands several times, became part of the British crown jewels in 1877, when Queen Victoria was proclaimed the empress of India. Babur estimated the value of the diamond to be so high as to be sufficient to feed the whole world for two days.

KAFUR RETURNED TO Delhi in June 1310, bearing very many camel loads of treasure, and was accorded a grand reception by the sultan. But he was too restless by nature to remain inactive in Delhi. So in November 1310, five months after he returned to Delhi, he again set out with his army, this time for South India. Advancing through Devagiri he headed for Dvarasamudra in Karnataka, the capital of Hoysala king Vira Ballala. The raja did not have the strength to oppose the invasion, so he prudently sued for peace, agreed to surrender his treasures, and send an annual tribute to Delhi. ‘Thirty-six elephants, and all the treasures of the place fell into the hands of the victors,’ reports Barani.

Kafur then set out for the Tamil country. He met with virtually no resistance there, as the local rajas and chieftains, realising, from the experience of the other peninsular kingdoms, the futility of resistance, fled on Kafur’s approach, leaving their towns and temples to be freely plundered by the invading army. Though Kafur’s progress this time was hampered by torrential rains and heavy floods, he nevertheless resolutely continued his southward thrust, plundering and ravaging the temple cities of Chidambaram and Srirangam, as well as the Pandyan capital Madurai. He then swerved eastward and headed for the temple town of Rameswaram on the shore of the Bay of Bengal, there to sack the town and pillage the temple. The Khalji army, writes Amir Khusrav, advanced to ‘the shore of the sea as far as Lanka, and spread the odour of the amber-scented faith.’

This was the farthest point that any army from North India had ever penetrated into South India, and Kafur is said to have built a mosque in Rameswaram to mark that historic feat. Kafur’s passage through South India was quick and easy, and he had to fight no major battles there, so he could return to Delhi in late October 1311, after having been away for less than one year. And he was once again received by Ala-ud-din with great honour, in a special durbar. Kafur had brought with him an immense booty—‘612 elephants, 96,000 mans of gold, several boxes of jewels and pearls, and 20,000 horses,’ according to Barani. The quantity of the booty brought by Kafur astonished the people of Delhi. ‘No one,’ comments Barani, ‘could remember anything like it, nor was there anything like it recorded in history.’

The last major military campaign of Ala-ud-din’s reign was against Devagiri, where Ramadeva’s successor Singhana had turned refractory, and had defaulted the payment of tribute. So in 1313 the sultan sent Malik Kafur into Devagiri, and in the ensuing battle he defeated and killed the raja, and annexed the kingdom to the Sultanate. From Devagiri, Kafur then made forays into Telingana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, to reassert the supremacy of Delhi over the South Indian kingdoms. Kafur spent about three years in the peninsula, but was recalled to Delhi in 1315 due to Ala-ud-din’s rapidly failing health.

These were the major military campaigns of Ala-ud-din’s reign. Apart from these, there were several minor campaigns also during his reign. But the objective of Ala-ud-din in most of these campaigns was to gain political dominance, to gather plunder and to secure tribute, not to annex territory. His campaigns made Ala-ud-din absolutely the dominant ruler of India, but apart from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Malwa and Devagiri, very little new territory was brought under the rule of the Sultanate during his reign. In most cases, the defeated rulers were reinstated on their throne with honour, on their promise of paying regular tribute to the sultan. In this, as in everything else he did, Ala-ud-din was entirely pragmatic, as he found no merit in annexing faraway lands that he could not effectively govern.

Ala-ud-din ‘shed more innocent blood than ever any Pharaoh was guilty of,’ states Barani. But this comment is more an expression of Barani’s hyper-orthodox prejudice against the unorthodox sultan than an objective assessment. Though Ala-ud-din was indeed a sanguinary despot, that was not a unique trait in him, but a common characteristic of most Delhi Sultans. What distinguished Ala-ud-din was not his despotism or brutality, but his radical and futuristic political and economic reforms, which greatly enhanced the power and efficiency of the government, and even promoted the welfare of the people.

Ala-ud-din was a daringly original and in many respects a startlingly modern reformer. Though he was illiterate, many of his reforms showed excellent grasp of economic planning and administrative control. And on the whole his reforms and regulations, particularly his market regulations, were greatly beneficial to people. A Sufi sage would later ascribe philanthropic motives to Ala-ud-din’s market regulations, but that is a hyperbole. It is not that Ala-ud-din was indifferent to the welfare of the people — indeed, some of his statements specifically and strongly express his concern for the public weal — but the basic objective of all his policies and actions was to make the government more efficient and strong, and thus to consolidate and enhance royal power.