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

‘The sultan has lost his sense; he cannot distinguish between those who serve him well and those who serve him ill,’ commented a grandee. His capricious tyranny made many nobles writhe in anxiety, and it ignited several rebellions. But Ibrahim was also fortunate in having several dedicated nobles in his service, who would not under any circumstance betray him, not necessarily out of loyalty to his person, but out of loyalty to his dynasty. Thus when Azam Humayun, a top noble, was warned that Ibrahim might harm him, and that he should save himself by rebelling, he refused, even though he had then a cavalry force of 30,000 under his command. ‘I cannot act thus,’ he said. ‘I cannot turn aside and blacken my face, let what may happen.’ Predictably, he was presently imprisoned by Ibrahim, and later slain.

Ibrahim had several honourable grandees like Azam in his service, so he had no difficulty in crushing the rebel nobles. The real threat to his throne came from outside India, from Babur, the Mughal ruler of Kabul. But what directly led to the invasion of Babur was the discontent of Ibrahim’s nobles, particularly of Daulat Khan Lodi, the long time governor of Punjab. His son, Dilwar Khan, who was in Delhi, had an inkling of the sultan’s ill will towards his father, so he secretly fled from Delhi to Punjab to warn his father. The warning threw Daulat Khan ‘into deep meditation,’ writes Yadgar. ‘He reflected that if he rebelled he would be accused of ingratitude, and that if he fell into the clutches of the sultan’s wrath, he would not escape alive.’ He also feared that he might not able to prevail over Ibrahim in a military confrontation. So he finally decided to send his son to Kabul to invite Babur to invade India and overthrow Ibrahim. Around this time Alam Khan, a disaffected uncle of Ibrahim, also made a similar appeal to Babur.

This was an opportune development for Babur, for he was at this time being menaced by Uzbegs on the west, and was thinking of India as a possible refuge. So in 1524 he invaded Punjab, and, in alliance with Daulat Khan, defeated the army sent against him by Ibrahim. But instead of handing over the province to the Khan, as the latter had expected, Babur annexed the province to his kingdom and appointed his own officers there. This resulted in the breakup of the alliance, so Babur returned to Kabul to prepare a fresh invasion. During his previous campaign his sole objective was to acquire Punjab as a safe retreat from the menace of the Uzbegs, but he had a much grander plan now, to conquer and rule over Hindustan.

In November 1525, Babur again set out from Kabul for India. He first consolidated his position in Punjab, and then sped—‘like a roaring lion’, as Yadgar puts it — south-eastward towards Delhi, and pitched his camp between Yamuna and the town of Panipat, some 80 kilometres north of Delhi.

Ibrahim Lodi was close by, to the south of Panipat, in a good blocking position to prevent the Mughals from advancing further into India. There was some disquiet in the Sultanate army at this time because some astrologers had predicted that Ibrahim would be defeated in the battle. This apparently induced Ibrahim to hold a grand celebration in his army camp on the day before the battle, to counter the demoralising effect of the astrological predictions and to inspirit his army.

Ibrahim, according to Yadgar, ‘summoned all his nobles and soldiers and ordered them to dress themselves in the best clothes they had with them. He caused his embroidered tents and satin canopies to be erected, and made all the preparations for a fiesta. He threw amongst them all the gold, jewels, pearls and ashrafis which he possessed, and said, “O friends, tomorrow we shall do battle with the Mughal army. If I gain victory, I will endeavour to please you; if I do not, be at least content with these presents and my declared intentions.” The whole of that day was spent in feasting and rejoicing. On the morrow they made ready for war.’

THE BATTLE BETWEEN the rival forces was fought on 20 April 1526. It was a fiercely contested battle—‘so desperate a battle, indeed, had never been seen,’ comments Yadgar. Still, the battle lasted only just a few hours, from sunrise to noon. And Babur, though his army was much smaller than that of Ibrahim, defeated him decisively through the use of clever and innovative tactics.

As the trend of the battle became evident, an Afghan noble appealed to Ibrahim to leave the battlefield, saying, ‘If the king is saved, it will be easy to find another army, and again make war against the Mughals.’ But Ibrahim rejected the plea. ‘O Mahmud Khan, it is a disgrace for kings to flee from the field of battle,’ he said. ‘Look here, my nobles, my companions, my well-wishers and friends have partaken of the cup of martyrdom … My horse’s legs are dyed with blood up to its chest … It is better that I should be like my friends, [lying] in the dust and in blood.’

And that was how it would be. Ibrahim fell in the battle, the first and only sultan of Delhi to die in battle. He had been much vilified in life, but death entirely redeemed his honour. After the battle, Babur went to see Ibrahim lying dead in the battlefield. He ‘beheld that powerful sultan prostrate in the dust and weltering in blood, the royal crown fallen from his head, the state canopy also on the ground,’ reports Yadgar. Ibrahim’s valour in battle elicited the admiration of Babur, and he had the sultan’s body shrouded richly, and buried honourably at the very spot where he had fallen.

‘Sultan Ibrahim’s reign lasted eight years, eight months and thirteen days,’ states Ni’matullah. ‘He was buried in the western suburb of Panipat and his resting place is now frequented by singers and minstrels. Pilgrims make offerings every Friday night to the departed spirit of the sultan and offer charity to the poor.’

Soon after the battle Babur sent his son Humayun to occupy and secure Agra, the Lodi capital. Babur followed him there presently, but did not immediately enter the city. He pitched his camp in the maidan outside Agra and remained there for a week, presumably waiting for an auspicious time to enter the city.

On 10 May 1526, he ceremoniously entered Agra and took up his residence in the royal palace there, as the emperor of Hindustan. And with that ended the over three centuries long history of the Delhi Sultanate. [4] For the details of Babur’s invasion of India, see The Last Spring , Chapter 2.

The Delhi Sultanate had attained its greatest territorial extent under Muhammad Tughluq, when it stretched over virtually the entire Indian subcontinent. But it was fancy rather than earnest purpose that motivated Muhammad in his conquests, and the final consequence of the venture, as in nearly everything else he did, was the opposite of what he desired, for the mammoth expansion of its territory made the empire ungovernable, and eventually, towards the end of his reign, led to the beginning of its disintegration. Though this process was interrupted during the reign of Firuz Tughluq — who sensibly focussed his attention on governing efficiently what remained of the empire, rather than on recovering the lost provinces — the atrophying of the empire accelerated after his death, so that by the end of the Tughluq dynasty, the Sultanate had shrunk in size to a tiny state, covering just the city of Delhi and its suburbs. There was some revival of the fortunes of the Sultanate under the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties, but the fate of the kingdom was finally sealed by the invasion of Babur in 1526.

The history of India during almost the entire period of the Delhi Sultanate was one of incessant wars, rebellions and internecine conflicts. The number of these rebellions and conflicts multiplied several times during the final phase of the Delhi Sultanate, when the subcontinent fragmented into numerous kingdoms, which constantly engaged each other in war.