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

‘[Behind the sultan stands a man] with a fly-whisk in his hand to drive off flies. A hundred armour-bearers stand on his right, and a like number on his left, carrying shields, swords, and bows. The other functionaries and notables stand along the hall to the right and the left. Then they bring in sixty horses with royal harness, half of which are arranged on the right and half on the left, where the sultan can see them. Next fifty elephants are brought in, which are adorned with silken cloths, and have their tusks shod with iron for greater efficacy in killing criminals. On the neck of each elephant sits its mahout, who carries a sort of iron axe with which he punishes it and directs it to do what is required of it. Each elephant has on its back a sort of large chest capable of holding twenty warriors or more or less, according to the size of the beast.

‘These elephants are trained to make obeisance to the sultan and incline their heads, and when they do so the chamberlains cry in a loud voice: Bismillah! The elephants are also arranged half on the right and half on the left, behind the persons standing. As each person enters … he makes an obeisance on reaching the station of the chamberlains, and the chamberlains say Bismillah , regulating the loudness of their utterance to the rank of the person concerned; he then goes to his appointed place, beyond which he never passes. If it is one of the infidel Hindus who makes obeisance, the chamberlains say to him, “May god guide thee”.

‘If there should be anyone at the door who has come to offer the sultan a gift, the chamberlains enter the sultan’s presence in their order of precedence, make obeisance in three places, and inform the sultan of the person at the door. If he commands them to bring him in, they place the gift in the hands of the men who stand … in front of the sultan, so he can see it. He then calls in the donor, who makes obeisance three times before reaching the sultan and makes another obeisance at the station of the chamberlains. The sultan then addresses him in person with the greatest courtesy and bids him welcome. If he is a person who is worthy of honour, the sultan takes him by the hand or embraces him, and asks for some part of his present. It is then placed before him, and if it consists of a weapon or fabric he turns it this way and that with his hand and expresses his approval, to set the donor at ease and encourage him. He then gives him a robe of honour and assigns him a sum of money … proportionate to his merit.’

Similar formalities were observed when the sultan went on tour, and great precautions were taken for his safety — he was, in the case of Balban, always accompanied by a commando force of 1000 soldiers. And the return of the sultan to the capital was invariably a grand celebratory occasion. ‘When the sultan returns from a journey, the elephants are decorated, and on sixteen of them are placed sixteen parasols, some brocaded and some set with jewels,’ continues Battuta. ‘Wooden pavilions are built several storeys high and covered with silk cloths, and in each story there are singing girls wearing magnificent dresses and ornaments, with dancing girls amongst them. At the centre of each pavilion is a large tank made of skins and filled with syrup-water, from which all the people, natives or strangers, may drink, receiving at the same time betel leaves and areca nuts. The space between the pavilions is carpeted with silk cloths, on which the sultan’s horse treads. The walls of the street along which he passes from the gate of the city to the gate of the palace are hung with silk cloths. In front of him march footmen from his own slaves, several thousands in number, and behind him come the mob and soldiers. On one of his entries into the capital I saw three or four small catapults placed on elephants throwing gold and silver coins amongst the people from the moment he entered the city till he reached the palace.’

The Bahmani sultans also maintained a grand style when they appeared in public. ‘The Sultan, riding on a golden saddle, wears a habit embroidered with sapphires, and on his pointed headdress a large diamond,’ notes Nikitin. ‘He also carries a suit of gold armour inlaid with sapphires, and three swords mounted in gold.’ The sultan’s way through the crowd was cleared for him by a huge armoured elephant. And the sultan was accompanied by a large troupe of armoured soldiers, as well as by several hundred women singers and dancers. The rear of the procession was made up of 300 armoured elephants, each of which held heavy chains in its trunk, and carried several soldiers on a platform fitted to its back. Similar pomp was displayed by the rajas of Vijayanagar also when they appeared in public. The horse on which the raja rode, according to Varthema, was ‘worth more than some of our cities on account of the ornaments which it wears.’

The Delhi Sultanate, at the peak of its territorial expansion during the reign of Muhammad Tughluq, was the largest empire in the history of India in the two-millennium-long period between the Mauryan empire at its zenith under Asoka in the mid-third century BCE and the Mughal empire at its zenith under Aurangzeb in the late seventeenth century CE, and it covered virtually the entire Indian subcontinent, except Kerala in the far south, Kashmir in the far north, and a few pockets here and there in between.

But bulk did not mean stability. Or even strength. The Delhi Sultanate was in fact the least stable of all the great empires in Indian history, and was ever roiling with rebellions and usurpations. Nor did it have the administrative capacity needed to effectively govern its vast and diverse realm. The only notable exception to this dismal state of affairs was the reign of Ala-ud-din Khalji, whose empire was extensive, and his government administratively and militarily strong.

Waging wars was the primary occupation of medieval Indian sultans and rajas, to suppress rebellions, to defend or expand their kingdom, and to seize plunder. Civil administration, except revenue collection, had only a low priority for most of them. With very rare exceptions, providing good government and caring for the welfare of the people hardly concerned the sultans or the rajas.

Most kings in medieval India were just warlords. In the entire history of the Delhi Sultanate, there were no notable periods of stability and peace, except for a time during the reigns of Ala-ud-din Khalji and Firuz Tughluq. Normal life in the Delhi Sultanate was hardly normal. Everything there was ever in a turbulent state, ever seething with violence. This was true of all political relationships in the Sultanate, such as the relationship between the sultan and his nobles and provincial governors, between the sultan and the Hindu chieftains, even between the sultan and his family members. Anyone at any time could be anyone’s adversary. No loyalty could be ever taken for granted.

The government of the Delhi Sultanate was a minimum government. The sultans occupied the realm, but hardly governed it. Brigands and wild hill tribes often rampaged through the land, swooping down from their inaccessible forest habitats. At times they even menaced major towns. Protection against them was mainly the concern of the local people, seldom that of the sultan. And when the sultan acted against brigands, it was mainly to safeguard his revenue, hardly ever to protect the people. Indeed, the sultans themselves at times acted like brigands, pillaging their own subjects, to collect the overdue taxes from them. And at times even common villagers turned into rampaging brigands.

The usual means of the Delhi sultans to pacify their refractory subjects was to devastate their lands and slaughter the people there en-masse. In the case of Vijayanagar, even its most successful king, Krishnadeva, found it difficult to control the depredations of marauding hill tribes. So he sought to placate them, or to divert their raids into other kingdoms, holding that, as he wrote in Amukta-malyada , ‘if the king grows angry with them, he cannot wholly destroy them, but if he wins their affection by kindness and charity, they serve him by invading the enemy’s territory and plundering it.’