In a.d. 1398 Alp Khán, son of Diláwar Khán, annoyed with his father for entertaining as his overlord at Dhár Mehmúd Tughlak, the refugee monarch of Dehli, withdrew to Mándu. He stayed in Mándu for three years, laying, according to Farishtah, the foundation of the famous fortress of solid masonry which was the strongest fortification in that part of the world.[14] On his father’s death in a.d. 1405 Alp Khán took the title of Sultán Hoshang, and moved the capital to Mándu. The rumour that Hoshang had poisoned his father gave Diláwar’s brother in arms, Muzaffar Sháh of Gujarát (a.d. 1399–1411), an excuse for an expedition against Hoshang.[15] Hoshang was defeated at Dhár, made prisoner, and carried to Gujarát, and Muzaffar’s brother Nasrat was appointed in his place. Nasrat failed to gain the goodwill either of the people or of the army of Málwa; and was forced to retire from Dhár and take refuge in Mándu. In consequence of this failure in a.d. 1408, at Hoshang’s request Muzaffar set Hoshang free after a year’s confinement, and deputed his grandson Ahmed to take Hoshang to Málwa and establish Hoshang’s power.[16] With Ahmed’s help Hoshang took Dhár and shortly after secured the fort of Mándu. Hoshang (a.d. 1405–1431) made Mándu his capital and spread his power on all sides except towards Gujarát.[17] Shortly after the death of Muzaffar I. and the accession of Ahmed, when (a.d. 1414) Ahmed was quelling the disturbances raised by his cousins, Hoshang, instead of helping Ahmed as requested, marched towards Gujarát and created a diversion in favour of the rebels by sending two of his nobles to attack Broach. They were soon expelled by Ahmed Sháh. Shortly after Hoshang marched to the help of the chief of Jháláváḍa in Káthiáváḍa,
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Málwa Sultáns, a.d. 1400–1570. and ravaged eastern and central Gujarát.[18] To punish Hoshang for these acts of ingratitude, between a.d. 1418 and 1422, Ahmed twice besieged Mándu, and though he failed to take the fort his retirement had to be purchased, and both as regards success and fair-dealing the honours of the campaign remained with Ahmed.[19] In a.d. 1421 Hoshang went disguised as a horse-dealer to Jájnagar (now Jájpur) in Cuttack in Orissa. He took with him a number of cream-coloured horses, of which he had heard the Rája was very fond. His object was to barter these horses and other goods for the famous war elephants of Jájnagar. An accident in the camp of the disguised merchants led to a fight, in which the Rája was taken prisoner and Hoshang was able to secure 150 elephants to fight the Gujarát Sultán.[20] During Hoshang’s absence at Jájnagar Ahmed pressed the siege of Mándu so hard that the garrison would have surrendered had Hoshang not succeeded in finding his way into the fort through the south or Tárápur Gate.[21] For ten years after the Gujarát campaign, by the help of his minister Malik Mughís of the Khilji family and of his minister’s son Mehmúd Khán, Málwa prospered and Hoshang’s power was extended. Hoshang enriched his capital with buildings, among them the Great Mosque and his own tomb, both of which he left unfinished. Hoshang’s minister Malik Mughís (who received the title of Ulugh Aâzam Humáyún Khán) appears to have built the assembly mosque near the Ságar Lake in Hoshang’s life-time, a.d. 1431. Another of his buildings must have been a mint, as copper coins remain bearing Hoshang’s name, and Mándu Shádiábád as the place of mintage.[22] In a.d. 1432, at Hoshangábád, on the left bank of the Narbada, about 120 miles east of Mándu, Hoshang, who was suffering from diabetes, took greatly to heart the fall of a ruby out of his crown. He said: A few days before the death of Fírúz Tughlak a jewel dropped from his crown. Hoshang ordered that he should be taken to Mándu. Before he had gone many miles the king died. His nobles carried the body to the Madrasah or college in Shádiábád or Mándu, and buried him in the college on the ninth day of Zil Hajjah, the twelfth month of a.h. 838 = a.d. 1434. The year of Hoshang’s death is to be found in the letters
Ah Sháh Hoshang na mund: Alas, Sháh Hoshang stayed not.[23]
On Hoshang’s death his son Ghazni Khán, with the title of Sultán Muhammad Ghori, succeeded. Malik Mughís, his father’s minister, and the minister’s son Mehmúd were maintained in power. In three years
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Málwa Sultáns, a.d. 1400–1570. (a.d. 1433–1436), as Sultán Muhammad proved dissipated, cruel and suspicious, Mehmúd, the minister’s son, procured his death by poison. Mehmúd Khilji then asked his father to accept the succession, but his father declined, saying that Mehmúd was fitter to be king. In a.d. 1436 Mehmúd was accordingly crowned with the royal tiara of Hoshang.[24] He conferred on his father the honour of being attended by mace-bearers carrying gold and silver sticks, who, when the Khán mounted or went out, had, like the mace-bearers of independent monarchs, the privilege of repeating the Bismillah ‘In the name of the compassionate and merciful Alláh.’[25] He gave his father royal honours, the white canopy and the silver quiver, and to his title of Malik Ashraf Khán Jehán he added among others Amír-ul-Umara and Aâzam Humáyún.[26] Mehmúd quelled a revolt among his nobles. An outbreak of plague in the Gujarát camp relieved him from a contest with Ahmed Sháh.[27] In a.d. 1439 Mehmúd repaired the palace of Sultán Hoshang and opened the mosque built in commemoration of that monarch which Farishtah describes as a splendid edifice with 208 columns.[28] About the same time Mehmúd completed Hoshang’s tomb which Hoshang had left unfinished. On the completion of this building Hoshang’s remains seem to have been moved into it from their first resting-place in the college. In a.d. 1441 Mehmúd built a
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Málwa Sultáns, a.d. 1400–1570. garden with a dome and palaces[29] and a mosque at Naâlchah about three miles north of the Dehli Gate of Mándu, a pleasing well-watered spot where the plateau of Málwa breaks into glades and knolls.[30] In a.d. 1443 in honour of his victory over Rána Kúmbha of Chitor, Mehmúd built a beautiful column of victory,[31] seven storeys high, and a college in front of the mosque of Hoshang Ghori. Facing the east entrance to the Great Mosque stands a paved ramp crowned by a confused ruin. As late as a.d. 1843 this ruin is described as a square marble chamber. Each face of the chamber had three arches, the centre arch in two of the faces being a door. Above the arches the wall was of yellow stone faced with marble. Inside the chamber the square corners were cut off by arches. No roof or other trace of superstructure remained.[32] This chamber seems to be the basement of the column of victory which was raised in a.d. 1443 by Mehmúd I. (a.d. 1432–1469) in honour of his victory over Rána Kúmbha of Chitor.[33] Mehmúd’s column has the special interest of being, if not the original, at least the cause of the building of Kúmbha Rána’s still uninjured Victory Pillar, which was completed in a.d. 1454 at a cost of £900,000 in honour of his defeat of Mehmúd.[34] That the Mándu Column of Victory was a famous work is shown by Abul Fazl’s reference to it in a.d. 1590 as an eight-storeyed minaret.[35] Farishtah, about twenty years later (a.d. 1610), calls it a beautiful Victory Pillar seven storeys high.[36] The emperor Jehángír (a.d. 1605–1627) gives the following account of Mehmúd’s Tower of Victory[37]: “This day, the 29th of the month Tir, corresponding to July-August of a.d. 1617, about the close of the day, with the ladies of the palace, I went out to see the Haft Manzar or Seven Storeys, literally Seven Prospects. This building is one of the structures of the old rulers of Málwa, that is of Sultán Mehmúd Khilji. It has seven storeys, and on each storey there are four porticos, and in each portico are four windows. The height of this tower is about 163 feet and its circumference 150 feet. From the surface of the ground to the top of the seventh storey there are one hundred and seventy-one steps.” Sir Thomas Herbert, the traveller, in a.d. 1626 describes it from hearsay, or at least at second-hand, as a tower 170 steps high, supported by massive pillars and adorned with gates and windows very observable. It was built, he adds, by Khán Jehán, who there lies buried.[38]
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Málwa Sultáns, a.d. 1400–1570. Two years later (a.d. 1445) Mehmúd built at Mándu, and endowed with the revenues of several villages a large Shifa Khánah or Hospital, with wards and attendants for all classes and separate apartments for maniacs. He placed in charge of it his own physician Maulána Fazlulláh.[39] He also built a college to the east of the Jámá mosque, of which traces remain.[40]
In a.d. 1453, though defeated, Mehmúd brought back from Gujarát the jewelled waistbelt of Gujarát, which in a daring charge he had taken from the tent of the Gujarát king Kutb-ud-dín Sháh.[41] In a.d. 1441 Mehmúd’s father died at Mandisor. Mehmúd felt the loss so keenly that he tore his hair like one bereft of reason.[42] After his father’s death Mehmúd made his son Ghiás-ud-dín minister, and conferred the command of the army and the title of Aâzam Humáyún on his kinsman Táj Khán. In a.d. 1469, after a reign of thirty-four years (a.d. 1436–1469) of untiring energy and activity Mehmúd died. Farishtah says of him: “His tent was his home: the field of battle his resting-place. He was polite, brave, just, and learned. His Hindu and Musalmán subjects were happy and friendly. He guarded his lands from invaders. He made good his loss to any one who suffered from robbery in his dominions, recovering the amount from the village in whose lands the robbery had taken place, a system which worked so well that theft and robbery became almost unknown. Finally, by a systematic effort he freed the country from the dread of wild beasts.”[43]
In a.d. 1469 Mehmúd was succeeded by his son and minister Ghiás-ud-dín, to whose skill as a soldier much of Mehmúd’s success had been due. On his accession Ghiás-ud-dín made his son Abdul Kádir Prime Minister and heir-apparent, and gave him the title of Násir-ud-dín. He called his nobles, and in their presence handed his sword to Násir-ud-dín, saying: “I have passed thirty-four years in ceaseless fighting. I now devote my life to rest and enjoyment.”[44] Ghiás-ud-dín, who never left Mándu during the whole thirty years of his reign (a.d. 1469–1499), is said to have completed the Jaház Mehel or Ship Palace,[45] and the widespread buildings
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Málwa Sultáns, a.d. 1400–1570. which surround it. It seems probable that the Tapela Palace close to the south-east of the Ship palace and the lake and royal gardens immediately to the north and north-east of the Tapela palace were part of Ghiás-ud-dín’s pleasure-houses and grounds. The scale of the ruins behind the Hindola or Swingcot palace to the north, and their connection with the out-buildings to the west of the Jaház Mehel, suggest that they also belonged to the palaces and women’s quarters of the pleasure-loving Ghiás-ud-dín.
Of the surprising size and fantastic arrangements of Ghiás-ud-dín’s pleasure city, the true Mándu Shádiábád or Abode of Joy, curious details have been preserved. This Abode of Pleasure was a city not a palace. It contained 15,000 inhabitants, all of them women, none either old or plain-featured, and each trained to some profession or craft. Among them were the whole officers of a court, besides courtiers, teachers, musicians, dancers, prayer-readers, embroiderers, and followers of all crafts and callings. Whenever the king heard of a beautiful girl he never rested till he obtained her. This city of women had its two regiments of guards, the Archers and the Carabineers, each 500 strong, its soldiers dressed like men in a distinguishing uniform. The archers were beautiful young Turkí damsels, all armed with bows and arrows: the carabineers were Abyssinian maidens, each carrying a carbine. Attached to the palace and city was a deer park, where the Lord of Leisure used to hunt with his favourites. Each dweller in the city of women received her daily dole of grain and coppers, and besides the women were many pensioners, mice, parrots and pigeons, who also received the same dole as their owners. So evenly just was Ghiás-ud-dín in the matter of his allowances, that the prettiest of his favourites received the same allowance as the roughest carabineer.[46]
The Lord of the City of Pleasure was deeply religious. Whenever he was amusing himself two of his companions held in front of him a cloth to remind him of his shroud. A thousand Háfizahs, that is women who knew the Kurâán by heart, constantly repeated its holy verses, and, under the orders of the king, whenever he changed his raiment the Háfizahs blew on his body from head to foot with their prayer-hallowed breath.[47] None of the five daily prayers passed unprayed. If at any of the hours of prayer the king was asleep he was sprinkled with water, and when water failed to arouse him, he was dragged out of bed. Even when dragged out of bed by his servants the king never uttered an improper or querulous word.
So keen was his sense of justice that when one of his courtiers pretending he had purchased her, brought to him a maiden of ideal beauty, and her relations, not knowing she had been given to the king, came to complain, though they gladly resigned her, the king grieved over his unconscious wrong. Besides paying compensation he mourned long and truly, and ordered that no more inmates should be brought to his palace.[48] So great was the king’s charity that every night below his pillow he placed a bag containing some thousand gold-mohurs, and before evening all were distributed to the deserving. So religious was the king that he paid 50,000 tankas for each of the four feet of the ass of Christ. A man came bringing a fifth hoof, and one of the courtiers said: “My Lord, an ass has four feet. I never heard that it had five, unless perhaps the ass of Christ had five.” “Who knows,” the king replied, “it may be that this
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Málwa Sultáns, a.d. 1400–1570. last man has told the truth, and one of the others was wrong. See that he is paid.” So sober was the king that he would neither look upon nor hear of intoxicants or stimulants. A potion that had cost 100,000 tankas was brought to him. Among the 300 ingredients one was nutmeg. The king directed the potion to be thrown into a drain. His favourite horse fell sick. The king ordered it to have medicine, and the horse recovered. “What medicine was given the horse?” asked the king. “The medicine ordered by the physicians” replied his servants. Fearing that in this medicine there might be an intoxicant, the king commanded that the horse should be taken out of the stables and turned loose into the forest.[49]
The king’s spirit of peace steeped the land, which, like its ruler, after thirty years of fighting yearned for rest. For fourteen years neither inward malcontent nor foreign foe broke the quiet. In a.d. 1482 Bahlol Lodi advanced from Dehli to subdue Málwa. The talk of Mándu was Bahlol’s approach, but no whisper of it passed into the charmed City of Women. At last the son-minister forced his way into the king’s presence. At the news of pressing danger his soldier-spirit awoke in Ghiás-ud-dín. His orders for meeting the invaders were so prompt and well-planned that the king of Dehli paid a ransom and withdrew. A second rest of fifteen years ended in the son-minister once more forcing his way into the Presence. In a.d. 1500 the son presented his father, now an aged man of eighty, with a cup of sherbet and told him to drink. The king, whose armlet of bezoar stone had already twice made poison harmless, drew the stone from his arm. He thanked the Almighty for granting him, unworthy, the happiest life that had ever fallen to the lot of man. He prayed that the sin of his death might not be laid to his son’s charge, drank the poison, and died.[50]