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Saturday 12 November 2011

Ala-ud-din Khilji


Ala-ud-din was by all accounts, the first Muslim general who crossed Vindhyas and invaded the Hindu states of South India. It is, therefore, essential to know something about the career and early life of this ambitious Youngman and the reasons which prompted him to undertake this expedition.
Ala-ud-din was the son of Shihab-ud-din Masud Khalji, a brother of the founder of the Khalji dynasty, Jalal-ud-din. He had three brothers-Almas Beg, Qutbugh Tighin and Muhammad. Besides this we know very little about the childhood and youth of Ala-ud-din whose real name was Ali Gurshasp. His father died long before his brother Jalal-ud-din became the ruler of Delhi.
Ala-ud-din did not seem to have received any regular education. He had, however, been given good training in the use of arms and other martial sports. He had been married to the daughter of Jalal-ud-din and was both a nephew and son-in-law of the Sultan. His younger brother was married to another daughter of the Sultan.
Soon after his accession, Jalal-ud-din appointed him amir-i-tuzuk or master of the ceremonies. He was eventually appointed governor of Kara in recognition of his services in crushing the revolt (Aug.-Sept. 1290) of the disaffected Turkish amirs led by Malik Chhajju-Kishlu Khan, governor of Kara and nephew of Ghiyas-ud-din Balban. This proved to be a turning point in his career.
It provided him an opportunity to mature his future plans, unobserved by the experts and his agents. His appointment to the distant Kara also came as a welcome relief from his domestic unhappiness.
His wife, the daughter of the Sultan, was of domineering nature. Her mother, Malika-i-Jahan encouraged her in her haughty and arrogant attitude towards her husband. Ala-ud-din was happy to get this opportunity to be away from the dominance of Malika-i-Jahan.
S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar in his well-known work, South India and Her Muhammadan Invaders, refers to this incident and observes: "Sometimes great revolutions happen in the history of empires by accident, and the first invasion of Dekhan may well be brought under the category of accidents".
This is, however, a farfetched idea. Highly ambitious nature of Ala-ud-din, his appointment as governor of Kara and greed for money to fulfil his aims were necessarily the prime factors. The failure of Malik Chhajju's rebellion had taught him an important lesson. Money was very important for the success of any project.
He knew that the plunder of the neighboring Muhammadan governor would not be overlooked at the court and would bring immediate reprisals. As Delhi appeared to have its eyes fixed on Rajputana, the invasion of Hindu kingdom beyond the Vindhyas where no Muhammadan ruler had set his foot so far would be welcomed.
It would also yield huge amounts of money which he required badly for the furtherance of his ultimate objective of capturing the throne of Delhi. As a first step, he asked for sultan's permission to lead an expedition against Vidisha (Bhilsa) near Bhopal.
He captured Bhilsa without much difficulty, plundered and destroyed the temples and left the city after collecting enormous booty. He also took with him a huge idol which he presented to the Sultan along with other articles of plunder.
As Prof. A.B.M. Habibullah writes: "All this Ali shrewdly invested in winning the Sultan's greater confidence and affection. But the most valued asset he kept to himself-the assiduously gathered knowledge of the fabled wealth of southern Hindu kingdoms, the state of their defences and the routes thereto.
South of the Vindhyas was almost virgin territory for Muslim arms, for the Yadava kingdom, with a fatal unconcern for the significant course of events in the north; was merrily pursuing the age-old chivalric wars of dynastic rivalry. Ali Gurshasp, therefore, planned to enrich himself by a well-concealed raid on this kingdom and therewith to strike for independent sovereignty."
Unsuspecting Jalal-ud-din was highly pleased and conferred on his nephew his deceased father's office of ariz-i- Mamalik, minister of war besides adding Avadh to his iqti of Kara.
Ala-ud-din was not a person to leave this opportunity when the Sultan was so much pleased with him and asked for his permission to invade Chanderi reassuring the unsuspecting monarch that all the spoils of the war will be deposited in the royal treasury. Jalal-ud-din readily agreed to his request. He also permitted him to utilize the surplus revenues of his estate in raising troops to be used for the campaign.

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