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MAY, 1918]
THE FARUQI DYNASTY OF KHANDESH
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THE FARUQI DYNASTY OF KHANDESH. BY LT. COLONEL T. W. HAIG, C.M.G. [References to Firishta are to the Bombay text of 1830.]
UNTIL recently our sole authority for the history of this dynasty, which ruled in Khandesh
for 225 years, was the industrious but careless and uncritical Firishta, but the publica tion in 1910, by Dr. Denison Ross, of the first volume of Zafar al-Walihi bi Muzaffar wa Alih. (An Arabic History of Gujarat), placed at our disposal an original historical sketch o' the family, on which the Burhân-i-Ma'â sir, first brought to notice by Major J. S. King. who published in 1900, under the title of The History of the Bahmani Dynasty, an abstract translation of the introductory portion of the work, which had already appeared in The Indian Antiquary, also throws some light. The history of the small state of Khandesh which, though surrounded by the three large kingdoms of Gujarat, Malwa, and the Dakan contrived to maintain some measure of independence and outlived all its powerful neighbours is not unworthy of study, and a comparison of the authorities now available may enable us to reconstruct it with some degree of accuracy.
Firishta, our first authority, attributes the foundation of the state to Malik Raja, son of Khânjahân Fârûqî, whose forbears, he says, had served Ala-al-din Khalji and Muhammad bin Tughlaq of Dihli, and who had himself held high office under the latter monarch. On the death of Khânjahân his son Malik Râja, as often happens in a country in which nobility is not hereditary, found no means of advancement and was content to serve as a trooper in the bodyguard of Firûz Shah, the successor of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, in which humble capacity he still found means to indulge in his favourite pursuit, the chase. On one occasion Firûz, during bis disastrous retreat from Sind to Gujarât across the Rann of Kachchh, while hunting wandered far from his camp and was resting, weary and hungry, under a tree when he saw a solitary sportsman with a few hounds. He asked him whether he had any food with him and the hunter produced such coarse food as he usually carried and placed it before the emperor, who, being struck by his host's superior manners and address, asked him who h was, and was astonished to learn that the son of so important an amir, with whom he had been well acquainted, was serving him in so humble a capacity. Firûz, on his return to Dihli, appointed Malik Râja to the command of 2,000 horse and conferred on him, for their maintenance, a small fief on the borders of Baglâna, in the district afterwards known as Khândesh. Here a victory over Bahârjî, the Râhtor rája of Baglâna, compelled that ruler to acknowledge the suzerainty of Firûz and enabled Malik Râja to send to Dihli fifteen elephants. This service was rewarded by promotion to the command of 3,000 horse and by the government of the whole province of Khandesh. Malik Raja was able, in his remote province, to maintain a force of 12,000 horse and, as the province could not support this force, he augmented his revenue by raids into Gondwana and the territories of various petty rájas. Towards the end of the reign of Firûz, when the authority of Dihli grew ever feebler, Malik "Raja anticipated his neighbours in Gujarât and Mâlwa, and in 1382 ceased to remit tribute and began to conduct himself as an independent monarch.
Such is Firishta's account of the foundation of the state and the origin of its ruler, but the title of Khânjahan is not to be found in the lists of the amirs of Ala-al-din Khalji and Muhammad bin Tughlaq given by Ziyâ-al-din Barant; and 'Abdallah Muhammad, author
1 ii, 541.
