________________
200
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ OCTOD ER, 1928
ended in the undoing of the great Empire he had Khusru II of Persia sent his famous embassy, and created for himself. He was nevertheless the first that the escription of the great picture at Ajanta to organise a real standing army and he fixed a had nothing to do with it. Some papers, too, read tariff of market prices. This last was a proceeding at the last Congress at Madras went to show that that could not last, but it shows the man and howe have all been wrong about the date of Buddha's was capable of enforcing it while he lived. Mr. death. Obviously, even the main facts of Indian Ishwari Prasad's estimate of this truly wonderful History are still debatable, and it may be that personality is worth study : "the reign of Alau'ddin Mr. Ishwari Prasad is right after all. He is at any represents the highest water-mark of Muhammadan rate worth considering. However, whatever he was despotism."
as to character, Firuz Tughlak was a great adminis
trator, and that Mr. Ishwari Prasad seems to recog. After Alau'ddin's death in 1316 came the usual
nise. Hic death was followed as usual by a scramble scramble for power and the dispersal of the bulk
for power, and the next event of the first importance of the Empire, making possible the career of the
was the invasion of Timur in 1398. Hero once slavo-minister Malik Khusru and the fiscal part of
more we have uncertain history, for there are two the career of the eunuch slave Malik Kafur, both
views of Timur : that of his friends and that of his miscreants of the first water, whatever their ability.
enemies. The controversy is not settled yet. Then came in 1320 the turn of the Karauna Turks
Mr. Ishwari Prasad does not however, directly in the person of Ghiyasu'ddin Tughlak, a man of
implicate him in the terrible sack of Delhi, which humblo origin, but of the ability that made monarche
he calls "the back of Delhi by Timur's soldiery." of his predecessors, the Slave Kings of Delhi. Mr.
But it led to the disintegration of the Empire. Ishwari Prasad's estimate of him as "a mild and benevolent ruler," as a man who loved simplicity "
Mr. Ishwari Prasad then deals with the minor and "frank joviality" is worth attention. He
Dynasties that arose in Malwa, Gujarat, Jaunpur, was however harsh to Hindus for political Bengal and Khandesh, and with the Bahmanis and reasons.
the Five Shahi Kingdoms of the Deccan-all of
these, by the way, "minor” only because of the But the most celebrated Tughlak was his son
overpowering Delhi Empires. And then he deals Muhammad, the "mad" King of Delhi, according
with Vijayanagar. In this last case we have a to the usual 488umption, from 1325 to 1351.
Hindu Empire in the South keeping Muhammadan "Learned, merciless, religious and mad" is the
expansion effectively in check for 200 years-1336 general impression of this remarkable man, and he
to 1565-and even to this day the history of Islamic certainly tried some wonderful schemes. Mr.
families in the South is not that of their history in Ishwari Prasad's careful investigation, however,
the North. bringe him to quite a different opinion. He starts by calling him "Muhammad Tughlak the ill
In Delhi meanwhile nothing of general importance starred idualist," which is a startling view of him,
happened in the first half of the 16th century till to say the least of it. The general idea of him has
the Afghan Bahlol Lodi came into power in 1451. been challenged before now, but if we are to accept
Here once more there are two views of Delhi rulers. Mr. Ishwari Prasad's estimate we must remodel our
To the Muhammadans the Lodis were good rulers, impressions. Among other things he says : "the
to the Hindus they were terrible iconoclasts. Mr. verdict that declares him & cruel and blood-thirsty
Ishwari Prasad is again independent: "Bahlol tyrant like Noro or Caligula does little justice to his
deserves a high place in history." His even greater
son, Sikandar Lodi, who was the first monarch to great genius." As to this remark I present Mr. Ishwari Prasad with another. We get our ideas
live at Agra, he describes as "a narrow-minded about Nero largely from the estimates of his enemies,
bigot, but not devoid of the higher qualities of the the Christians whom he persecuted. Have we got
heart and mind." Mr. Ishwari Prasad is here them right? He seems to have been a popular
striving to be fair even in the case of a persecutor monarch w his contemporaries as a whole.
of his faith. And then, in Ibrahim Lodi's time,
who was "by no means an incompetent ruler" Muhammad Tughlak was succeeded by Firuzcame in 1526 Babur the Mughal and the Battle of Tughlak for 37 years. Here again Mr. Ishwari Panipat, when the use of field guns for the first Prasad upsets preconceived ideas. I at all events time in India gave the intruding Mughal the victory. had looked upon Firuz Tughlak as a man of peaceful Thus ended the Middle Ages in India and the great ways and lofty character, as a valuable foil to Mogul Empire began. Muhammad Tughlak, but Mr. Ishwari Prasad will
The time has not yet come to pass judgment on have none of this. He describes him as a man
this great book, but I have said enough to show with little ambition and less fitness for high
what it contains. It may also be fairly said that position," and elsewhere as "weak and irresolute."
it goes steadily from point to point, and does at Well, as time goes on, one gets accustomed to fixed
least place before us clearly the history of India ideas becoming challenged. In the latest issue of
during a most difficult and obscure period. the Journal of Indian History, is an article to show that it was Harsha and not Pulikesin II to whom
R. C. TEMPLE.
