vedic city truth

Vedic CITyS truths


Things to remember

It is believed that before the coming of the Aryans in India the

greater part of northern and north-western India was inhabited by a

group of people known as Dravidians

The Dravidians could not meet challenge and hence gradually

moved southwards. The horse played a very important role in the lives

of the Aryans.

There is no trace of totemism and animal worship.

Rig Veda is collection of 1017 hymns supplemented by 11 others

called Valakhilyas. Purusukta theory developed in the later Vedic

period.

The first three Vedas -Rig,Sam and Yajur Veda are collectively

known as Trayi.

The word Arya comes from the root word meaning to cultivate and

Aryans as a whole were agriculturists who considered agriculture a

noble profession or occupation.

In the later Vedic period the purohita or priest was described as the

rashtragopa or the protector of the realm of the raja.

The king in later Vedic age performed Rajsuya sacrifice which was

supposed to confer supreme power on him. The king also performed

Vajpeya or the chariot race .The ritual lasted for 17 days and it was

supposed to elevate him from the position of Raja to that of Samrat.

Indra and Varuna lost their previous importance and prajapati

attained the supreme position in later Vedic age.

Pushan became the God of Sudras.

Rudra and Vishnu became more important than before.

Delhi Sultanate

The Slave Dynasty

1.Qutub-ud-din Aibek

2.Iltutmish

3.Raziya

4.Balban

5.Rulers of the Sultanate Period

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Khalji Dynasty

Jalaluddin Firuz Khalji

Jalaluddin Firuz Khalji was the founder of the Khalji dynasty. He came

to power after the overthrow of slave dynasty. Their ascendancy is

known as Khalji imperialism because with the accession of Jalaluddin

on the throne of Delhi, the supremacy of the Turks ended in India. He

expanded the boundaries of his empire besides his achievements

include suppression of the revolt of Malik Chhaju with the governor of

Oudh.He suppressed the thuggees a band of robbers and send them

off peacefully to Bengal. He adopted conciliatory policy towards the

Mongols. He allowed some of the Mongols to settle in India.

It was during the conquest of Bhilsa that Alauddin the nephew of

Jalaluddin started realising the dream of being sultan. In 1292 AD

Alauddin led an expedition to Devagiri hearing of its wealth.Devagiri

was forced to pay a huge war indemnity. This helped Alauddin in

buying the nobles and pleasing the soldiers who were dissatisfied by

the rule of Jalaluddin.Alauddin than hatched a conspiracy and got

Sultan Jalaludin killed and proclaimed himself as the sultan.

Alauddin Khalji

In 1296 Alauddin became the sultan after Malika Jan the widow of

Jalaluddin and her younger son Qadir Khan left Delhi. He also

exterminated the old Balbani and Jalali nobles.The reign of Alauddin

Khalji marks the zenith of the power of the Delhi Sultanate. In 1297 he

set off for conquering Gujarat. He sent an expedition under Ulugh

Khan and Nusrat Khan to Gujarat. On the way Ulugh Khan conquered

Jaisalmer.During the plunder of the rich port of Cambay Alauddin's

commander Nusrat Khan acquired a Hindu turned Muslim slave Kafur

who later on rose to become a great military general and the Malik

Naib of Alauddin.After the conquest of Gujarat Alauddin sent an

expedition under Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan to

Ranthambhore.However they were beaten by the Rajputs and Nusrat

Khan died.Alauddin went to Ranthambhor and annexed it in 1301.The

next expedition was sent to Mewar and after the siege of 8 months he

captured Chittor in 1303.The government of Chittor was put in the

hands of Khizr Khan, the eldest son of Alauddin.Chittor was renamed

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as Khizrabad after the name of Khizr Khan. In 1305 Alauddin sent Ainul-

Mulk Multani for the conquest of Malwa which was placed under the

governorship of the latter. By the end of 1305 the whole of Northern

India fell into the hands of Alauddin and he directed his attention to

the conquest of Deccan.

Between 1307 and 1312 he began the southward expansion of his

empire. He invaded Devagiri in 1306-07 AD. The immediate cause for

this was unduly long delay in sending the annual tribute. In 1309 the

Kakatiya kingdom was attacked and its ruler Pratap Rudra Deva

accepted the suzerainty of Delhi and surrendered vast treasures. The

next expedition was against Vir Ballala III the Hoysala ruler in

1311.His capital Dwarsamudra was captured. The whole of Deccan was

forced to acknowledge the supremacy of Alauddin.His motives were to

secure the immense wealth and to force the southern states to accept

the suzerainty of the Sultanate. He had to face more than dozen

invasions. These invasions started from the end of 1296 and continued

upto 1308.The Mongols threatened not only Punjab,Multan and Sindh

but even Delhi and the Ganga-Yamuna Doab.This grave crisis

compelled him to take strong measures for the protection of the

northwest frontier. The 20 years of his rule came to an end with his

death on 2nd January 1316 AD.

Qutubuddin Mubarak Shah Khalji

A young son of the Sultan was placed on the throne and Malik Kafur

acted as the regent. Malik Kafur killed other members of the

Allauddin's family but he was murdered and Mubarak Khan the third

son became the regent. He imprisoned Sahibuddin and ascended the

throne as Qutub uddin Mubarak in the year 1316.He tried to win the

good will of the people.He liberalized Alauddin's rigorous

administrative policies and repealed economic regulations.All prisoners

were released and harsh regulations were cancelled. The lands which

were confiscated were given back to their legitimate owners. Taxes

were lowered. He was under the influence of youth called Hassan who

later was called Khusru Khan who conspired to kill him. Thus Khalji

dynasty came to an end.Khusro tried to strike a reign of terror to

control the nobles. This was resented by the nobles particularly Ghazi

Malik who captured and beheaded the sultan. He ascended the throne

under the title of Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq Shah.

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Ruler of the Khalji Dynasty

Ruler of the Khalji Dynasty AD

1. Jalaluddin Firuz Khalji 1290-1296

2. Alauddin Khalji 1296-1316

3. Qutubuddin Mubarak 1316-1320

Tughlaq Dynasty

Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq

Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq laid the foundation of the Ttughlaq Dynasty.The

word Tughlaq was not the name of any tribe or clan but was the

personal name of Ghiyasuddin.He had to face enormous problems as a

Sultan. There were riots in various parts of the empire and the royal

treasury was empty. He pursued a policy of reconciliation with the

nobles and the people who were severely restricted under Alauddin.He

liberalized administration in certain respects. He gave up the practice

of physical torture in case of economic offences and recovery of debts.

He also discarded Alauddin's system of measurement of land for the

assessment of land revenue. He attempted to improve the finances of

the state and perused a policy to encourage agriculture. His twin

object was to increase land under cultivation and improve economic

condition of the cultivators. He took keen interest in the construction

of canal for irrigation and formulated famine policy to provide relief to

peasants in time of drought. The state demand of revenue was fixed

between 1/5th and 1/3rd of the produce. He further instructed that the

land revenue should not be enhanced more than 1/11th of the

estimated produce.

He continued the system of Dagh and Chehra instituted by

Alauddin.He built the fortified city of Tughlaqabad and gave a new

touch to the architecture of the Sultanate period. In 1321 he

dispatched the crown prince Jauna Khan to re-establish Sultan's

authority in the south. He annexed Warangal.Madurai and Bengal.

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Mohammad Bin Tughlaq

Jauna Khan ascended the throne in 1325 AD with the title of

Mohammad Bin Tughlaq.He ruled up to 1351.He was a profound

scholar of Persian, a penetrating critic,a litterateur of repute. He was a

great scholar of Persian and Arabic. He faced many revolts and

rebellions. The first of these revolts included his attempt to consolidate

his empire by curbing the rebellions of 1327 by his cousin Bahauddin

Garsharp in the Deccan and other of Kishulu Khan the governor of

Multan and Sind in 1328.One of the much condemned experiments of

the Sultan was the transfer of capital from Delhi to Devagiri

(1327).The transfer was attempted primarily due to two reasons -for

its central location and secondly its close proximity to the south which

was a newly conquered region. The transfer of capital involved the

shifting of the army, officials, servants, tradesmen, court and shift of

population. There was a widespread resentment against the Sultan

who decided to retransfer the capital to Delhi. The order of going back

to the old capital caused much distress to the people. Another of his

novel and daring experiments was the introduction of the token

currency of bronze coins in place of silver tanka in 1329-30.The value

of the token coins was deemed to be equal to a silver coin. The main

reason for this measure was the scarcity of silver.

This measure proved useful in the beginning but later on it caused

serious problems. People soon began to manufacture counterfeits of

bronze in large numbers. There was a surfeit of coins in circulation.

This naturally led to its depreciation and most people began to prefer

copper tankas for payments and silver or gold issues for receipts. The

Sultan was compelled to withdraw the token currency. He offered to

exchange all the token coins for the silver coins resulting in huge

losses to the treasury. He planned an expedition for the conquest of

Khurasan and Iraq. He raised an army of 3, 70,000 soldiers and gave

it a whole year's salary in advance. But the army did not leave for the

expedition and was disbanded. The scheme was abandoned when the

Sultan learnt that the conditions in Iraq had improved and was not

conducive to an expedition. Towards the end of his reign the sultan

increased the land revenue in the doab. He decided to enhance the

land tax in the doab because of richness of its soil.Doab was facing

total famine which was followed by plague. The Sultan raised the tax

from 5 to 10%. Therefore the peasants instead of paying the taxes

abandoned their lands and adopted highway robbery. The tax

collectors continued to collect taxes by oppression. It resulted in

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extensive revolts. Mohammad Bin Tughlaq died in 1351.The whole of

south India became independent during his life time and three major

independent states- the empire of Vijaynagar,the Brahmani kingdom

and the Sultanate of Madura were founded in the territories of the

sultanate of the south.

Later Tughlaqs

Firoz Tughlaq was succeeded by his grandson who took up the title of

Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq Shah II.Within a year of his accession he fell

victim to intrigue and was beheaded in early 1389.For the next five

years Sultans- Abu Bakr, Muhammad Shah and Alauddin Sikandar

Shah ruled. In 1390 Nasiruddin entered Delhi and enthroned himself.

He was the last sultan of the dynasty and ruled from 1390-

1412.During his reign Timur the Mongol leader of Central Asia invaded

India. After plundering Delhi he returned to Samarkand.On his way

back he plundered Firozabad, Kangra, Meerut and Jammu.Khizr Khan

was appointed governor of Multan, Lahore and Dipalpur.Timur's

invasion dealt a fatal blow to the Tughlaq dynasty and the Sultanate of

Delhi. In 15th century the Sultanate completely disintegrated and

numerous provincial kingdoms emerged in various parts of the

country.

Rulers of the Tughlaq Dynasty

Rulers of the Tughlaq Dynasty AD

1. Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq Shah 1320-1325

2. Mohammad Bin Tughlaq 1325-1351

3. Firuz Tughlaq 1351-1388

4. Later Tughlaq 1388-1414

The Saiyyid Dynasty

Khizr Khan was not only the founder of the Saiyyid Dynasty but also

its ablest ruler. Khizr Khan did not rule as a sovereign ruler but

professed to rule as the deputy of Timur's son and successor. He

assumed the title of Shah and got the Khutba read in his name. In

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1412 he conquered Gujarat,Gwalior and Jaunpur.In 1416 he defeated

Bayana and in 1421 he attacked Mewat.Due to the illness he died in

the year 1421.He was succeeded by his son Mubarak Shah in 1421

who ruled till 1434.He was succeeded by his son Muhammad Shah in

1434 who ruled till 1445 AD. He remained in his capital sunk in

indolence and pleasure. He was succeeded by his son Alauddin Alam

Shah 1445-51.He was the weakest ruler of the Saiyyid Dynasty. He

was deposed by Bahlol Lodhi, the powerful governor of Lahore and

Sirhind who founded the Lodhi dynasty.

Rulers of the Saiyyid Dynasty

Rulers of the Saiyyid Dynasty AD

1. Khizr Khan 1414-1421

2. Mubarak Shah 1421-1434

3. Muhammad Shah 1434-1445

4. Alauddin Alam Shah 1445-1450