Malik Kafur and the Mongol Invasions: Alauddin Khalji's Two Fronts

Mongols in India: The Mongol Invasions from 1221 to 1286

Mongols in India in the Thirteenth Century (1221 to 1286)

The Mongols first reached India in 1221, when Genghis Khan pursued the Khwarazmian prince Jalal-ud‑din to the Indus. Iltutmish refused the prince shelter, and the Mongols turned back, as told in the Slave dynasty under Aibak and Iltutmish.

The danger grew after Iltutmish's death. In 1241 the Mongol commander Tair Bahadur appeared before Lahore, and with no help coming from Delhi the Mongols sacked and almost emptied the town. In 1245 they besieged Multan, which was saved only by Balban's speedy march. The frontier of Delhi slowly fell back from the Jhelum to the Beas.

Balban met the threat with force and diplomacy. He repaired the forts of Tabarhinda, Sunam and Samana and posted a strong force to stop the Mongols crossing the Beas, and he opened contacts with Halaku, the Mongol Il-Khan of Iran. His eldest son, Prince Mahmud, was killed holding the Multan-Beas line against them.

Alauddin Khalji and the Mongol Invasions (1292 to 1306)

Chagatai Mongols and the Battle of Kili (1299)

Balban's frontier arrangements outlived him. In 1292 Abdullah, a grandson of Halaku, advanced on Delhi with 150,000 horsemen and was defeated by Jalaluddin Khalji near Balban's line of forts. The beaten Mongols asked for a truce, and 4,000 of them who had become Muslims came over and settled near Delhi.

The attacks that followed came from a different branch of the Mongols. The Il-Khans of Iran had on the whole been friendly to the Sultans of Delhi. Their rivals were the Chagatai Mongols of Transoxiana, whose ruler, Dawa Khan, could not prevail against the Il-Khan and turned on India instead. From 1297 he sent a series of campaigns against the forts that guarded Delhi.

In 1299 a Mongol army put at 200,000, under Dawa Khan's son Qutlugh Khwaja, came to conquer Delhi. It cut the city off from the country around it, and its men even entered many of its streets. It was the first time the Mongols had made a serious attempt to rule Delhi.

Alauddin decided to meet them outside the city, at Kili. In a number of actions the Indian armies held their own, though his famous general Zafar Khan was killed in one isolated action. Qutlugh Khwaja was badly wounded, and after some time the Mongols withdrew without risking a full battle; Qutlugh Khwaja died on the way back.

Siege of Siri (1303) and How Alauddin Defeated the Mongols

In 1303 the Mongols came again with 120,000 men, while Alauddin was campaigning against Chittor. He rushed back and fortified himself at his new capital, Siri, near Delhi. The two armies faced each other for two months, with daily skirmishes and great hardship for the people of Delhi, and then the Mongols retreated again without achieving anything.

The two invasions showed that the Sultans of Delhi could hold their own against the Mongols, something the rulers of Central and West Asia had not managed until then. They were also a stern warning, and Alauddin acted on it:

• A large army: He raised a large, efficient standing army, paid in cash, and fixed prices in the markets of Delhi so that it could live on its pay.
• The frontier forts: He repaired the fortresses near the Beas.
• Victories: His cavalry defeated the Mongols at Amroha in 1305, and in 1306 won a decisive victory near the Ravi.

In 1306 Dawa Khan died, and confusion and civil war followed among the Mongols, who ceased to threaten India until Timur united them again. Delhi recovered Lahore and in time pushed its control up to the Salt Range and the Indus. How the army was paid is explained in Alauddin Khalji's market reforms.

Mongols after Alauddin: Tarmashirin and Muhammad bin Tughlaq

One more major attack came under the Tughlaqs. Early in Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign the Chagatai Mongols under Tarmashirin burst into Sindh, and one force reached Meerut, about 65 km from Delhi. Muhammad bin Tughlaq defeated the Mongols in a battle near the Jhelum, occupied Kalanaur, and for some time held power as far as Peshawar beyond the Indus, showing that Delhi could now go over to the offensive.

No further large Mongol invasion followed. The next blow from Central Asia came from Timur, who sacked Delhi in 1398. Across the thirteenth century the Mongols had brought almost the whole of the Punjab and Kashmir under their control, yet the firmness of the Sultans and their diplomacy kept Delhi safe.

Malik Kafur: Alauddin Khalji's General in the Deccan

Malik Kafur and Alauddin Khalji: From Slave to Malik-Naib

Malik Kafur was captured at Cambay during the invasion of Gujarat in 1299 and presented to Alauddin. He was a eunuch slave said to be of Hindu descent, and in his youth he had belonged to a wealthy merchant of Cambay. His nickname, hazar-dinari, the thousand-dinar man, came from the price said to have been paid for him, though that was probably a compliment rather than a real sum.

He rose fast through his ability as an adviser and a commander. By 1306 he held the rank of barbeg, a chamberlain who also commanded troops, and that year he led an army that repulsed the Mongols in the Punjab. Alauddin then made him commander of the southern campaigns.

The campaigns made his name. They struck the imagination of the time, Amir Khusrau made them the subject of a book, and Alauddin appointed Kafur malik-naib, vice-regent of the empire.

Why Alauddin Khalji Turned to the Deccan and the South

The kingdoms of the Deccan and the south were rich and divided. The Yadavas of Devagiri, in the Maratha country, were constantly at war with the Kakatiyas of Warangal and with the Hoysalas of Karnataka, and the Hoysalas fought their neighbours, the Pandyas of Mabar, the Tamil coast. Such rivalries drew an invader further and further south.

Alauddin already knew the road. As governor of Kara he had raided Devagiri in 1296 and come back with the treasure that won him the throne. Ramachandra of Devagiri had then agreed to pay a yearly tribute, which had fallen into arrears, and he had helped Rai Karan, the ruler driven out of Gujarat, to hold on to part of south Gujarat.

Alauddin's aim was treasure and tribute, not direct rule. Each campaign was meant to make a southern king submit, hand over his treasure and elephants and promise a yearly tribute, after which he kept his throne.

Malik Kafur's Deccan Campaigns (1306 to 1311)

Devagiri (1306‑07): Ramachandra and the Yadavas

In 1306‑07 Alauddin planned two campaigns, one against Rai Karan, who was holding Baglana on the border of Malwa, and the second against Ramachandra of Devagiri, under Malik Kafur. Ramachandra surrendered to Kafur, was treated with honour and taken to Delhi.

There he was restored to his kingdom with the title Rai Rayan, a gift of one lakh tankas, a golden canopy that marked a ruler, and a district of Gujarat, and one of his daughters was married to Alauddin. The alliance proved of great value, for Devagiri became the base of the later campaigns.

Siege of Warangal (1310): Prataparudra and the Kakatiyas

The Kakatiyas ruled most of the eastern Deccan, today's Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, from their capital at Warangal. Long feudatories of the Rashtrakutas and the Western Chalukyas, they became sovereign under Rudradeva in 1163. Queen Rudrama Devi, praised by Marco Polo, ruled before Prataparudra, and the port of Motupalli on the Andhra coast was their main outlet to the sea.

An earlier attack on the Kakatiyas in 1303 had ended in disaster for the Sultanate. Kafur's army reached Warangal in January 1310 and broke through the outer fort after a month-long siege. Prataparudra surrendered, gave up his treasure and elephants and promised an annual tribute, and Kafur was back in Delhi by June 1310.

Dwarasamudra and Madurai (1311): The Hoysalas and the Pandyas

The Hoysalas ruled most of Karnataka between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. Their capital was first at Belur and then at Dwarasamudra, today's Halebidu in Hassan district, about 15 km from Belur. Both towns are famous for their carved Hoysala temples.

On his second campaign, on 25 February 1311, Kafur besieged Dwarasamudra with 10,000 soldiers, and the Hoysala king, Ballala III, surrendered vast wealth and agreed to pay an annual tribute. The invasions from Delhi began the decline of the Hoysala state, and the region later passed to Vijayanagara.

From Dwarasamudra Kafur marched into Mabar, the Pandya country. The Pandya rulers avoided a pitched battle, so Kafur plundered as much as he could, including a number of wealthy temples such as those at Chidambaram, and occupied Madurai in April 1311. For the first time an army from Delhi had reached Madurai, and it brought back untold wealth.

The campaign also showed how well the south was already known. When Kafur's army reached Vira-Chola in Mabar it found a colony of Muslim merchants settled there, and the local ruler even had Muslim troops in his army. But Kafur could not defeat the Tamil armies, and Mabar gave not even a formal promise of tribute. He reached Delhi in triumph on 18 October 1311.

Results of the Deccan Campaigns and Malik Kafur's Death

Tribute, Not Annexation: The Deccan after Alauddin

Politically the campaigns achieved less than their fame suggests. Warangal and Dwarasamudra promised tribute, but it was well known that an annual campaign would be needed to collect it, and Mabar promised nothing. Alauddin himself was not in favour of ruling the south directly.

The change began in his own lifetime. When Ramachandra died in 1315, his sons threw off the yoke of Delhi, and Kafur crushed them and took over the direct administration of Devagiri. Under Mubarak Shah a Muslim governor was installed there, and Warangal was made to cede a district and pay a yearly tribute of 40 gold bricks. Within a decade and a half of Alauddin's death all four southern kingdoms had been wiped out and brought under the direct rule of Delhi; Warangal fell to the Tughlaqs in 1323.

Malik Kafur's Death (1316) and the Coup after Alauddin

In his last years Alauddin was ill and left the government to Kafur. When the Sultan died on 4 January 1316, Kafur raised a young son of Alauddin, Shihabuddin, to the throne as a puppet, and imprisoned or blinded his other sons. No noble opposed him, a sign of how completely Alauddin had cowed the nobility.

Kafur's rule lasted about 35 days. He was killed by the palace guards in February 1316, and Alauddin's elder son Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah took power. The general who had led the armies of Delhi to Madurai left no lasting settlement in the south, but his campaigns opened the region to Delhi and prepared the way for the Tughlaqs.

Sources

• NCERT: Medieval India (Satish Chandra, Class XI, earlier edition), The Delhi Sultanat
• Delhi Tourism (Govt of NCT of Delhi): Siri
• District Madurai (Govt of Tamil Nadu): History
• District Warangal (Govt of Telangana): History
• District Hassan (Govt of Karnataka): History
• Wikipedia: Mongol invasions of India
• Wikipedia: Battle of Kili
• Wikipedia: Alauddin Khalji
• Wikipedia: Malik Kafur
• Wikipedia: Seuna (Yadava) dynasty
• Wikipedia: Kakatiya dynasty
• Wikipedia: Prataparudra
• Wikipedia: Motupalli
• Wikipedia: Hoysala Empire
• Wikipedia: Halebidu
• Wikipedia: Veera Ballala III
• Wikipedia: Gahadavala dynasty
• Wikipedia: Qutb ud din Mubarak Shah
• UPSC: Civil Services Examination question papers