The Tughlaqs: Muhammad bin Tughlaq and Firoz Shah

Muhammad bin Tughlaq and his Schemes

Ghiyasuddin and the Founding of the Tughlaqs

What is the significance of the Tughlaqs: they carried the Sultanate to its widest extent, and under them began the long decline that would end in its fall.

The Tughlaq dynasty was founded in 1320 by Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, who had risen as a warden of the frontier under the Khaljis. He built the strong fortress-city of Tughlaqabad near Delhi, and in 1325, on his death, the throne passed to his son, the famous Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

Muhammad bin Tughlaq was among the most learned men ever to sit on the throne of Delhi, skilled in philosophy, mathematics and medicine. Yet he is remembered above all for a set of bold schemes, each clever in its design and each a failure in the end, which the next sub-section sets out. The table below sets out the chief sultans of the Tughlaq dynasty.

The Bold Schemes that Failed

Distinguishing his schemes: Muhammad bin Tughlaq tried four great experiments, the moved capital, the token coins, the heavy Doab taxes and the far expeditions, and all of them came to grief.

His designs were ambitious. He moved the capital far south to Daulatabad and back again; he issued a token currency of cheap metal; he raised the taxes of the rich Doab in a year of famine, which drove the peasants to revolt; and he raised a great army for a campaign in Khurasan, only to disband it, while his expedition into the Qarachil hills was destroyed.

The cost was heavy. The treasury was drained, the people were stirred to anger, and the distant provinces seized the chance to break away. The famous traveller Ibn Battuta, who came from Morocco and served as the qazi of Delhi, has left a vivid account of the sultan and his troubled reign. The figure below sets out the four schemes.

The Two Great Experiments and the Empire at its Widest

The Transfer of the Capital to Daulatabad

What is the significance of the transfer: it is the most famous of all the sultan's experiments, a grand plan to hold the new conquests of the south that ended in ruin and retreat.

In 1327 Muhammad bin Tughlaq resolved to move his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad, the old Devagiri, deep in the Deccan, so as to rule the newly won south from its centre. He ordered not only his court but the people of Delhi to make the long march. The hardship was terrible, and many died on the road.

The plan failed. From so far south the sultan could not hold the north against the Mongols and the rebels, and in 1335 he ordered the capital moved back to Delhi, and the weary people marched north again.

The empire was at its widest under Muhammad bin Tughlaq, yet from its edges the provinces were already slipping away. From the Deccan rose two new powers, the empire of Vijayanagara in 1336 and the Bahmani kingdom in 1347, and the far south was never again ruled from Delhi. The map below sets out the empire, the moved capital and the kingdoms that broke free.

The Coins of Brass and Copper

Distinguishing the token currency: it was a daring experiment in money, a coin of cheap metal made to pass at the value of silver, that an age of forgers brought to ruin.

Muhammad bin Tughlaq issued tokens of brass and copper and decreed that they should pass at the value of the silver tanka. The idea was sound enough in theory, for it was the state that would set the value of the coin.

But the royal mints were not the only ones at work. Across the land men forged the cheap tokens in their own houses, until the coin was worthless and the sultan had to take it back, paying out good silver for the false tokens.

It must be marked that this token currency was of cheap metal, not of gold; the failure was a failure of forgery, not of debasement. The sultan did also strike a fine gold coin, the dinar, which the traveller Ibn Battuta admired, but that was a true gold piece and a separate thing from the doomed token experiment.

Firoz Shah Tughlaq and the Decline

The Builder and the Benevolent Despot

What is the significance of Firoz Shah: after the storms of his cousin's reign he brought a quieter age of public works and piety, though he could not undo the decline that had set in.

Firoz Shah Tughlaq, who ruled from 1351, turned from conquest to building. He dug the greatest network of canals in the India of his day to water the fields, and he founded new cities, among them Firozabad, Hisar and Jaunpur. He set up a Diwan-i-Khairat, a house of charity that gave portions to poor girls for their marriage, and a hospital for the sick.

He had a love of the past. He gathered and repaired old monuments, and famously brought two of the ancient stone pillars of Ashoka, from Topra and from Meerut, all the way to Delhi, where they still stand. He also kept a vast household of slaves, said to number a hundred and eighty thousand. The figure below sets out his chief works.

The Jizya and the Fall of the Tughlaqs

Distinguishing his orthodoxy and the decline: Firoz Shah was a pious and orthodox ruler, and after his death the weakened Tughlaq power could not withstand the storm that came from the north.

His piety had a hard edge. A strict and orthodox Muslim, Firoz Shah was the first sultan to extend the jizya, the tax on non-Muslims, to the Brahmins, who had before been spared it. He leaned on the orthodox divines and stamped his faith upon his rule, even as the strength of the Sultanate ebbed away beneath him.

After his death in 1388 the dynasty fell into weak and disputed hands. The crowning blow came in 1398, when Timur, the Turco-Mongol conqueror of Central Asia, swept down from the north-west and sacked Delhi with terrible slaughter. The Tughlaq line lingered on a few years more and then ended, and out of the ruin rose the Sayyids, whose story is the next part.

UPSC Relevance and Exam Focus

Where the Tughlaqs Fit in the UPSC-CSE Syllabus

This topic belongs to General Studies Paper I: medieval Indian history, and the Tughlaqs, above all the schemes of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, are among the most heavily tested of all the sultans.

The questions most often test the transfer of the capital to Daulatabad, the token currency and its failure, and the works of Firoz Shah, the canals and the Ashokan pillars.

Several linked points recur and are worth holding in working memory:

• The capital transfer: Delhi to Daulatabad in 1327, and back to Delhi in 1335.
• The token currency: Brass and copper coins, ruined by forgery, not a debasement.
• Ibn Battuta: The Moroccan traveller who served as qazi at Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s court.
• Firoz Shah’s canals: The biggest network of canals in the India of the age.
• The Ashokan pillars: Brought by Firoz Shah from Topra and Meerut to Delhi.

A 2006 question held that Muhammad bin Tughlaq did issue a gold coin, the dinar named by Ibn Battuta, so the assertion was true; but the reason, that he meant to make a token currency in gold for foreign trade, was false, for the token coins were of cheap metal, not gold. So the assertion was true and the reason false.

A 1998 question asked which sultan built the biggest network of canals; the answer is Firoz Shah Tughlaq, not Iltutmish or Ghiyasuddin. A common trap reads the token currency as a debasement of the coinage; in truth the coins were of cheap metal at a fixed value, and forgery, not debasement, was their undoing.

Sources and Further Reading

• NCERT, Medieval India (NCERT-inspired grounding)
• Wikipedia: Tughlaq dynasty
• Wikipedia: Muhammad bin Tughluq
• Wikipedia: Firuz Shah Tughlaq
• Wikipedia: Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq
• Wikipedia: Ibn Battuta
• Wikipedia: Bahmani Sultanate
• Wikipedia: Delhi Sultanate