Firishta Records Several Inroads Of Mongols In The Panjab During The Reign
Of Ghaiassuddin, In Withstanding One Of Which That King's Eldest Son Was
Slain; And There Are Constant Indications Of Their Presence In Sind Till
The End Of The Century.
But we find in that historian no hint of the chief
circumstances of this part of the story, viz., the conquest of Kashmir and
the occupation of Dalivar or Dilivar (G. T.), evidently (whatever its
identity) in the plains of India.
I do find, however, in the history of
Kashmir, as given by Lassen (III. 1138), that in the end of 1259,
Lakshamana Deva, King of Kashmir, was killed in a campaign against the
Turushka (Turks or Tartars), and that their leader, who is called
Kajjala, got hold of the country and held it till 1287.[1] It is difficult
not to connect this both with Polo's story and with the escapade of
Nigudar about 1260, noting also that this occupation of Kashmir extended
through the whole reign of Ghaiassuddin.
We seem to have a memory of Polo's story preserved in one of Elliot's
extracts from Wassaf, which states that in 708 (A.D. 1308), after a great
defeat of a Mongol inroad which had passed the Ganges, Sultan Ala'uddin
Khilji ordered a pillar of Mongol heads to be raised before the Badaun
gate, "as was done with the Nigudari Moghuls" (III. 48).
We still have to account for the occupation and locality of Dalivar;
Marsden supposed it to be Lahore; Khanikoff considers it to be
Dirawal, the ancient desert capital of the Bhattis, properly (according
to Tod) Deorawal, but by a transposition common in India, as it is in
Italy, sometimes called Dilawar, in the modern State of Bhawalpur. But
General Cunningham suggests a more probable locality in DILAWAR on the
west bank of the Jelam, close to Darapur, and opposite to Mung. These two
sites, Dilawar-Darapur on the west bank, and Mung on the east, are
identified by General Cunningham (I believe justly) with Alexander's
Bucephala and Nicaea. The spot, which is just opposite the battlefield of
Chilianwala, was visited (15th December, 1868) at my request, by my friend
Colonel R. Maclagan, R.E. He writes: "The present village of Dilawar
stands a little above the town of Darapur (I mean on higher ground),
looking down on Darapur and on the river, and on the cultivated and wooded
plain along the river bank. The remains of the Old Dilawar, in the form of
quantities of large bricks, cover the low round-backed spurs and knolls of
the broken rocky hills around the present village, but principally on the
land side. They cover a large area of very irregular character, and may
clearly be held to represent a very considerable town. There are no
indications of the form of buildings,... but simply large quantities of
large bricks, which for a long time have been carried away and used for
modern buildings.... After rain coins are found on the surface.... There
can be no doubt of a very large extent of ground, of very irregular and
uninviting character, having been covered at some time with buildings.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 293 of 655
Words from 152962 to 153489
of 342071
