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.
