poor old Sultan Jelal-ud-Din was avenged upon the murderer's descendents. Khusru Khan occupied the throne for a few months only, under the title of Sultan Nasir-ud-Din, when he in turn was slain by Ghazi Malik, a noble of Deobalpur, who then mounted the throne as the founder of a new dynasty, under the title of Sultan Ghiyas-ud-Din Tughlik Shah (1320). One of the first acts of the new Sultan was to send an army under his eldest son to Warangal. Laddar Deo was still King of Warangal, and at first tried to purchase peace by delivering up his treasure. Ulugh Khan, the Sultan's son, refused any terms, and commenced laying siege to the fort. The Hindoos were reduced to extremity, and were on the eve of capitulating, when a revolt broke out in the camp in consequence of a false report of the Sultan's death. The Hindoos seized the opportunity, sallied forth, and plundered the baggage of the army, whereupon Ulugh Khan retired to Dowlatabad, and Warangal had another respite. The respite, however, was a brief one, for no sooner had the Sultan punished the instigators of the revolt, than he sent Ulugh Khan with another army to besiege the ill-fated city. This time resistance was of no avail, and after a short siege the fort was taken, the Rajah with all his family and treasures were captured and sent to Delhi, and the very name of Warangal was altered to that of Sultanpur. This occurred in 1323. But the curse attending the Hindoo gold was still at work, and again we find that the desire of possessing this fatal gold led to crime. This time it was parricide, and Ulugh Khan was led away to kill his own father. This is the way the murder was effected. The Sultan was returning from an expedition to Delhi, and Ulugh Khan built a pavilion in which to receive him. This pavilion was so contrived that by treading on a certain stone the roof would fall in. Whilst the Sultan was being entertained at dinner, Ulugh Khan and the conspirators went out, touched the secret spring, and the roof fell in and killed the Sultan

and his companions. Ulugh Khan then mounted the throne under the title of Mahomed Tughlak Shah (1325).

We have now come to the time when we can find some authentic accounts of the Deccan country. The two great Hindoo kingdoms of Warangal and Deogiri have been destroyed, and in their place Mahomedan rule has been substituted. The representative of the Sultan of Delhi is an almost independent governor in the midst of on alien population. Except in the immediate vicinity of his capital, Dowlatabad, it is probable that he does not exercise more than a nominal sway. Though Mahomedan armies have marched far away to the south-it is said that Malik Kafur actually built a mosque at Rameswaram-they have left no permanent impression. All that they have done is to carry away plunder, and leave behind them ruins and heaps of corpses. There exists a bitter hatred against them on account of their cruelty and rapine, and already the Hindoos, driven away from Warangal and the Telingana, have founded a new kingdom at Vijayanagar, which is destined to be for two hundred and fifty years a bulwark against further invasion. In Delhi there is a constant struggle for the throne. Tempted by the enormous amount of treasure which has been carried away from the Hindoos, there are adventurers always eager to obtain a share. Already on the north-western frontiers has appeared the shadow of the Mogul conqueror, who before long will drive the Afghan Sultans away. Amid such scenes of disturbance it is not likely that the Sultans of Delhi can exercise a very effectual control over so distant a place as Dowlatabad. If this part of the country is to be preserved under Mahomedan rule, there must be a local leader to concentrate the scattered Hindoo provinces which have lost their ancient rulers. The time for the birth of a new kingdom has arrived, and when the hour has come. the man is always ready. And so it was in this case.

reign of twenty-seven years (from 1325 to 1352, A.D.) he brought his kingdom to the verge of ruin by his mad acts of tyranny and insane adventure. He was wise enough to see that if the new conquests in the Deccan were to be preserved to the Mahomedans, and the growing power of the young Hindoo kingdom at Vijayanagar kept in check, it would be necessary to have the central power nearer to the newly conquered province than Delhi. The distance from the capital, and the immense wealth hoarded up by the Hindoo princes

The

offered too great a temptation to the loyalty of his lieutenants. The Governors at Dowlatabad were constantly being accused of disloyalty, and were frequently removed. In order to obviate this he conceived the mad idea of transferring his capital from Delhi to Dowlatabad. This was not done gradually, but, as it were at a moment's notice, the whole of the inhabitants of the great city, which for 180 years had been the capital of the Mahomedan Empire in India, were ordered to leave their homes and emigrate to Dowlatabad. The historian Barni thus describes the effect of this tyrannical order: "The city with its sáráis and its suburbs and villages spread over four or five Kos (about 10 miles). All was destroyed. So complete was the ruin, that not a cat or dog was left among the buildings of the city, in its palaces or in its suburbs. Troops of the natives, with their families and dependents, wives and children, men-servants, and maid-servants were forced to remove. people who for many years and for generations had been natives and inhabitants of the land were broken-hearted. Many from the toils of the long journey, perished on the road, and those who arrived at Deogiri could not endure the pain of exile. In despondency they pined to death. All around Deogiri, which is an infidel land, there sprung up graveyards of Mussulmans. The Sultan was bounteous in his liberality and favours to the emigrants, both on their journey and on their arrival: but they were tender and they could not endure the exile and the suffering. They laid down their heads in that heathen land, and of all the multitudes of emigrants few only survived to return to their home. Thus the city, the envy of the cities of the inhabited world, was reduced to ruin. One of these emigrants was a was a man who afterwards became very famous in the Deccan as the founder of a new kingdom. This man was called Hassan. He was born in the year 1290 (A. D.) and was in very humble circumstances. For the first thirty years of his life he was nothing more than a field labourer,

and was employed by a Brahmin of Delhi named Gangu. This Brahmin gave him a piece of land near the city walls, together with a pair of oxen and two labourers. Hassan was a hard working honest man, and one day when he was at work with his plough, it struck in some hard body “and Hassan upon examination, found it was entangled in a chain round the neck of an earthen vessel, which proved to be full of antique gold coins. He immediately carried them to the Brahmin, who commended his honesty and informed the Prince of the discovered treasure" (Scott's Ferishta). This prince was the Sultan Ghaziuddin, who reigned from 1320 to 1325. The Sultan was so much pleased with Hassan's honesty, that he ordered him to be brought to his presence and bestowed upon him the command of one hundred horse. This sudden elevation from the position of a field labourer to that of a military officer of considerable rank would appear absurd now-a-days, but five hundred years ago it was no uncommon thing. The Brahmin Gangu, who employed Hassan, was one of the royal astrologers, and attracted by this promotion of his hitherto obscure servant he cast his horoscope. In this horoscope he found it foretold that Hassan would one day become a king. In repeating this prophecy to Hassan, the Brahmin made one request, viz., that Hassan should adopt his name in future, and when he should some day become king that he would appoint him as his minister of finance. This Hassan promised, and from that time was known as Hassan Gangu *. It is said that his good fortune was also predicted by a Mahomedan saint named Shekh Nizam-ud-Din Oulea, whose memory is still venerated at Delhi, and whose tomb is resorted to annually by numerous pilgrims. These prophecies and his recent promotion, no doubt, fired Hassan's *This name as translated from the Persian historians is generally. spelt Kangoh, but it evidently refers to Gangu a not uncommon Hindoo

name.