contracting to respect each other's dominions, and Déo Rái agreeing to pay tribute as before. The terms of this treaty were strictly observed on both sides to the close of the king's reign. The king's beneficial. It is pleasing to read records of the king's benevolence in erecting and endowing hospitals, and of his vigorous prosecution of idle vagabonds and robbers, who were government sentenced to hard labour in chains. Edicts also were issued against the use of fermented liquors; but it does not appear that the king himself set a good example to his subjects. He not only indulged largely in wine, but now gave himself up to a sensual life, neglecting the affairs of state, and seldom appearing in public. A considerable force, however, was despatched under Mullik-oot-Toojár to reduce the rebellious and hitherto independent rajahs of the Konkan; but in 1453, after some successes, Mullik-oot-Toojár with his army was treacherously entrapped in a frightful ambuscade, when the whole perish in an of the force, and its gallant commander, perished miserably. Mullik-oot Toojar with his army ambuscade. foreign and The jealousies and rivalries between the foreign troops and the Deccanies had been gradually augmented during this Contention reign; and a great number of the former were massacred between in cold blood by the latter at the fort of Chakun, an native troops. event which laid the foundation of those commotions which eventually caused the decay of the dynasty. The king suppressed them for the time, and with much of his former vigour, notwithstanding the painful disorder in one of his feet, led his army in 1455 to oppose the King of Guzerat, who, however, retreated. On his return to Beeder in 1457, the king's disorder increased; and he soon afterwards died of mortification of the affected part, after a reign of nearly twenty-four years, Alla-ood-deen appointing his son Hoomayoon as his successor. II. dies, 1457. ceeds, 1457. Gawan, A feeble attempt to raise the king's youngest son Hussun to the throne was frustrated by the Prince Hoomayoon Hoomayoon himself, who, having blinded and imprisoned his brother, Shah suc took possession of it without opposition, and appointed Khwajah Khwajah Mahmood Gáwan, who had been steadily Mahmood rising in public esteem, to the office of chief minister. minister. Before his accession to the throne, the cruel and vindic- The king's tive temper of Hoomayoon had shown itself on so many occasions that he was feared by all classes; and it was not long before it broke out in acts of the most hideous cruelty. During the king's absence on a campaign in Telingána in 1459, a few desperate individuals, in the interest of one of the state prisoners, succeeded in setting him at liberty, and with him the king's brothers, the Princes Hussun and Yeháyá, who, with some 7,000 cruelties. persons were confined on various counts. The rage of the king when he heard of this event was beyond bounds. 2,000 of the city guards were put to death, and 8,000 cavalry despatched after the fugitives, who were finally entrapped at Beejapoor, and sent to the capital. The king now glutted himself with revenge. Seating himself in a balcony, over the gate of the fort, still perfect, he ordered his brother to be cast before a ferocious tiger, which killed him instantly and partially devoured him; and all who had even the most distant connection with the affair of his release, even menial servants, were impaled upon stakes, hewn to pieces, or cast alive into caldrons of boiling oil. After this, Hoomayoon Hoomayoon threw off all restraint; and his horrible cruelties continued to his death on September 3, 1461, Edward king by some accounts from fever, and by others, probably of England. more accurately, from the hands of his servants, who, in one of his fits of intoxication, put him to death. By his will, drawn up during his illness, he appointed the queen-mother and Khwajah Mahmood Gáwan, with Khwajah Jehan Toork, to be a council of regency on behalf of his son Nizam Shah, then eight years of age. Hoomayoon Shah had reigned three years and a half, the last two of which were passed in the revolting and inhuman cruelties which have been related, and in the most terrible debaucheries, too indecent to be recorded. Shah dies, 1461. Nizam Shah succeeds, 1461. king. CHAPTER XIV. OF THE BAHMUNY MAHOMEDAN DYNASTY OF THE DECCAN dowager's character. (continued), A.D. 1461 To 1482. NIZAM SHAH, the young king, was a boy of great promise, Nizam Shah, spirited, and yet amenable in all respects to his mother and her counsellors. The queen herself was one of The queen- the few remarkable women that have appeared among female Indian sovereigns. She did not sit in public; but she daily received all reports of the kingdom tendered to her by the members of the regency, and gave her opinion and orders upon them. She brought her son forward in public, and directed that he should sit every day in the hall of audience while the business of the State was being transacted, in order that he should gain a full knowledge of current affairs. Under this attention to general affairs of State, the neglect and cruelty of Hoomayoon were speedily redeemed; but the dominion of a woman and a child could not be believed powerful by the neighbouring princes, and the Hindoos of Orissa and Telingana were the first to take the field, and advanced with a great army upon the capital. The kingdom The queen, in nowise dismayed, put herself at the invaded by head of 40,000 troops: and when the Hindoos had of Wurungul. advanced to within ten miles of Beeder, an unaccountable panic seized them, and they began to retreat. They were They retreat. closely pursued by the royal army, until the Rajah of the Hindoos of Malwah. are defeated. Orissa was obliged to take refuge in a fort, from which he was not allowed to depart without paying the expenses of the war. During these operations, the young king was daily in the field with Mahmood Gáwan, and was thus early initiated into the details of war. Hardly had the Hindoos retired, than Sooltan Mahmood Khiljy of Malwah invaded the Bahmuny Invasion by kingdom, in the hope of annexing it to his own; and the Sooltan advanced, unchecked, to within a short distance of Beeder. The young king again appeared at the head of his army, and was present in a severe general action fought near Beeder, during which, for a time, the Bahmuny army was successful; but, at a critical point in the action, the Sooltan of Malwah The Bahcharged the Bahmuny centre with his chosen horse and muny forces won the battle. The Sooltan of Malwah now invested Beeder Beeder; and the queen, under the advice of her coun- invested. sellors, betook herself to Ferozabad on the Bheema, carrying the king with her. Ambassadors had also been despatched to the King of Guzerat, Mahmood Shah, who, unwilling to see the balance of power destroyed, marched at once with Relief from 80,000 horse into the Deccan, being met by Mahmood Guzerat. Gawan, who had kept the field, and was cutting off the Sooltan of Malwah's supplies. Beeder had been invested by the sooltan, but the fort proved impregnable; and now threatened on his flank by the combined forces of Guzerat and the Deccan, he abandoned the siege of Beeder, and commenced his retreat to his own The Sooltan dominions. While Mahmood Gáwan directed 10,000 of Malwah cavalry to harass the sooltan's retreat, he operated himself on the left flank of the enemy, declining a general action, until the Malwah army was reduced to sore straits for food. The sooltan burut his baggage, and was pursued to the frontier of the Gônd districts, whence, through the desolate forest His priva tracts which compose them, he retreated into Malwah, tions and losing the greater part of his army by heat, starvation, and thirst. In the following year, 1462, the invasion was renewed by way of Dowlatabad ; but the King of Guzerat again interfered in force, and the Sooltan of Malwah was obliged to retreat. retires. losses. The Bahmuny dominions being now at peace, the queen-mother returned to Beeder with her son; and preparations for his marriage were in progress, when, to the great grief of all, he died suddenly on July 29, 1463, having reigned only two years. Nizam Shah dies, 1463. Mahomed Shah II. succeeds, 1463. Misconduct of the King Hoomayoon had left three sons, Nizam, Mahomed, and Ahmed; and the Prince Mahomed, now in his ninth year, was placed on the throne; the regency of the queenmother, with her two counsellors, continuing as before. Of the latter, Khwajah Jehan Toork, who represented the Deccany party, was the executive minister at Beeder; and having contrived to keep Mahmood Gáwan employed at a distance, usurped the queen's authority, and so greatly misused minister, it in peculations from the treasury, and other corrupt practices, that the queen determined to rid herself of him. She accordingly instructed her son the king, who sat daily in public, to denounce the minister; and as the boy one day took his seat, he cried to Nizam-ool-Moolk, one of the chief nobles, as he pointed to the minister, 'That wretch is a traitor, put him to death,' an order instantly obeyed. Mahmood Gáwan was now sent for, and to him the queen committed the executive details of the government. When the king had reached his fourteenth year he was married, and the queen, recognising his who is executed. The queen dowager retires from office. Kéhrla attacked and taken. majority, retired from the regency; but her son continued to consult her on all important affairs of State for many years afterwards, indeed to the close of her life. The first act of the king was to despatch an army to reduce Kéhrla, the rajah of which, in connection with Malwah, kept up much irritation on the northern frontier. This expedition was successful; but the brave Nizam-oolMoolk, who commanded it, was treacherously killed by two of the enemy, after the place was taken, a loss deeply felt by the young king. The Sooltan of Malwah was not likely to submit tamely to the capture of Kéhrla, and remonstrated; and after a series of negotiations, which are very graphically detailed by Ferishta, a treaty resulted, by which Kéhrla was given up, and Malwah resigned all claim upon Berar or any part of the Bahmuny dominions, terms which were faithfully observed on both sides. In 1469, the kingdom being otherwise at peace, Mahmood Gawan marched into the Konkan, where it will be remembered Mullik-oot-Toojár had perished with his army during the reign of Alla-ood-deen Shah Bahmuny II. The expedition reduced and was particularly directed against the Rajah of Kéhrla, annexed. who maintained a piratical fleet and intercepted the trade of the Mahomedans. These operations were perfectly successful. The whole of the Konkan, hitherto considered irreclaimable, was reduced to obedience in three years, and was taken with its The Konkan Campaign in dependencies from the Rajah of Beejanugger; and Mahmood Gawan was received on his return to Beeder with public honours. The king himself undertook his first campaign in 1471, when he marched into Telingána, at the instance of Ambur Rái, a relative of the Rajah of Orissa, who promised to Telingana. become tributary should he be restored to his rights. Battle of The king on this occasion took Condapilly and Rajah- Edward IV. mundry, and brought the campaign to a successful restored. conclusion. Yoosuf Adil Khan, governor of Dowlatabad, was also successful at the period in a campaign against the independent chieftains of the mountains bordering on Khandésh, and was rising steadily into notice and favour. Barnet. second Death of the dowager. expedition Orissa. In 1472 the king conducted his second field campaign, against Birkána Rái, rajah of Belgaum, then, as now, a strong The king's fort with a wet ditch. The fort was regularly besieged, campaign. and artillery employed to breach the walls, as well as Use of mines to blow in the counterscarp of the ditch. When artillery. the breach was reputed practicable, it was assaulted, and on the failure of the first attack the king himself led another, which was entirely successful. The queen-mother had accompanied her son on this campaign, and to his great grief died on the journey homewards, in camp near Beejapoor. Her queenremains were buried at Beeder. After about five years of peace another expedition into Orissa occurred in Second 1477; but it is doubtful whether the king, though he against levied tribute from the rajah, ever completely possessed the country. He reduced, however, the Rajah Nursinga, whose dominions lay on the coast, near Masulipatam, and extended probably to those of the Beejanugger kingdom: and while engaged in these operations, he marched with a light force upon Conjeveram Conjeveram, and despoiled the great temples there of plundered, an immense amount of jewels and gold. It was the first occasion on which the Mahomedan arms had penetrated so far to the south of India, which, as yet, belonged exclusively to the Hindoos; and the event was considered so remarkable, that to commemorate it, the king assumed the title of Gházy, or holy warrior. On this occasion, however, the king had slain a Brahmin with his own hand, and as Brahmins had been hitherto spared out of consideration for Gungoo of Dehly, the circumstance was considered by the people a dire omen for the dynasty. 1477. By the recent conquests of the king and his generals, the Bahmuny territories had become considerably extended. They now stretched from sea to sea, and had attained their greatest limits, and a new division of them took place. Many other reforms were carried out under the suggestions of Mahmood |