Lodi Dynasty Who was the founder of Dynasty?

Bahlul Lodi (also Bahlol Lodi) was the founder of the in India. He served as the of between 1451 and 1489. He was a brave soldier and an energetic ruler.

Achievements: Soon after his accession to the throne, tried to restore somewhat of the faded splendor of Delhi.

• First of all he established peace and order in the areas surrounding Delhi and brought under his control those fief-holders and chieftains who had enjoyed varying degree of autonomy for the last so many years. • Then he waged a continuous war against the Sharqi rulers of Jaunpur, who had become a great danger to the Lodi Empire. He conquered that territory and put it under the charge of his son Barbak Shah. • This success greatly strengthened the position of Bahlul Lodhi. Then several expeditions were sent against the chiefs of Mewat, Kalpi, Sambhal, Koil, Dholpur and Rewari and they offered their submission.

• Character: Bahlul Lodhi was a pious and generous ruler who led his life strictly according to the Islamic law. He hated pomp and show and sat with his chiefs on the carpet. Though himself not so learned yet he liked the company of the learned and extended his patronage to them. He was a great lover of justice and took personal interest in redressing the grievances of his subjects. He was very kind to the poor and often distributed huge amounts among them.

• Death: Bahlol Lodhi died on 12th of July in 1489 and was succeeded by his son Sikandar Lodhi.

Sikandar Lodi (Delhi Sultan)

Sikandar Lodi, son of Bahlul Khan, was the Sultan of Delhi from 1489 to 1517. After the death of father, he became the Sultan of Delhi. He belonged to Lodi Dynasty. Oh Buhlul’s death the nobles of the court were divided on the question of succession. One group supported succession of Nizam Khan, whom they got nominated by Buhlul Lodi before his death as the heir-apparent, the other group favored the succession of the eldest son of Buhlul, Barbak Shah, who was at the time of the death of Buhlul at Jaunpur. Nizam Khan’s mother boldly intervened on behalf of her son and he was crowned king on July 15, 1489. He took the title Sikandar Shah. He was, in fact, the ablest among the surviving sons of Buhlul and proved worthy of the choice as king.

Sikandar’s first task was to secure his own position by reducing his rivals to submission and strengthening his own followers. His uncle Alam Khan was an aspirant to the throne besides some others. Alam Khan was making preparations to assert his independence at Rapri and Chandwar. Sikandar marched against him, besieged Rapri and put him to flight. Isa Khan who was opposed to the succession of Sikandar gave asylum to Alam Khan and both now thought of taking the field against Sikandar. But Sikandar by his conciliatory policy towards Alam Khan won him over and granted him a fief at Etawah. Isa was then defeated. Azam Humayun, a cousin of Sikandar was also a candidate for the throne. Sikandar dispossessed him of his fief at Kalpi and bestowed it upon Khan Lodi. Another opponent of Sikandar was Tatar Khan Lodi but Sikandar generously allowed him to remain in possession of Jhtra on his acknowledging Sikandar’s suzerainty. Thus within a year Sikandar succeeded in pacifying or subduing his opponents and rivals and thereby consolidating his power.

Sikandar’s ideal of kingship did not admit of any divided monarchy. He therefore would not allow, his elder brother Barbak Shah to rule in Jaunpur in complete independence. He, therefore, tried to bind Barbak in a subordinate alliance, and to that end sent a mission to him. But due to the influence of Husain Shah, the ex-king of Jaunpur, Barbak rejected the proposal. This made it necessary to subdue Barbak by military force. Sikandar marched against him upon which Barbak fled to Badaun where he was besieged and ultimately compelled to surrender. Sikandar restored Jaunpur to Barbak as a titular king there but divided the kingdom into a number of fiefs which he distributed among his followers. Sikandar also placed his trusted men in Barbak’s court and even in his household. Soon after the zamindars of Jaunpur rebelled against Barbak at the instigation of Husain Shah which compelled Barbak to flee to Dariyabad near Lucknow. Sikandar at once marched against the rebels, crushed them and reinstated Barbak to his kingdom. But Barbak, being inherently a weak ruler proved incompetent to run the administration whereupon Sikandar removed him and put him into confinement and appointed a governor at Jaunpur.

Sikandar & the Nobility: Sikandar Lodi was determined to bring the nobles under proper discipline and control. Although he did not make any fundamental change of the existing system of administration, he took measures to curb the individualistic tendencies and tribal independence of the Afghans and to make them contribute to the welfare of the entire Afghan community in India. He instituted the system of proper audit and accounting of the income and expenditure of the governors and officers of the state. Defalcation and embezzlement were visited with most deterrent punishment. One of the chief nobles, Mubarak Khan Lodi who was in charge of the revenue collection of Jaunpur was punished and compelled to disgorge the defalcated amount. Sikandar Lodi insisted on formalities in the court. Discourteous conduct was severely punished by Sikandar. The nobles did not like the strict observance of courtesies and discipline and conspired to depose the Sultan and to place his younger brother Fateh Khan on the throne. The conspiracy was, however, divulged and the Sultan banished twenty-two of his nobles guilty of conspiring from the royal court. Royal farmans had to be received by the nobles all standing before the sultan in the court. Such steps restored discipline and courtesy among the nobles. The success of Sikandar was largely due to the efficient system of espionage that he maintained. He borrowed the idea from Sultan Ala-ud-din Khalji. He kept himself abreast of the happenings in the kingdom so much so that he was commonly believed to possess supernatural power.

Sikandar’s reign was marked by material prosperity. With the restoration of law and order, trade and commerce thrived, abolition of duties on grains made grains cheaper. Food and cloth and other necessaries of daily life became cheap, making people happy and contented.

Sikandar was a religious bigot. He prohibited the to bathe in the sacred tank of Thaneswar and in the river Jamuna. He followed the policy of destroying Hindu temples and building mosques in those sites.

The idol at the Jwalamukhi temple at Nagarkot was broken and its pieces were given to the butchers to use as weights to measure meat. He was responsible for the destruction of many temples at Mathura, Mandrail, Utgir, Narwar, Chanderi and other places. Bodhan a Hindu was put to death under his order for no other offence than saying that Hinduism was as true a religion as . Like Firuz Tughluq he followed the policy of converting the Hindus into Islam.

His conquests: Sikandar’s ambition prompted him to recover as much of the territories lost to the as possible. His annexation of Jaunpur brought him in conflict with which was a part of then. Some of the rebellious zamindars of Jaunpur had close contacts with Husain Shah Sharqi who had been ousted from Jaunpur in the previous reign. Husain was living in Bihar wherefrom he was instigating the Jaunpur zamindars. In order to suppress the zaminders Sikandar led an expedition to Phaphamau near Allahabad whose ruler Raja Bhil was the leader of the disaffected zamindars. But the Raja could not be subdued completely; on the contrary his expedition of the year 1494 caused considerable loss to the cavalry of the Sultan. Raja Bhil who was in league with Husain Shah invited (he latter informing him that in the condition of terrible loss suffered by Sikandar it would be easy to defeat him. Husain proceeded with his army and in the engagement Benares Husain was defeated and had to take to flight. Sikandar pursued the retreating army of Husain and occupied Bihar. He then stayed in Bihar for some time and raided Tirhut which was compelled to agree to pay an annual tribute to the Delhi Sultan.

Ala-ud-din Husain Shah, king of Bengal considered Bihar a part of his kingdom and Husain Shah as his protege. He sent his son Daniyal to oppose the Delhi army but both Sikandar and Ala-ud- din Husain Shah came to sign a treaty without a fight, stipulating that no party would invade the territory of the other. The king of Bengal also agreed not to give shelter to enemies of Sikandar. In this way the eastern frontier of Sultanate was pushed to the frontiers of the Bengal.