6_Glorious_Epochs_of_Indian_History

5TH OnORIOUS EPOCH ' 297
Kanaaldevi fell into the hands of Alla.uddin while she was
-fleeing for safety*. Btit the ruler, however, could effect his
escape along with his princely daughter, Devaldevi, a mere
•child then. Used to aU sorts of royal comforts and pleasures
till the very previous day as she was how hard and unbear­
able might this tender and beautiful royal princess have
found it to undergo all the calamities and privations and
•exertions of wandering for days together through forest
^fter forest and trying to evade the ever present possibility
of capture by the pursuing Muslims might easily be
imagined. In that tender age hatred for the Muslims must
have been engraved deeply on her bosom because of other
people's and her own actual experience. Her very mother,
IRani Kamaldevi, had become the beloved queen of Sultan
-AUauddin at Delhi, and that very mother of hers was now
•out to seize her and make her a Muslim ! How painful must
this news have been to her tender heart ! In order to evade
this terrible fate she was married, even a little against her
father's wishes to Ramdevrao's son, Shankardev, the staunch
follower of Hinduism. But her evil star did not leave her
•alone there. In one of the invasions of Maliq Kafur against
the Hindus, she was caught and carried away to Delhi as a
captive. She must have been smarting with pain and
humiliation a hundred thousand times in that moment of
'despair ! At last on reaching Delhi she was forced to marry
Khijrakhan', the eldest son of AUauddin. Some writers
vouch that Devaldevi and Khijrakhan greatly loved each
•otheri". But this seems to be the flattering way of the courtly
writers. Her subsequent course of action makes it abundantly
•clear ! But that shrewd Hindu princess seems to have
affected her love for Islam and for her husband till she got
the desired opportunity.
749. It becomes crystal-clear from the latter part of
her life that after all the atrocities and persecutions she was
constantly worshipping the Hindu god.
760. Even after being forced to marry Allauddin's
•eldest son, the mental agonies ot Devaldevi did not cease.