6_Glorious_Epochs_of_Indian_History

CHAPTER XVin
THE BEGINNmG OF THE FINAL OVERTHROW OF
THE MUSLIM EMPIRE
818. Soon after slaying Shree Dharmarakshak (Nasir-
ud-din) Ghyasuddin Tughlak ascended the throne of the
Delhi Sultanate in A.D. 1321 and issued a proclamation to
that effect^. This was the end of the Khilji dynasty and the
beginning of the Tughlak rule.
819. Ghyasuddin too was old. Naturally he treated
the Muslims leniently. But although born of a Hindu jat
mother, he, strangely enough did not fall short of any type
of religious persecution of the Hindus perpetrated by any or
all of the former Muslim Sultans* !
820. Ghyasuddin died in A.D. 1326 and was succeeded
by his son Mohammad Tughlak who has gone down in
history as 'crazy'. He once had a strange whim of shifting
his capital from Delhi to Devgiri in the south. Immediately
he changed the name of Devgiri, according to the Muslim
tradition, into Doulatabad, just as Warangal had been chang­
ed earlier by the Muslims into Sultanpur*. But this change
of capital from Delhi to Devgiri caused him and his subjects
so much trouble*, disrupted his already confusion-fraught
revenue system so completely and so many insurrections and
political risings^ were brewing in the royal families and the
people at large in the Deccan (as already pointed out in the
previous chapter) that this 'crazy' Mohammad was ultimately
forced to have another whim of shifting the capital once
again back to Delhi. But this short interlude cost millions
(crores) of rupees and thousands of lives.
820-A. With a view to get out of this financial trouble
he introduced the copper coins, which drained his treasury
completely; but he blamed the farmers and the other gentry