6_Glorious_Epochs_of_Indian_History

328 SIX GLORIOUS EPOCHS OF INDIAN HISTORY
since the inception of Muslim religion.
828-A. In order to atone for the crazy religious acts
and the harassment of the subjects by the 'mad' Mohammad
(setting aside the religious persecution of Hindus which was
deemed harmonious with the tenets of the Muslim religion)
Sultan Pherozshah interned" with the bones of the late 'mad'
Mohammad the original papers regarding the reimbursement
of the unjust land revenue collected by him, refund of fines
and compensation for the other unjust acts of his, or their
governmental acknowledgements along with other original
papers signed by Mohammad himself. This action of
Pherozshah was perhaps prompted by his credulous belief,
that on the strength of this written record of the compen­
sation for all his crimes the great Allah would forgive
Mohammad on the last day of the judgment I And, be it
remembered that Pherozshah was well-educated according
to the standards of the time ! What to say, then, of the
common people !
829. Although in the beginning Pherozshah proclaimed
himself as the Sultan of Hindustan, everywhere in India,
with the only exception of Delhi and a small region around
it, the Hindus and the Muslims began one after another
to repudiate his imperial authority. In the South the
celebrated kingdom of Vijaynagar had openly asserted its
freedom. Under these circumstances Pherozshah Tughlak
decided finally to acknowledge the independence of the
recalcitrant peoples under him in order to assuage their
political bitterness and to consolidate whatever little he
could retain rather than lose all. He, therefore, gave an
ofiBcial recognition to the independence of the Bahamani
kingdom in the south and to that of the valiant Hindu
kingdom of Vijaynagar" which was founded by the great
Hindu leaders who were fired with the bitterest hatred for
the Muslim domination and were bent on driving it away
right out of India.
830. Thus was the Muslim imperial power, which had
reached its zenith round about the years A.D. 1310-12 in