The country we had to traverse was a wood formed of trees and reeds, so overgrown, that nobody could penetrate it. The Sultan ordered every army man,… - S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar
" "The country we had to traverse was a wood formed of trees and reeds, so overgrown, that nobody could penetrate it. The Sultan ordered every army man, great or small, to carry a hatchet and cut down these obstacles. When the camp had been arranged, he set out on horseback to the forest, accompanied by soldiers. They cut down trees from morning till midday. Then food was served for everybody ; after that they began hewing till evening. Every infidel found in the forest was taken prisoner. They sharpened stakes at both ends and made their captives carry them on their shoulders. Each was accompanied by his wife and children and they were thus led to the camp. It is the custom of these people to surround their camp with a palisade having four gates. They call it catcar round the habitation of the king. Outside the principal boundary, they erected a platform about a half brasse high and lighted a fire on it during the night. Slaves and sentinels spent the night there holding a fagot of very slender reeds in their hands. When infidels approached to attack the camp during the night, they lighted the fagots. The brightness of the flames converted night into day, and the horsemen set out in pursuit of the infidel.
About S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Diwan Bahadur Sakkottai Krishnaswamy Aiyangar FRAS (15 April 1871 – 26 November 1946) was an Indian historian, academician and Dravidologist. He chaired the Department of Indian History and Archaeology at the University of Madras from 1914 to 1929.
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Additional quotes by S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Here he heard that in Brahmastpuri there was a golden idol, round which many elephants were stabled.' Malik Kafur started on a night expedition against this place and in the morning seized no less than 250 elephants. He then determined on razing the beautiful temple to the ground — ' you might say that it was the Paradise of Shaddad, which, after being lost, those " hellites " had found, and that it was the golden Lanka of Ram ' — ' in short, it was the holy place of the Hindus, which the Malik dug up from its foundations with the greatest care,' and the heads of the Brahmans and idolaters danced from their necks and fell to the ground at their feet, and blood flowed in torrents. ' The stone idols called Ling Mahadeo, which had been a long time established at that place, up to this time, the kick of the horse of Islam had not attempted to break.' The Musalmans destroyed all the Lings, ' and Deo Narain fell down, and the other gods who had fixed their seats there raised their feet, and jumped so high, that at one leap they reached the fort of Lanka, and in that affright the Lings themselves would have fled had they had any legs to stand on.' Much gold and many valuable jewels fell into the hands of the Musalmans, who returned to the royal canopy, after executing their holy project, on the 13th of Zi-1-ka'da A.H. 710 (A.D. April 1311). They destroyed all the temples at Birdhul, and placed the plunder in the public treasury.
The more important among the citizens having deliberated as to what they should do, walled up the north gate of the temple and left the temple vacant burying the goddess idol that escaped capture under a bilva tree (Aegla Marmelos). Sixty of these men placed themselves under the guidance of the woman mendicant and set forward on their journey to Delhi. She put on the former guise and got entry into the palace as before. In the meanwhile those that followed her managed to get audience of the Sultan, and by exhibiting both the music and the dance for which they were famous, as having had to perform daily before the god, they pleased the Sultan so greatly and declined all rewards offered by the Sultan, preferring instead the one idol of Ranganatha, among the many, as the reward. The Sultan ordered that these men might be allowed to take the idol of their choice. Not finding this particular idol in the store-room and knowing as they did that it was with the princess, they reported the matter to the Sultan, who in joke told them that if it was their god they might call him and take him away. They agreed and sang their prayers, which the idol answered by following them. Showing this to the Sultan they obtained his permission and started off with their idol over-night. When morning broke, the princess was disconsolate at the loss of her idol and declined to live if she could not have it. Search for the party proving useless, he placed her under an escort and sent her off for the idol. The Brahmans of Srirangam having had a start, marched along ahead and reached Tirupati safe before they could be overtaken by the princess and her escort. At Tirupati they heard of the arrival of the party of the princess and feeling themselves unsafe, the party broke up and dispersed themselves to avoid observation leaving the idol in charge of three men among them, the father and son, and the son's maternal uncle. The big party having thus disappeared, the escort marched on till they reached Srlrangam. Finding that the northern gate of the temple was walled up and the temple empty, the princess died of a broken heart.
In the neighbourhood of his territory was an infidel sovereign named Belal Deo (Ballala Deva), who was one of the principal Hindu Kings. His army exceeded hundred thousand men, and he had besides, twenty thousand Mussalmans formed of criminals and slaves. This monarch thought it expedient to go against the Coromandel Coast where the Mussalman army numbered but six thousand soldiers, the half of whom were excellent troops and the remainder were worth absolutely nothing. The Muhammadans fought a battle with him near the town of Cobban (Koppam) ; he routed them, and they retired to Moutrah (Madura) the capital of the country. The infidel sovereign encamped near Cobban (Koppam) which is one of the grandest and strongest places that the Mussalmans possess. He laid siege to it for ten months, and at the end of this time, the garrison had provisions only for fourteen days. Belal Ddo (Ballala Dava) sent a proposal to the besieged to retire with safe-conduct, and to abandon the town to him ; but they replied, ' we must refer this question to our Sultan. ' He then promised them a truce, which was to last for fourteen days, and they wrote to Sultan Ghiyath-eddin (Ghiyazu-d-din) telling him how they weie situated. The prince read their letter to the people the following Friday. The faithful wept and said : ' We will sacrifice our lives to God. If the idolater takes that town, he will next lay siege to us : we prefer to die by the sword.' They then undertook to expose themselves to death, and set out marching the next day, placing their turbans on the neck of their horses, which showed that they were seeking death. The bravest and most courageous of them, 300 in number were posted to the vanguard ; the right wing was under Seif-eddin Behadur (Seifu-d-din Bahadur), the hero, who was a pious and brave lawyer ; and the left wing was under, Almelic Mohamed 1 assilahdar ' (armiger). The Sultan remained in the centre with three thousand men, and the rear-guard was formed by the remaining 3,000 under the command of Assad-eddin Keikhosrew Alfaricy. In this order the Mussalmans set out, at the siesta hour, towards the infidel camp. Their horses were sent out to graze. They fell upon the encampment ; the infidels, imagining the assailants were but robbers, went in disorder to meet them and fought with them. In the midst of all this, the Sultan Ghiyath- eddin arrived, and the Hindus sustained the worst of all defeats. Their king tried to mount his horse although he was eighty years of age. Nasir-eddin (Nasiru-d-din) nephew and successor of the Sultan overtook the old man and wanted to kill him, for he did not know who he was. But one of his slaves said : ' He is the Hindu King. ' He then took him a prisoner to his uncle who treated him with apparent consideration and promised to release him. But when he had extorted from him his wealth, elephants and horses and all his property, he had him killed and flayed ; his skin was stuffed with straw and hung up on the wall of Moutrah (Madura) where I saw it suspended.