Sunday, January 22, 2012

Muhammad bin Tughlaq -Transfer of Capital


Muhammad bin Tughlaq  & Transfer of Capital
One of the controversial measures of Muhammad bin Tughlaq was that he transferred his capital from Delhi to Deogir (Daultabad).
According to Dr. Mahdi Hussain, the Sultan wanted to maintain both Delhi and Daultabad as his capitals. As per Barani, in AD 1326–27, Sultan decided to shift his capital from Delhi to Deogir (Daultabad) in the Deccan because it was more centrally located.

According to Ibn Batuta, the people of Delhi used to write letters containing abuses to the Sultan, therefore, in order to punish them Sultan decided to shift the capital. Isami say that it was a place at a safer distance from the North West frontier and thus-safe from the Mongols.
In view of different versions it is difficult to assign one definite reason for this shift. The entire population was not asked to leave only the upper classes consisting of shaikhs, nobles, ulema were shifted to Daultabad.
No. attempt was made to shift the rest of the population. Though Muhammad bin Tughlaq built a road from Delhi to Deogir and set up rest houses but the journey was extremely harsh for the people.
Large number of people died because of rigorous travelling and the heat. Due to growing discontent and the fact that north could not be controlled from south, Muhammad decided to abandon Daultabad.

4 comments:

  1. he moved to devgiri becoz it was equidistant and was safe from all the threats.

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  2. He moved to Devagiri because he thought that as Devagiri was located in the center of India it would keep them safe from the Mongol attacks and would also help him to rule and administrate this new capital better because of its location.

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  3. If he built a road and established rest house then there are fewer chances that his plan to shift the capital was to punish the people.

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