Biography of Sikandar
Lodhi
Sikandar Lodhi was born on 17 July 1458. He
became the next ruler of the Lodi dynasty after the death of his
father Bahlul Lodi in July 1489.The second and most successful ruler
of the Lodi dynasty of the Delhi sultanate, he was also a poet of the Persian
language and prepared a diwan of 9000 verses.
Early Life of
Sikandar Lodhi
Sikandar
was the second son of Sultan Bahlul
Lodhi a Pashtun ruler of Lodi Sultanate. His mother was the
daughter of a Hindu goldsmith. Sikandar
was a capable ruler who encouraged trade across his territory. He expanded Lodi
territory into the regions of Gwalior and Bihar.
He made a treaty with Alauddin
Hussain Shah and his kingdom of Bengal.
In 1503 he commissioned the building of the present-day city of Agra.
Agra was founded by him.
Rule of Sikandar Lodhi
The Lodi Sultans were
Muslims and like their predecessors acknowledged the fictional authority of
the Abbasid Caliphate over the Muslim World. Because Sikandar's
mother was a Hindu he tried to prove his Islamic credentials by resorting to
strong Sunni orthodoxy as political expediency. He destroyed Hindu temples
and under the pressure from the ulama allowed the execution of
a Brahmin who declared Hinduism to be as veracious as Islam. He also
banned women from visiting the Mazars (mausoleums) of Muslim saints
and banned the annual procession of the spear of the legendary Muslim
martyr Salar Masud. Before Sikandar's time, the
judicial duties in smaller villages and towns were performed by local
administrators while the Sultan himself consulted the scholars of the Islamic
law (sharia). Sikandar established sharia courts in several towns enabling
the qazis to administer the sharia law to a larger population.
Although such courts were established in areas with significant Muslim
population they were also open to non-Muslims including for non-religious
matters such as property disputes.
Conflict with Manasimha Tomar
The
newly-crowned Manasimha was not prepared for an invasion from Delhi and
decided to avoid a war by paying Bahlul Lodi a tribute of 800000 tankas
(coins). In 1489 Sikandar Lodi succeeded Bahlul Lodi as the Sultan of
Delhi. In 1500 Manasimha provided asylum to some rebels from Delhi who had been
involved in a plot to overthrow Sikandar Lodi. The Sultan wanting to punish
Manasimha and to expand his territory launched a punitive expedition against
Gwalior. In 1501 he captured Dholpur a
dependency of Gwalior whose ruler Vinayaka-deva fled to Gwalior.
Sikandar
Lodi then marched towards Gwalior but after crossing the Chambal River an epidemic outbreak in his camp forced him to halt his
march. Manasimha used this opportunity to reconcile with Lodi and sent his son
Vikramaditya to the Lodi camp with gifts for the Sultan. He promised to expel
the rebels from Delhi on the condition that Dholpur be restored to
Vinayaka-deva. Sikandar Lodi agreed to these terms and left. Historian Kishori Saran Lal theorizes that Vinayaka Deva hadn't lost Dholpur at
all: this narrative was created by the Delhi chroniclers to flatter the Sultan.
In
1504 Sikandar Lodi resumed his war against the Tomaras. First, he captured
the Mandrayal fort located to the east of Gwalior. He ransacked
the area around Mandrayal but many of his soldiers lost their lives in a subsequent
epidemic outbreak forcing him to return to Delhi. Sometime later, Lodi moved
his base to the newly established city of Agra
which was located closer to Gwalior. He captured Dholpur and then marched
against Gwalior characterizing the expedition as a jihad. From September 1505 to May 1506 Lodi managed to ransack
the rural areas around Gwalior but was unable to capture the Gwalior fort
because of Manasimha hit and run tactics. A scarcity of food resulting from
Lodi's destruction of crops forced Lodi to give up the siege. During his return
to Agra Manasimha ambushed his army near Jatwar inflicting heavy casualties on
the invaders.
After
capturing the Gwalior fort Lodi decided to capture the smaller forts
surrounding Gwalior. Dholpur and Mandrayal were already in his control by this
time. In February 1507 he captured the Uditnagar fort lying on the Narwar-Gwalior
route. In September 1507 he marched against Narwar whose ruler fluctuated his allegiance between
the Tomaras of Gwalior and the Malwa Sultanate.
He captured the fort after a year-long siege. In December 1508 Lodi placed
Narwar in charge of and marched to Lahore located to the south-east of Gwalior. He
stayed at Lahar for a few months during which he cleared its neighborhood of rebels. Over
the next few years, Lodi remained busy in other conflicts. In 1516 he made a
plan to capture Gwalior but an illness prevented him from doing so. Manasimha
died in 1516 and Sikandar Lodi's illness also led to his death in November 1517.
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