Lodhi Dynasty Saga

The beginning of Muslim rule in the subcontinent was dated from 1206 when Delhi Sultanate was established by Turkish Muslims hailing from Central Asia. Though the Turks dominated the political and military landscape yet Muslims of multiple ethnicities and territorial origins also accompanied the Muslim wave that ultimately vanquished all opposition and started to rule the subcontinent.

During its three centuries of rule Delhi Sultanate witnessed the rule of five dynasties: three of them Turks, one Arabic-descent Syeds and one Afghan dynasty. The third dynasty, the Tughlaqs became weak and taking advantage of it the nobles and jagirdars became virtually independent cared little for the centralised authority and obeyed only when confronted with the pointed end of a sword.

The Tughlaq dynasty was uprooted by the invasion of Amir Taimur who left behind the Syeds who were unable to check such tendencies of decentralization among their nobles, courtiers and provincial governors. Syeds were supplanted by Lodhis and for the entire seventy-five years this dynasty existed it was never spared bitter conflicts.

The saga of Lodhi rule is full of internecine conflicts and the main reason for it was that like their predecessors when the Lodhis attempted to centralise the administration and to restore the power and prestige of the sultan they had to face the opposition of these people who were interested in the continuance of the existing state of affairs.

Lodhis were required to fight tooth and nail against their own nobles; the very people who were the source of strength of the Lodhis proved to be their irreconcilable foes.

The distinguishing features of the Afghans, such as, a spirit of independence, a sense of equality with others, and a generally warm, chivalrous disposition stood in the way when the Lodhis attempted to control them.

Temperamentally, Afghans possessed fiercely independent tribal instinct that made them unable to accept that there could be a superior person among them. They were unable to see the need of a strong centralised state under a powerful monarch, let alone helping and cooperating with him and they could not even stay neutral. Their traditions did not allow them to think of a state where the relations of a ruler and the people could be reduced to the status of a ruler and the ruled.

Unlike the Turks, the Afghans did not come to India to rule. They came as traders and as soldiers of fortune, mercenaries or hired-hands in the wake of the Turkish invasion. Overtime there was an increase in the number of Afghans belonging to this class of land-holders. Though Afghans did not belong to the same tribe but their lot was a wide mix of people belonging to various tribes. Gradually, they acquired a political orientation particularly when the Syeds found it increasingly difficult to administer and gave the Afghans jagirs and assignments in large numbers.

When Bahlol Lodhi took over he started inviting his compatriots from north-west and border areas and was known to welcome them with open hands. This policy was later followed by the only other Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri who went on to invite Afghans by saying that they should come to India and claim their patrimony that he ruled over.

Lodhis confronted challenges immediately on taking over the monarchy as the traditions of monarchy as it had evolved in India was a very strong challenge they faced at their advent and this difficulty continued till the seventy five years of their rule. This challenge can be said to have stemmed from the democratic spirit of the Afghan tribes which expressed itself in a number of ways particularly in matters of succession as they kept an open mind and were guided by suitability rather than the principle of heredity or nomination by the deceased monarch.

Like their predecessors the Lodhis hold on power was acquired through military means and they made sure that their army remained strong but for the worse it changed its complexion from the king’s army to tribal militia. Since it was not centrally recruited and was not centrally maintained or centrally administered, it lacked that homogeneity and effectiveness which had characterised the armies of the Delhi Sultanate. Though the Afghan armies could overwhelm other Indian armies by sheer weight of numbers but face to face with a well-organised foreign army such as that of Babar they could hardly achieve anything.

In their rather longish rule as compared with the Khiljis and Syeds, Lodhis followed the traditional pattern by assigning iqtas to the leading nobles along with its revenue did not receive any salary. They were required to maintain the law and order of the region under them as also to defend its territory. The iqtas also differed in their sizes, ranging from the large to small with the instruction that if there was any surplus in the revenue income after meeting all the expenses it was necessary to deposit such money into the treasury. Normally, during the Lodhi period, iqtadars were allowed to continue in their iqtas and were rarely transferred or thrown out. This system helped the iqtadars to identify themselves with their iqtas and work for the iqtas’ development.

The Lodhis paid plenty of attention to agricultural matters that was the most productive revenue source. In this respect certain sarkars and parganas were brought under the khalisa by the Lodhis where the shiqdars were empowered to carry out the civilian as well as military administration as the sultan’s representative.

Such people were remunerated in cash up to twenty per cent of the revenue they had collected. The top nobles, who unlike the shiqdar were assigned the revenue of a much larger administrative unit, had to maintain a proportionately larger army contingent than the shiqdar. Normally, such assign¬ees were the exalted khans and they were called either the muqta or faujdar and maintained between 5,000 to 10,000 sowars. It also helped them to grow roots by becoming friendly with local jagirdars, thus creating support bases. That was the situation in general when Ibrahim Lodi pushed the chiefs and nobles beyond their limits of tolerance. The nobles knew that in the hour of reckoning they would have the solid support of the locals of their iqtas.

The economic growth of the period or more appropriately the improvement in conditions of the people in general was also partly due to the growth of cities. New towns and cities grew up in Punjab and elsewhere as the founder of the dynasty Bahlul Lodi gradually established law and order and ushered in an era of peace in the strife-torn land. The dynasty and its nobles made determined efforts to establish new towns and cities. The city of Agra, meant for close supervision of the Lodhi dominations in the east was Sikandar Lodhi’s greatest contribution to town plan¬ning in medieval India.

Architects engaged by Sikandar Lodhi built the metropolis on a raised ground between two villages on the river Jamuna situated at some distance from the old fortified town of Agra. To ensure its growth, Sikandar Lodhi made it the headquarters of a newly demarcated sarkar and shifted his capital there. The location of the royal court in the city and the presence of nobles and their families generated a demand for costly items and luxury products and Agra became a centre of commerce and trade of international repute.