Bharat Ki Kahani

  Shams Siraj Afif was born in the mid-14th century to an aristocratic family that had served the Sultans of Delhi since the days of Alauddin Khalji. He had joined imperial service during the reign of Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq and watched the once mighty Sultanate gradually decline into insignificance. Central Asian raider Taimur's invasion and the subsequent sacking of Delhi (1398) destroyed the last vestiges of the empire's prestige. Chaos prevailed in the provinces and the local gentry raised the standard of revolt. Under these circumstances, Afif decided to write a chronicle titled, ‘ Tarikh-i-Firozshahi (History of Firozshah Tughlaq). It reflects Afif's desire for the restoration of the Sultanate’s power. In the following excerpt from his book, he recounts how things used to be during Alauddin Khalji's times. This also happens to be the birth story of Firoz Shah Tughaq, a future Sultan of Delhi : Three brothers, Tughlik, Abu-Bakr and Rajab arrived from Khurasan t

The Story of Pratap Rudra: The Last Sovereign of the Kakatiya Dynasty in the Telegu-Speaking Region (1289-1323) As the sun ascended on a clear morning in the year 1318, Pratap Rudra, the reigning monarch of the Telegu-Kakatiya dynasty found himself at the endgame of the medieval game of thrones. His citadel at Warangal was surrounded by a massive and modernized war machine that had rolled down from the plains of North India to enforce submission on his proud kingdom. Realizing any further resistance to be futile, Pratap Rudra agreed to discuss terms with his invaders. A settlement was soon reached, according to which the Kakatiya kingdom would cede to the Sultan of Delhi a single fortress of Badrkot, a vast amount of gold and jewels, 12,000 horses and a hundred war elephants ‘as huge as the demons’.   Negotiations settled, the Kakatiya king ascended the eighteen steps leading to the parapets of his massive fort. There, in full view of the serried ranks of his intrepid Telugu wa