Medieval India: The Personality of Mohammed-bin-thuglak, a Mixture of Opposites

When the rebellious chieftains were killed in gallows, Mohamed-Bin-Thuglak had a strange habit to dispose of their dead bodies. He ordered all the dead bodies to be brought to a central kitchen; chopped all the dead bodies into very small pieces; ordered them to cook into biriyani with all the ingredients of a mutton biriyani.Then what he did was even more strange.He ordered the above said biriyani made of human flesh and bones to be packed into pockets and sent them to all the chieftains of his empire, through his messengers personally with a message: ‘The pocket contain the biriyani of rebellious chieftain of so and so province.The same fate awaits the future rebellious chieftains.’

To such an extent Mohamed-Bin-Thuglak was so arrogant and atrocious.

Mohamed -Bin-Thuglak was also famous for yet another thoughtless and arrogant blunder that practically subjected and killed thousands of people of his empire.

Being a vast empire that spread from Ganges in the North and spread up to the river Godavari in the South, Mohamed -Bin- Thuglak wanted to have his capital at the centre of his empire, which was equidistant from the borders of his empire, so that he could effectively control all parts of his empire and reach out and quell the rebellions as quickly as possible.In those medieval days, which did not have any modern transport and communication systems, his idea of transferring his capital to the central place of his empire was actually good, strategic and diplomatic.

But Mohamed -Bin-Thuglak terribly committed a blunder in executing his plan of shifting his capital from Delhi to Devagiri (Dauladabad).Instead of shifting his administrative machinery from Delhi to Devagiri, he ordered the shifting of his entire capital, not even a octogenarian lady and her dog was left at Delhi.In the course of traveling thousands of kilometers by walk with all their luggage, thousands of people, died on the way because of hunger and physical fatigue. On reaching, Devagiri, very soon he found that Devagiri could not be equated with Delhi and people could not begin their normal life and profession, Mohamed -Bin-Thuglak, once again ordered them to move back to Delhi, again causing untold miseries to his people.In the process, thousands of people died; Number of man days were lost; many professions came to stand still and the economy of the empire was crippled.

When we consider and analyze such thoughtless actions and decisions that emanated from Mohamed-Bin-Thuglak, he was a person who was lacking in mental proportions and balance of mind. Hence, a famous historian Lanepool rightly characterized him as ‘a mixture of opposites.