Malwa

Malwa is an Indian historical region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic upland north of the Vindhya Range. Politically and administratively, it is also synonymous with the former state of Madhya Bharat which was later merged with Madhya Pradesh, and presently the historical Malwa region includes districts of western Madhya Pradesh and parts of south-eastern Rajasthan, sometimes the definition of Malwa is extended to include the Nimar region south of the Vindhyas.

Quotes

• [After that, ‘Ala’ al-din’s army turned its attention to the citadel of Mandi and to the conquest of Malwa.] When the spearmen of the victorious army had with their spears put antimony into the eyes of the rais many great zamindars who were more sharp sighted threw aside their boldness and impudence from fear of the stone-splitting arrows of the Turks and came with open eyes to the sublime threshold and turned that threshold into antimony by rubbing their black pupils upon it. They thus saved their bones from becoming antimony boxes for the dust.”?
  • Amir Khusrow, Khazainu’l-Futuh. Account of conquest of Malwa. Quoted from Peter Hardy - Historians of medieval India_ studies in Indo-Muslim historical writing. (1960) p 80ff

• “In AH 631 he invaded Malwah, and after suppressing the rebels of that place, he destroyed that idol-temple which had existed there for the past three hundred years....
  • Iltutmish at Vidisha and Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi, of Yahya Sirhindi, Translated from the Urdu version by Dr. Ãftab Asghar, second edition, Lahore. 1982.

• “Thou didst depart with a thousand joyful anticipations on a holy expedition, and didst return having achieved a thousand victories… On this journey the army destroyed a thousand idol-temples and thy elephants trampled over more than a hundred strongholds. Thou didst march thy arm to Ujjain; Malwa trembled and fled from thee… On the way to Kalinjar thy pomp obscured the light of day. The lip of infidelity became dry through fear of thee, the eye of plural-worship became blind…”
  • Ibrahim of Ghazna in Malwa (Madhya Pradesh) . Khwaja Mas'ud bin Sa'd bin Salman:Diwan-i-Salman in Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, Vol. IV, pp. 518 ff.

• When Malwa was attacked (1305) its Raja is said to have possessed 40,000 horse and 100,000 foot. After the battle, "so far as human eye could see, the ground was muddy with blood".
  • About Alladuin at Malwa. Lal, K. S. (1999). Theory and practice of Muslim state in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 7

• “The King, after the decease of his son, marched his army towards Runtunbhore, to quell an insurrection in those parts, leaving his son Arkully Khan in Dehly, to manage affairs in his absence. The enemy retired into the fort of Runtunbhore, and the King reconnoitred the place, but, despairing of reducing it, marched towards Oojein, which he sacked. At the same time also, he broke down many of the temples of Malwa, and after plundering them of much wealth, returned to Runtunbhore.”
  • Firistha .Tãrîkh-i-Firishta. Sultãn Jalãlu’d-Dîn Khaljî (AD 1290-1296)Malwa (Madhya Pradesh)

• Since the days of Khalji and Tughlaq sultans of Delhi, there were large number of Muslims in Malwa, both indigenous and foreign. These numbers went on growing during the rule of the independent Muslim rulers of Malwa, the Ghoris and Khaljis (1401-1562). The pattern of growth of Muslim population in Malwa was similar to that in the other regions. Captives made in campaigns against Kherla, Orissa, and Gagraun, in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, would have added to Muslim numbers. Similarly, when sultan Mahmud led an expedition against the Hara Rajputs in 1454, he put many of them to the sword, “and sent their children into slavery at Mandu.” In 1468 from the ravaged and burning town of Karahra (near Chanderi), 7,000 prisoners were taken.
  • Lal, K. S. (1990). Indian muslims: Who are they.

• Chandiri I stormed in 934 A.H. (1528 A.D.) and, by God's pleasure, took it in a few hours; in it was Rana Sanga's great and trusted man Midni Rao, we made general massacre of the Pagans in it and, as will be narrated, converted what for many years had been a mansion of hostility, into a mansion of Islam.
  • Baburnama, translated by Annette Beveridge

• Why they had gone so suddenly off the walls seems to have been that they had taken the resolve of those who give up a place as lost; they put all ladies and beauties to death, then, looking themselves to die, came naked out to fight. Our men attacking, each one from his post, drove them from the walls whereupon 2 or 300 of them entered Medini Rao's house and there almost killed one another in this way: -- one having taken stand with a sword, the rest eagerly stretched out the neckblow. Thus went the greater number to hell. By God's grace this renowned fort was captured in 2 or 3 garis (cir. an hour), without drum and standard, with no hard fighting done. A pillar of pagan-heads was ordered set up on a hill north-west of Chanderi. A chronogram of this victory having been found in the words of Fath-i-daru'l-harb (Conquest of a hostile seat), I thus composed them:
  Was for a while the station Chandiri Pagan-full, the seat of hostile force;
  By fighting, I vanquished its fort,
  The date was Fath-i-daru'l-harb.
  • Quote from Bevridge translation of the Baburnama

• On this journey thy army destroyed a thousand idol-temples, and thy elephants trampled over more than a hundred strongholds. Thou didst march thy army to Ujjain Malwa trembled and fled from thee.
  • Diwan i Salman. Elliot and Dowson Vol 4. 524 quoted in Misra, R. G. (2005). Indian resistance to early Muslim invaders up to 1206 A.D.