Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/39

 added to his dominions, Delhi was no longer sufficiently central to be a suitable capital for the whole empire, and orders were issued declaring that Daulatabad would henceforth be the capital This order did not signify only a transfer of the imperial residence, which would naturally have been followed by a transfer of trade and population A moderate measure of this nature would have accorded ill with Muhammad bin Tughlaq's fiery and impetuous disposition. It was his intention that all that made Delhi what it was, save only its stones, bricks, and mortar, should be bodily transferred to Daulatabad. The emperor made all possible arrangements for the comfort of travellers on the road between the two cities, but no arrangements that could be made were sufficient to prevent unspeakable suffering The inhabitants of Delhi evinced a natural disinclination to leave their homes, and Muhammad bin Tughlaq expelled them by armed force, and drove the wretched and homeless citizens across India to make new homes for themselves in the capital of his choice. One historian says that Delhi was so completely deserted that no sound was heard in it save the cries of wild beasts ; and others tell us that most of the old, the widowed, the weak, and the poor died on the toilsome journey, and that of those who reached their journey's end all were sick at heart and many sick even to death. The most graphic description is that of Ibn Batutah, who thus describes the rigoui with which the tyrant's orders were executed : *' The Sultan ordered all the inhabitants to quit the place ; and upon some delay being evinced, he made a proclamation stating that what person so ever, being an inhabitant of that city, should be found in any of its houses or streets, should receive condign punishment. Upon this they all went out; but his servants finding a blind man in one of the houses and a bed-ridden one in another, the emperor commanded the bed-ridden man to be projected from a balisla and the blind one to be dragged by his feet to Daulatabad, which is at the distance of ten days,* and he was so dragged ; but, his limbs dropping off by the way, only one of his legs was brought lo tl.e place intended, and was then thrown into it, for the orders had been that they should go to this place. When I entered Delhi it was almost a desert. ... Its buildings were very few ; in other respects it was quite empty."

♦Daulatabad is 6io miles distant from Delhi as the crow Hies..