Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/150

 118 ALA -AD -DIN KHALJI shoes, combs, and needles; and we learn that a serving girl cost 5 to 12 tankas, a concubine 20 to 40, slave labourers 10 to 15, handsome pages 20 to 30, and so forth. These various measures show that the Sultan, though he might be wrong-headed and disdainful of the law, was a man of sense and determination, who knew his own mind, saw the necessities of the situa- tion, met them by his own methods, and carried out those methods with persistence. They were undoubt- edly successful. We hear of no more rebellions, and when next the Mongols tried issues with the Sul- tan's new army they were effectually defeated. " The armies of Islam were everywhere triumphant over them. Many thousands were taken prisoners, and were brought with ropes round their necks to Delhi, where they were cast under the feet of elephants. Their heads were piled up into pyramids or built into towers." It is related in sober fact that the blood and bones of the Mongols formed part of the building materials of the new walls and gates and defences with which the Sultan improved the capital. On one of the occasions of a Mongol inroad not a man went back alive, and the enemy " conceived such a fear and dread of the army of Islam that all fancy for coming to Hindustan was washed out of their breasts. All fear of the Mongols entirely departed from Delhi and the neighbouring provinces. Perfect security was every- where felt, and the peasants carried on their agri- culture in peace." This was largely due to the sue-