Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/227

 THE KINGDOM OF MALWA 181 At the time when the new state of Jaunpur was about beginning to wedge itself between Delhi and Bengal, two other powerful kingdoms broke away from the central power and set up local dynasties in Malwa and Gujarat. One of Firoz Shah's great vassals, Dila- war Khan, a descendant of the Ghori kings who held the fief of Dhar among the spurs of the Vindhya range, made himself independent in 1401 during the confusion that followed Timur's invasion, and soon extended his authority over the greater part of the ancient Hindu kingdom of Malwa, which had resisted the encroach- ments of the Moslems up to the time of Balban, but had since been a province more or less subject to the kings of Delhi. The old capital, Ujjain, had been a famous seat of Indian learning, but the new dynasty deserted it for a new city which Hushang, the son of Dilawar, built at Mandu on a small plateau among the Vindhya slopes. The situation of Malwa, hedged in by enemies, Delhi and Jaunpur on the north and the rising power of Gujarat on the west, involved the new state in fre- quent wars, and its kings in turn attacked one or other of their neighbours. The murder of Dila war's grandson, Mohammad, in 1435 by his vizir, Mahmud the Khalji, set the assassin on the throne, and Mahmud raised the kingdom of Malwa to its greatest strength. Though his siege of Delhi was unsuccessful, his cam- paigns against Jaunpur, the Rajputs, and the Deccan resulted in the acquisition of Kalpi on the Jumna, Ajmir and Rantambhor in Rajputana, and Elichpur south of the Satpura range. His perpetual conflicts