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When Taimur almost met his match

R.V. SMITH recounts the courageous Mallu Khan's charge against Taimur's invasion of Delhi

At Edward Park, now renamed Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Park, one used to hear an epic poem in Urdu in the 1960s on Mallu Khan's charge against Taimur - elephants trumpeted, horses neighed and the forest heard the tiger's roar! Commanding a huge army Taimur came to Delhi via Punjab, killing hundreds, taking thousands of captives, collecting enormous booty and laying waste the land. The 10 years after Feroze Tughlak's death had been marked by conflict between the various claimants to the throne, with Mahmud Tughlak eventually becoming sultan as Mohammad Shah. A weak man, he bore a personality similar to that of Mohammad Shah Rangila, in whose reign the Persian invader Nadir Shah laid Delhi and its neighbourhood waste 340 years later in 1739.

When Taimur entered the Capital from the Loni side, Mallu Khan, Mahmud's general, attacked him with 10000 horsemen, 40000 foot soldiers and 120 elephants. Now to get back to the poem. With cries of "Deen, Deen", the Mongol hordes met the challenge "lman, lman" was the war cry of the Tughlak troops. Their elephants inspired terror among the invaders who had never encountered such mammoth beasts before.

Mallu Khan swung his sword like the tegh of Ali. He called upon his forefathers to aid him and like one possessed struck left and right. Abdullah Khan followed him with his two-handed sword. A big man, he used it to devastating effect. Shamsher Khan thought of the wife and children he had left behind at home as he struck down his adversaries with the battle-axe that had tasted blood in many an encounter. Salamat Jang's arrows flew thick and fast as he tried to protect the Tajdar-e-Hind sweating under the regal canopy while his sword thirsted for blood.

Patterns of gore

The invaders fell back under the impact of Mallu Khan's attack. His shamsheer wove patterns of gore as he led the charge. Three men struck him. But each time he bowed his head and weathered the onslaught. His horsemen followed him and cut a way through with might. The Mongol cavalry made lightning charges but Mallu's men stole their thunder. Taimur Lang watched the battle sway this way and that. The way to Samarkand was long and tedious and escape was perilous. Even the houris back home could not tempt him to harbour thoughts of retreat "in this alien land of cow worshippers, fire-eaters and controllers of the powers of darkness".

But his were ill-conceived thoughts. Mulla Rizwan, his hair blowing in the wind, dashed across the battlefield with a copy of the Koran in one hand and a spear in the other. The faith of Hind had many voices and the inspired word that came to Mustafa (the Prophet) one of them. Mallu Khan felt his hand weakening. He made his way towards Taimur, seated on a charger on the high ground. "Let the Langra's head roll in the dust and the battle would end," he argued to himself.

But that was not to be. The battle was short and fierce and in the end Mahmud Tughlak's troops were routed and with that Mallu Khan's fate was sealed too. "Een Mardan zabardastas" (a lion-hearted man) is said to have been Taimur's comment on him. One doesn't hear that fanciful poem any more. But if you can recite it, Mallu Khan will ride again.

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