Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/12

about 20 miles north of the island of Cossibuzar, and about the same distance to the south of Maulda. From the reign of Scheabbedin to the invasion of Tamerlane in 1399, the country during two centuries is always supposed annexed to the empire of Delhi, although its governors sometimes affected royalty; and the province, during this period, has more than once been conferred on princes of the royal blood who stood nearest the throne. The confusions in the empire, which followed the invasion of Tamerlane, gave the rulers of Bengal better opportunity to assert and maintain independence. In 1447 they appear assuming the stile and dignity of kings, and in 1494, Sultan Alla ul dien, as monarch of Bengal, makes peace on equal terms with Sultan Secunder emperor of Delhi. From this time the continual convulsions of the throne, until it was seized by the intrepid hand of Baber, left the Sultans of Bengal without the apprehension of controul from the transitory sovereigns who stiled themselves emperors, and even Baber, until his death, in 1530, had too much to do in confirming his authority in other parts of Indostan to look to Bengal: but in 1534 the reigning Sultan was expelled by the famous adventurer Shere Cawn, who himself in 1539 quitted the province on the approach of the emperor Homaion son of Baber. This is the first establishment made by the house of Tamerlane in the province, but it was of short duration; for Shere Cawn defeated Homaion on his return to Agra, immediately after which he recovered the dominion of Bengal, and armed by the means it afforded, drove Homaion out of Indostan into Persia, and assumed the throne of Delhi in 1542. He died in 1545; his son and successor Selim in 1552; and during their reigns no commotions appear in Bengal; but during the three abrupt successions after Selim, until Homaion recovered Delhi in 1555, Bengal was continually disputed, and by several competitions. Homaion died in 1556, the year after he was reinthroned, and strong rebellions in the intermediate countries kept Bengal independant of Delhi until the year 1575, when the generals of Acbar reduced the province, and a part of Orixa, after which Bengal remained in subjection until 1624, when it was wrested from the empire by Shaw Jehan