6
MAHOMMED TOGHLAK's CAPEICE.
With the extirpation of the Khiljee family, the house of
Toghlak, the son of a Toorkee slave by an Indian mother,
General. g ame d the ascendancy ; and during their government, it is said, that in 1322 the monarch's son, Juna Khan, failed in an expedition against Wurungul ; but the year following reduced that fortress and took Beder, a place of strength and importance. This Juna Khan, upon the death of his father, mounted the throne under the name of Sultan Ma- hommed,but he is known in history as Mahommed Toghlak. He is said to have been the most elegant and most ac- complished prince of his age, but full of wild schemes of aggrandisement. Besides the conquest of Persia and the invasion of China, he projected also the transfer of his capital from Delhi to Deogiree, to which he gave the name of Dowlutabad — the gift of fortune. " So soon as the fancy struck Mahommed, he ordered the whole of the inhabitants of Delhi to remove to Deogiree. . . . After this, the people were twice permitted to return to Delhi, and twice compelled, on pain of death, to leave it. One of these movements took place during a famine, and caused a prodigious loss of life ; and all were attended with rum and distress to thousands. The plan entirely failed in the end." In 1 347, four years before the death of Mahommed Toghlak Husan Ganga, an officer of high station in the Deccan, headed a successful revolt against his liege lord, and established what is known as the Bahmanee dynasty of the Deccan*, fixing his capital at Goolburga. This Husan Ganga, the first king of the Deccan, was an Affghan of the lowest rank, and a native of Delhi. He farmed a small spot of land be- longing to a Brahmin astrologer, named Ganga, who was in favour with the king; and having acci-dentally found a treasure in his field, he had the honesty to give notice of it to his landlord. The astrologer was so much struck with his inte- grity that he exerted all his influence at court to advance his fortunes. Husan thus rose to a great station in
