Delhi before the Moghal Conquest
who started the rumour were caught and sent to Delhi, where the sarcastic old king ordered them to be burled alive. In A.D. 1323 he took the field, and made an expedition into Bengal; while he was away, his son Juna, left viceroy at Delhi,plotted against him, aided by the saint, Nizam- ud-din Aulia. As Tughlak approached Delhi, Juna invited him to rest in a pavilion erected at Afghanpur, and constructed in such a manner as to fall down if an elephant pressed against one of the pillars. Juna induced the favourite son to sit beside his father, and the elephants approached, with the result that the pavilion fell on those seated within, and crushed them to
death.
Ibn Batuta says that the elephants were made to go up the steps to salute the king, so perhaps the whole structure toppled over; some, however, attributed the disaster to lightning, for to definitely accuse Juna with the deed might have met with awkward consequences. The manner of compassing this murder reminds us of the way in which the death of Agrippina was attempted by Nero, it being arranged that the heavy canopy of a boat should fall on her.
Tughlak Shah died in 1325, and was buried outside his new city, in the outwork which he had constructed in the lake close by. His tomb193
