Lodis Vs Sharqis – First Battle
Dariya Khan Lodi, Bahrul's cousin, was the governor of the Sambhal province, and he decided to take the side of Mahmud. Mahmud trusted Dairya Khan fully and made him the commander of the Delhi battle. With Bahrul taking most of the able-bodied men away to capture Multan, very few soldiers were left. Bahrul's mother-in-law and his family were inside the fort.
Bahrul's enterprising mother-in-law, seeing very few men left to fight, dressed up the women as men and paraded them on the fort to intimidate Mahmud and Dariya Khan. This was not enough to convince Mahmud to back off, and he continued to shell Delhi with his cannons. Seeing no way out of this, Bahrul's mother-in-law sent Sayyad Shamsuddin on a peace mission to Mahmud with an offer to surrender, and symbolically, he took the keys of the Delhi fort and was ready to turn that over to Mahmud.
But history is full of strange events!
Shamsuddin was an Afghan who cleverly appealed to Dairya Khan, who met him. Shamsuddin's message was,
"Why are you working against your own people by siding with the Sharqis? Are you not aware of the fact that your own aunt (Bahrul's mother-in-law) is inside the fort?"
This must have touched the heart of Dariya Khan. At this stage, Dariya Khan could have taken the key and handed it over to Mahmud, who could have taken over Delhi and changed history. Once the fort was captured, it would have been tough for Bahrul to recapture it, especially with his wife and family inside the fort. But Dariya Khan didn't take the key and instead went to Mahmud and told him that it was meaningless to capture the fort as Bahrul was not inside. Their main enemy was Bahrul. Therefore, he should be engaged in a battle and killed or captured. Then, the fort would be theirs.
This meaningless and strange argument was what Mahmud listened to. His ego was too big, and he badly wanted to fight Bahrul. He sent a 30,000-strong cavalry regiment with 40 elephants to Multan to fight Bahrul. Bahrul only had 14,000 soldiers, but after hearing about Mahmud's force left Multan and met Mahmud's force at Narela, 17 miles North of Delhi. Dariya Khan Lodi left Mahmud precisely when needed, making Bahrul's victory a lot easier despite his more minor and less equipped forces.
Results of the First Battle
Bahrul and Mahmud both signed a peace treaty:
· Both Bahrul and Mahmud would keep whatever they had before the battle
· Bahrul would return the 20 elephants that he captured from Mahmud
· Bahrul would keep Shamsabad
His victory over Mahmud opened Bahrul's eyes to what he needed to expand and consolidate his empire. For the first time, he realized that the rustic Afghans could beat the Turkish-Persian elites. He also realized that loyalty could constantly shift, and even own people would switch sides at any moment with the lure of money.
He saw his own cousin, Darya Khan Lodi, switch sides two times. He realized that he needed to secure the loyalty of Afghans at any cost to survive and expand his kingdom in Hindustan. He ended up recruiting thousands of Afghans in his army who all came from Afghanistan. Thousands of Afghans emigrated to Hindustan during his time, and a significant percentage settled there, changing its demography forever. Bahrul also realized that one couldn't alienate the Hindus in Hindustan and trusted the Hindu King Rai Kiran completely.
Mahmud had no intention of keeping the last promise. Bahrul would not put up with this and soon marched to Shamsabad and captured it. Mahmud was displeased and marched to Shamsabad with his army to recapture it, and the fight went on and off forever. Everything came to an end when Mahmud died unexpectedly in 1457.
