4 – The Massacre at Delhi
Timing is everything, especially in warfare, and Timur picked the perfect moment to launch his invasion of India. Between 1388 and 1394, there were six different Sultans and when Nasiruddin Mohammed gained the throne, he became embroiled in a three-year war of succession with Firuz Khan. The chaos can be summarized by the fact that there were two ‘Sultans’ operating at the same time; one at Delhi and the other at Firuzabad.
When Timur launched his invasion in 1398, India was in disarray, so the warlord was able to blitz through the country at lightning speed. After entering Indian territory in April 1398, Timur marched through the Khyber Pass, entered Punjab and looted the Pakpatan and Dipalpur peoples. After overcoming the Governor of Meerut’s army, Timur arrived in Delhi in December and on the 17th, he fought against Sultan Nasir-ud Din Mahmud Shah Tughlaq. While the Sultan’s men fought bravely, the internal strife of recent years took its toll, and Timur’s army won the day.
What happened before the battle will live on in infamy. Of course, it shouldn’t have been a surprise to the residents of Delhi since Timur’s reputation for cruelty was well established. Also, he had ravaged a number of cities en-route to Delhi including Sirsa, Fatehabad, and Tohana. At Tohana for example, 2,000 people were executed. Yet Timur surpassed his violent ways immediately before the Battle of Delhi. He ordered the execution of 100,000 Hindu prisoners because he believed they might try to escape and help the enemy in the forthcoming battle.
According to N. Jayapalan in History of India, “The whole country was bled white. Plundering and devastation went on for several days.” One Muslim chronicler wrote about how “high towers were built with the heads of Hindus, and their bodies became the food for ravenous beasts and birds.” Everyone who survived the atrocities became a prisoner of the Timurid Empire. One of the reasons for the scale of the massacre is probably an uprising. Delhi didn’t recover from the invasion for a century.