Alauddin Khalji

Muhammad Tughluq

1. Alauddin Khalji raised a large standing army as defensive measure.

1. He therefore raised a large standing army to attack on Transoxiana.

2. Alauddin constructed a new garrison town named Siri for his soldiers.

2. He evacuates four oldest cities of Delhi (Dehli-i Kuhna) and made soldiers garrison. The residents of the old city were sent to the new capital of Daulatabad in the south.

3. The soldiers had to be fed. This was done through the produce collected as tax from lands between the Ganga and Yamuna. Tax was fixed at 50 per cent of the peasant’s yield.

3. Produce from the same area was collected as tax to feed the army. But to meet the need of the large number of soldiers the Sultan levied additional taxes. This coincided with famine in the area.

4. The soldiers had to be paid.

Alauddin chose to pay his soldiers salaries in cash rather than iqtas. The soldiers would buy their supplies from merchants in Delhi and it was thus feared that merchants would raise their prices. To stop this, Alauddin controlled the prices of goods in Delhi. Prices were carefully surveyed by officers, and merchants who did not sell at the prescribed rates were punished.

4. Muhammad Tughluq also paid his soldiers cash salaries. But instead of controlling prices, he used a “token” currency, somewhat like present-day paper currency, but made out of cheap metals, not gold and silver. People in the fourteenth century did not trust these coins. They saved their gold and silver coins and paid all their taxes to the state with this token currency. This cheap currency could also be counterfeited easily.

5. Alauddin’s administrative

measures were quite successful and chroniclers praised his reign for its cheap prices and efficient supplies of goods in the market. He successfully withstood the threat of Mongol invasions.

5. Muhammad Tughluq’s administrative measures were a failure. His campaign into Kashmir was a disaster. He then gave up his plans to invade Transoxiana and disbanded his large army.

Meanwhile, his administrative measures created complications. The shifting of people to Daulatabad was resented. The raising of taxes and famine in the Ganga-Yamuna belt led to widespread rebellion. And finally, the “token” currency had to be recalled.