Note 45 — Chapter II · ÁHMEDÁBÁD KINGS. a.d. 1403–1573.

Conspiracy, 1480.In a.d. 1480, when Mahmúd Sháh was at Junágaḍh, Khudáwand Khán and others, who were weary of the king’s constant warfare, incited his eldest son Áhmed to assume royal power. But Imád-ul-Mulk, by refusing to join, upset their plans, and on the king’s return the conspiracy was stamped out. In the previous year (a.d. 1479) Mahmúd Sháh sent an army to ravage Chámpáner, which he was determined to conquer. About this time, hearing that the neighbourhood was infested with robbers, he founded the city of Mehmúdábád on the banks of the Vátrak, about eighteen miles south of Áhmedábád. In a.d. 1482 there was a partial famine in Gujarát, and the Chámpáner country being exempt from scarcity the commandant of Morámli or Rasúlábád, a post in the Gáckwár’s Sáonli district on the Chámpáner frontier, made several forays across the border. In return the chief attacked the commandant and defeated him, killing most of his men and capturing two elephants and several horses. On hearing this Mahmúd Sháh set out for Baroda with a powerful army. When Mahmúd reached Baroda the Rával of War against Chámpáner, 1482–1484.Chámpáner, becoming alarmed, sent ambassadors and sued for forgiveness. The king rejected his overtures, saying: ‘Except the sword and the dagger no message shall pass between me and you.’45 The Rával made preparations for a determined resistance, and sent messengers to summon Ghiás-ud-dín Khilji of Málwa to his aid. To prevent this junction Mahmúd Sháh entrusted the siege to his nobles and marched to Dohad, on which Sultán Ghiás-ud-dín withdrew to Mándu. On his return from Dohad the Sultán began building a Jáma Mosque at Chámpáner to show that he would not leave the place till he had taken the hill-fort of Pávágaḍ. After the siege had lasted more than twenty months (April 1483–December 1484), the Musalmáns noticed that for an hour or two in the morning most of the Rájputs were off duty bathing and dressing. A morning assault was planned and the first gate carried. Then Malik Ayáz Sultáni finding a practicable breach passed through with some of his men and took the great gate. The Rával and his Rájputs, throwing their women children and valuables into a huge fire, rushed out in a fierce but unavailing charge.46