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A Brief History of the Lodis

BY ABHA DAYAL K AUL

The last dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, the Lodis disappeared with the
coming of the Mughals, while “Lodi” became a name known to history buffs
familiar with the first Battle of Panipat, and to others on account of the
incomparable Lodi Gardens, with their silent tombs, mosques and
monuments of a bygone medieval era.

Bahlol Lodi, the First Lodi Sultan

In 1451, Bahlol Lodi, a “Ghilzai” Afghan, being the right man at the right place, ascended the throne of
Delhi. His grandfather had settled in Multan in the time of the Tughlaqs, and served the governor of the
province. Bahlol’s uncle (and father-in-law), Malik Sultan Shah Lodi, became governor of Sirhind in

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Punjab, who the brave and ingenious Bahlol then succeeded, adding Lahore to his domain.

As a young man, he’d made a name trading finely bred horses to the Sayyid Sultan Muhammad Shah in
Delhi, and had impressed him with his help in battling the Sultan of Malwa, thus rising to the status of
Amir, or nobleman, and being rewarded with the title of Khan-i-Khanan or chief minister. During
Muhammad Shah’s reign, Bahlol’s influence grew through Punjab and he became almost independent;
upon the Sultan’s death, Bahlol initially ruled Delhi in the name of his weak son and heir Alam Shah, who
then retired to Budaun and voluntarily abdicated the seat of power to Bahlol Lodi.

This first Lodi Sultan ruled from Delhi for almost four decades, quelling rebellions and uprisings, and
extending his territory to Gwalior, Jaunpur and parts of upper Uttar Pradesh. An able ruler, Bahlol
restored some authority to the Delhi Sultanate which had been devastated by Timur’s 1398 invasion and
massacre, and which the Sayyid Dynasty scarcely managed to hold on to much beyond Delhi and the
village of Palam, now the site of the capital’s airport.

Bahlol earned vital political support by granting land and showing fairness to his native Afghan nobles,
though he spent most of his time subduing Jaunpur, and finally installed his older son Babrak there as
governor a few years before he died in 1489.

In keeping with his modest and low-key style, Bahlol’s humble tomb is not to be found in the posh
environs of Lodi Gardens, but further south in the area of Chiragh Delhi, so named after the shrine to
Roshan Chiragh-i-Dihli (the “illuminated lamp of Delhi”), disciple of Delhi’s most beloved Sufi saint,
Hazrat Nizamuddin Chishti, and a mystic-poet of renown himself, who had died and was entombed
there in 1356.

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The founder of the Lodi Dynasty rests in a plain and rather neglected square structure, built by his son,
Sikandar, as per his wish to be buried near Chiragh’s dargah. Today it is recognised by its five domes,
unusual for a tomb, bearing both Quranic inscriptions and Hindu sandstone decorations, thereby
reflecting Bahlol’s Sufi inclinations.

Sikandar Lodi, the Greatest Lodi

Bahlol had named Sikandar his successor, who emerged victorious in the ensuing power struggle with
his older brother Babrak, and set about to make a name for himself as the most powerful ruler of the
dynasty.

This second Lodi Sultan made several conquests in Bengal and Bihar, subjugated Gwalior and founded
the city of Agra in 1504 which he made his alternative capital, as it was a shorter journey from there to
travel to Gwalior. It is said he rode on horseback over three days from Delhi to Agra, sleeping in the
forests at night, and lived mostly in Agra where he raised many buildings in what came to be known as
Sikandra. In about thirty years, till he died in 1517, Sikandar expanded Lodi territory from Punjab to
Bengal, consolidating his empire with the aid of strategic alliances and treaties.

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Fittingly, the most imposing and elaborate tomb, for the one considered the dynasty’s greatest, stands
jewel-like in Lodi Gardens – Sikandar Lodi’s highly evolved octagonal tomb in the centre of a large
peaceful garden enclosed by high walls – having established a winning model to be further developed by
later striking Mughal garden tombs, notably Humayun’s spectacular sandstone and marble mausoleum
in Delhi, and finally, reaching perfection in Agra’s supreme white marble confection, the Taj Mahal.

Ibrahim Lodi, the Last Lodi Sultan

Sikandar’s son Ibrahim, who built his father’s much-appreciated tomb in 1517, turned out to be rather
disliked by his court and subjects. At Sikandar’s death, Ibrahim suppressed a brief rebellion led by some
of his nobles who backed his younger brother Jalal Khan to be the next Sultan; he had his brother done
away with and seized the throne, but never managed to pacify his dissatisfied nobles.

He reportedly treated his elders with contempt and made many foes, ultimately bringing about his
dynasty’s downfall within merely a decade. In marked contrast to his wise grandfather, Bahlol, who
supposedly always sat on a carpet along with his nobles and peers, not on a throne as they stood by,
apparently Ibrahim became despotic, feared and hated by his own relatives and officials.

News of Ibrahim’s “tyranny” reached Babur, the Mughal ruler of Kabul, through two such discontented
nobles, Daulat Khan Lodi, the governor of Punjab, and Ibrahim’s uncle, Alam Khan Lodi. Conspiring
against him, they invited Babur to invade Hindustan and attack Ibrahim. The rest is well-documented
history – on April 20, 1526, in the historic Battle of Panipat, north of Delhi, Babur’s army of 12,000
vanquished Ibrahim’s imperial forces of 100,000 troops; the same day young Ibrahim’s body was found
fallen in a heap of the dead.

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The last Lodi Sultan’s burial spot is far away from his home or his family’s gorgeous resting place in
Delhi’s serene Lodi Gardens. A simple, roofless rectangular block in Panipat town, it was tended to by his
mother and much later renovated and perhaps moved by the British to make way for the Grand Trunk
Road. It may not even be at the location where Babur had him buried with honour, bringing a close to 75
years of the Lodhis of Delhi.

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