Sikandar Khan Lodi

The top two storeys of the Qutub Minar were reconstructed in marble by Sikandar Lodi

Sikandar was the second son of Sultan Bahlul Lodi, who had founded the Lodi ruling dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.[3]

Sikandar was a capable ruler who encouraged trade across his territory. He expanded Lodi rule into the regions of Gwalior and Bihar. He made a treaty with Alauddin Hussain Shah and his kingdom of Bengal. In 1503, he commissioned the building of the present-day city of Agra.[4]

The newly crowned Raja Man Singh Tomar was not prepared for an invasion from Delhi, and decided to avoid a war by paying Bahlul Lodi a tribute of 800,000 tankas (coins).[5] In 1489, Sikandar Lodi succeeded Bahlul Lodi as the Sultan of Delhi. In 1500, Manasimha provided asylum to some rebels from Delhi, who had been involved in a plot to overthrow Sikandar Lodi. The Sultan, wanting to punish Raja Man Singh Tomar, and to expand his territory, launched a punitive expedition against Gwalior. In 1501, he captured Dholpur, a dependency of Gwalior, whose ruler Vinayaka-deva fled to Gwalior.[6]

Sikandar Lodi's tomb

Sikandar Lodi then marched towards Gwalior, but after crossing the Chambal River, an epidemic outbreak in his camp forced him to halt his march. Raja Man Singh Tomar used this opportunity to reconcile with Lodi, and sent his son Kunwar Vikramaditya to the Lodi camp with gifts for the Sultan. He promised to expel the rebels from Delhi, on the condition that Dholpur be restored to Vinayaka-deva. Sikandar Lodi agreed to these terms, and left. Historian Kishori Saran Lal theorizes that Vinayaka Deva had not lost Dholpur at all: this narrative was created by the Delhi chroniclers to flatter the Sultan.[7]

In 1504, Sikandar Lodi resumed his war against the Tomar King's of Gwalior. First, he captured the Mandrayal fort, located to the east of Gwalior.[7] He ransacked the area around Mandrayal, but many of his soldiers lost their lives in a subsequent epidemic outbreak, forcing him to return to Delhi.[4] Sometime later, Lodi moved his base to the newly established city of Agra, which was located closer to Gwalior. He captured Dholpur, and then marched against Gwalior, characterizing the expedition as a jihad. From September 1505 to May 1506, Lodi managed to ransack the rural areas around Gwalior, but was unable to capture the Gwalior Fort because of Raja Man Singh Tomar's hit-and-run tactics. A scarcity of food resulting from Lodi's destruction of crops forced Lodi to give up the siege. During his return to Agra, Raja Man Singh Tomar ambushed his army near Jatwar, inflicting heavy casualties on the invaders.[8]

Having failed to capture the Gwalior fort, Lodi decided to capture the smaller forts surrounding Gwalior. Dholpur and Mandrayal were already in his control by this time. In February 1507, he captured the Uditnagar (Utgir or Avantgarh) fort lying on the Narwar-Gwalior route.[9] In September 1507, he marched against Narwar, whose ruler (a member of the Tomara clan) fluctuated his allegiance between the Tomaras of Gwalior and the Malwa Sultanate. He captured the fort after a year-long siege.[10] In December 1508, Lodi placed Narwar in charge of Raj Singh Kachchwaha, and marched to Lahar (Lahayer) located to the south-east of Gwalior. He stayed at Lahar for a few months, during which he cleared its neighbourhood of rebels.[10] Over the next few years, Lodi remained busy in other conflicts. In 1516, he made a plan to capture Gwalior, but an illness prevented him from doing so. Raja Man Singh Tomar died in 1516, and Sikandar Lodi's illness also led to his death in November 1517.[11]

Sikander patronized learning and scholarship during his reign.[12] His influence initiated a renaissance of poetry and music in Delhi, with the Hindu poet Dungar teaching at a Muslim college.[13] He was not just a generous patron of writers, but also a talented scholar and poet who wrote Persian poetry under the pen name Gul Rukhi.[12]

The Lahdjat Sikandar Shahi wa-lata'if-i la-mutanahi, a rare musical composition, was put together as a result of the Sikandar's patronage of musical training.[13] This composition demonstrated Sikandar's deep interest in Indian music.[12]

Because Sikandar's mother was a Hindu, he tried to prove his Islamic credentials by resorting to strong Sunni orthodoxy as a political expediency. He destroyed Hindu temples, and under the pressure from the ulama, allowed the execution of a Brahmin who declared Hinduism to be as veracious as Islam. He also banned women from visiting the mazars (mausoleums) of Muslim saints, and banned the annual procession of the spear of the legendary Muslim martyr Salar Masud.[14]

Before Sikandar's time, the judicial duties in smaller villages and towns were performed by local administrators, while the Sultan himself consulted the scholars of the Islamic law (sharia). Sikandar established sharia courts in several towns, enabling the qazis to administer the sharia law to a larger population. Although such courts were established in areas with significant Muslim population, they were also open to the non-Muslim population, including for non-religious matters such as property disputes.[14]