The Delhi Sultanate was not strong. The Lody Dynasty, founded by Bahlol Lody, had a small territory. It included the Punjab, the Doab, Jaunpur, Oudh, a part of Bihar, Tirhut and the country between the Sutlej and Bundelkhand. Although King Bahlol Lody in his life-time had conquered Jampur and Sikandar Lodi had tried to consolidate his power, the position of Ibrahim Lodi (1517-26) was not at all strong.
Grskine has described the actual position of Ibrahim Lodi in these words: “These extensive possessions, though under one King, had no very strong principle of cohesion. The monarchy was a congeries of nearly independent principalities, jagirs and provinces, each ruled by a hereditary chief, or by a Zamindar or delegate from Delhi; and the inhabitants looked more to their immediate governors who had absolute powers in the provinces and in whose hands consequently lay their happiness or misery, than to a distant or little known sovereign.
It was the individual, not the law that reigned. The Lodi princes, not merely to strengthen their own power, but from necessity, had in general committed the Government of the provinces and the chief offices of trust to their own countrymen, the Afghans; so that men of the Lodi, Fermuli and Lohani tribes held all the principal jagirs which from the habitual modes of thinking of their race, they considered as their own right and purchased by their swords rather than as due to any bounty or liberality on the part of the sovereign.””‘
According to Lane-Poole, a throne depending on the allegiance of “an aristocracy of rapacious and turbulent chiefs, demands politic concessions on the part of the monarch. Afghans above most men resent an undue assumption of superiority and tell with delicacy the tedious etiquette and obsequious ceremony of a formal court. The King must be their chief, a bona comrade and admitted leader in arms, but he must not give himself airs or show a want of respect for the free and outspoken clansmen upon whose swords dominion rests.” King Bahlol Lody was such a man. He had tried to build his power on the love of his nobles and always tried to act according to their wishes.
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No wonder, he was able to carry them with himself. We are told that if on any occasion some nobles rebelled against him, he would go to them, hand over his sword to them and ask them to sever his head from his body. On the other hand, Ibrahim Lodi was a men of a different temperament. In order to strengthen his position, he tried to destroy the feudal-lords. Mian Bhaua fell a victim to his anger. Azam Humayun was assassinated in prison. Even the greatest barons trembled for their safety. Darya Khan, Khane Jahan Lodi and Hussain Khan broke into open rebellion.
Hussain Khan was assassinated in his bed, and his tragic death made the Afghan Nobles bitterly hostile to Ibrahim Lodi. Darya Khan’s son assumed the title of Mohammad Shah, struck coins in his own name and resisted the Delhi Sultan. The discontentment of the nobles reached the climax when Ibrahim Lodi cruelly treated the son of Daulat Khan Lodi, Governor of the Punjab. Daulat Khan Lodi was called to the court, but he sent his son Dilawar Khan in his own place.
The king was annoyed and with a view to give expression to his own feelings, he took Dilawar Khan to a room where the victims of Royal Caprice were suspended from the walls. Addressing Dilawar Khan, King Ibrahim Lodi declared: “Have you seen the condition of those who have disobeyed?” Dilawar Khan understood the hint and kept quiet. Having come to Lahore, he communicated all that he had seen
I. Erskine, W.: History of India under Babur and Humayun.
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to his father. Alarmed for his safety, Daulat Khan sent an invitation to Babur, the Ruler of Kabul, to invade India.
It is admitted on all hands that the behaviour of Ibrahim Lodi towards the nobles was insulting. He would order the Afghan Chiefs to keep standing in his court with folded hands. They were made to observe the rules of etiquette which were certainly irksome.
It was the discontentment and hatred among the nobles for the Sultan that made his position weak. When revolts took place, the Sultan tried to stem the rising conflagration by the blood of some of the leading Amirs. The result was still wider disaffection. This explains as to why the numerical superiority of Ibrahim Lodi’s forces in the Battle of Panipat (1526) did not help him to win victory against Babur.