Alauddin Khalji bought the Delhi throne partly by catapulting gold into crowds
To win popular backing in 1296, Alauddin Khalji had gold pieces fired from a siege catapult into a crowd at Kara, and recruited soldiers without so much as a fitness test. The display worked. Within months he was Sultan of Delhi, and he went on to hold off repeated Mongol invasions of India.
Born Ali Gurshasp around 1266, he was the eldest son of the elder brother of Jalaluddin, founder of the Khalji dynasty, and was raised by his uncle after his father died. He married Jalaluddin's daughter, an unhappy match; his wife resented his second marriage and his mother-in-law warned the sultan he was plotting. When Jalaluddin took power in Delhi, Alauddin became master of ceremonies, and after helping crush a revolt in 1291 he was made governor of Kara.
Nobles at Kara urged him to seize the throne and told him a coup needed money. He raided the wealthy town of Bhilsa in 1293, handed its loot to the sultan to win trust, and quietly kept what he had learned about the riches of Devagiri in the Deccan. He raided Devagiri in 1296 and came back loaded with treasure. Jalaluddin, trusting his nephew, came to meet him near Kara with a small escort and was killed on 20 July 1296.
Alauddin then marched on Delhi as floods on the Yamuna held him up, winning over rival nobles with gold. Opposition in the capital melted when part of the defending army switched sides at night, and he was proclaimed sultan on 21 October 1296. He paid every soldier a year and a half of wages up front; the chronicler Barani called that first year the happiest Delhi had known.
His armies turned back Chagatai Mongol invasions several times between 1297 and 1305 and won decisively near the Ravi in 1306. He annexed Gujarat, Ranthambore, Chittor, Malwa and more, while his slave-general Malik Kafur forced southern kingdoms to pay tribute. He also reformed revenue and imposed price controls. Illness in later years left Kafur running affairs, and Alauddin died on 4 January 1316.
Source: Alauddin Khalji
