Mahālakadeva (died 1305 CE), also known as Mahlak Deo or Mahlak Deva, was a king of the

Paramara dynasty The Paramara dynasty ( IAST: Paramāra) was an Indian dynasty that ruled Malwa and surrounding areas in west-central India between 9th and 14th centuries. They belonged to the Parmara clan of the Rajputs. The dynasty was established in either t ...

in central India. The last known ruler of the dynasty, he was defeated and killed by the forces of

Alauddin Khalji Alaud-Dīn Khaljī, also called Alauddin Khilji or Alauddin Ghilji (), born Ali Gurshasp, was an emperor of the Khalji dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate in the Indian subcontinent. Alauddin instituted a number of significant administrativ ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

Political status

Mahalakadeva was the successor of Bhoja II. Gogadeva, also known as Haranand or simply Goga, was his powerful

pradhan Pradhan (Devanagari: प्रधान) is generally ministerial title of Sanskrit origin in cultures of Hindu tradition, mainly used in the Indian subcontinent. The Sanskrit ''pradhāna'' translates to "major" or "prime"; however, the more modern ...

(prime minister). Goga was also the prime minister of Bhoja II's predecessor Arjuna II, and had turned against the king. The 16th century historian

Firishta Firishta or Ferešte ( fa, ), full name Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah Astarabadi ( fa, مُحَمَّد قاسِم هِندو شاہ), was a Persian historian, who later settled in India and served the Deccan Sultans as their court historian. He was ...

describes Goga as the "Raja of

Malwa Malwa is a historical region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic upland north of the Vindhya Range. Politically and administratively, it is also syn ...

". According to historian Pratipal Bhatia, Goga might have become the ''de facto'' administrator of Malwa, with Bhoja II as a titular ruler.

Defeat against Alauddin Khalji

In 1305, the Muslim

Sultan of Delhi The following list of Indian monarchs is one of several lists of incumbents. It includes those said to have ruled a portion of the Indian subcontinent, including Sri Lanka. The earliest Indian rulers are known from epigraphical sources fou ...

sent his army to conquer Malwa, the Paramara territory. According to

Amir Khusrow Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253–1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau was an Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar who lived under the Delhi Sultanate. He is an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian ...

's ''Tarikh-i 'Alai'', "Rai Mahlak Deo" and ''pradhan'' "Koka" (Goga) commanded a force of 30-40 thousand cavalry, and an infantry of unknown size. Khusrow states that Delhi's "army of Islam" defeated this Paramara force, and "the earth was moistened with Hindu blood". Goga was killed in the battle, and his head was sent to the Sultan in Delhi. Ayn al-Mulk Multani, the newly appointed Governor of Malwa, was sent to expel Mahalakadeva from Mandu and cleanse that place from "the odour of infidelity". With help of a spy, Multani's forces found a way to enter the fort secretly. Mahalakadeva was killed while attempting to flee, on 24 November 1305. The Jain writer Kakka Suri, in his ''

Nabhi-nandana-jinoddhara-prabandha The ''Nābhi-nandana-jinoddhāra-prabandha'' is a 1336 Sanskrit book in the prabandha genre written by the Jain scholar Kakka Suri (Kakkasūri). The main objective of the book is to record the renovation of the Rishabhanatha Jain temple in Shatrun ...

'' (1336), describes the end of Mahalakadeva as follows: "Besieged by him lauddinin his own fort, the ruler of Mālwā passed there many days, living like a captive, and then died bereft of heroism." It is not known when exactly did the Delhi forces completed their conquest of Malwa. A 1310 CE

Udaipur Udaipur () ( ISO 15919: ''Udayapura''), historically named as Udayapura, is a city and municipal corporation in Udaipur district of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is the administrative headquarter of Udaipur district. It is the historic cap ...

inscription indicates that the Paramara dynasty survived until this time, at least in the north-eastern part of Malwa. A later 1338 CE inscription on a new mosque indicates that the area was under the control of the Delhi Sultan

Muhammad bin Tughluq Muhammad bin Tughluq (1290 – 20 March 1351) was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from February 1325 until his death in 1351. The sultan was the eldest son of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the Tughlaq dynasty. In 1321, the youn ...

by this time.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Paramara dynasty Paramara dynasty 1305 deaths 14th-century Indian monarchs