Ghiyas al-Din Tughluq’s campaign in Bengal and Tirhut

01Bengal

The sons of the former Bengal ruler Shams al-Din Firuz were fighting each other. One of them appealed to Delhi, and Ghiyas al-Din marched east in 1324. Ghiyas al-Din Bahadur, who held east Bengal, was defeated and captured, and Bengal was divided into three provinces under governors. Barani and later Firishta record the campaign; the captured Bahadur was later restored by Muhammad bin Tughluq as a vassal.

02The end of Karnata Mithila

Mithila had been ruled since 1097 by the Karnata kings, founded by Nanyadeva, whose court at Simraongadh fostered Maithili and Sanskrit learning. Harisimhadeva, the last of them, had his scholars compile the panji, the genealogical registers of Maithil Brahmin families still in use. When the Tughluq army came he could not resist, and he fled north into Nepal, where his line merged with the politics of the Kathmandu valley. Tirhut became a Sultanate province.