A Deccan story: Mahmud Gawan

The name Dabhol is today associated with a power plant, with most Indians no longer being aware of what its place in history is. In the period between the 14^th and 16^th centuries, Dabhol was the most important port of the south Konkan. Controlled by the Bahmani rulers, it was called Mustafabad and ships from here went to ports in the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean.

In 1453, a 42-year old man stepped onto the dock at Mustafabad. Coming from Persia (now Iran), Mahmud Gawan brought with him fabrics, Ethiopian slaves, jewels and most importantly, Arabian horses. The kingdoms of the Deccan imported the powerful Arabian horse as a key element of their military. The overland route across north India was closed to them post the Bahmani revolt against the Tughlaks, making them rely on the sea route.

As interaction between Persia and the Deccani kingdoms increased, it went beyond exchange of material and money. Persian men of learning were also valued in the courts of the Deccan. With a far superior resource and population base than Iran, the Deccan kingdoms were more wealthy and attracted talent. Talent such as that of Mahmud Gawan.

While Gawan’s ultimate objective was to visit Delhi, his first motivation was commercial. The journey took him to Bidar. To the court of Sultan Ahmad II. Gawan was given the rank of a nobleman in the Bidari court, with 1,000 men at his command. It was the first step in what would eventually prove to be a meteoric rise for Gawan. In 1457, he successfully put down a revolt in Nalgonda. In 1458, he was made chief minister and accorded the title of malik al-tujjar or ‘Prince of merchants’. Sultan Ahmad died and so did his successor Humayun. Gawan went on to serve as the regent for two minor monarchs and such as the confidence in his ability to manage affairs of state that in 1466, he was given the task of managing all Bahmani territory in the Deccan.

Gawan’s rise can be attributed to both his administrative ability as well as his network of contacts throughout the Persian-speaking world. His correspondence included letters to the monarchs of Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Scholars were invited to settle at Bidar and the place gradually became a center of learning. The highlight of this aspect was the magnificent madrasa constructed under his patronage at Bidar. The madrasa library held over 3,000 books. Regular commercial relations between Bidar and the countries of the Middle East were organized.

Gawan also drew moral authority from a successful military campaign he led between 1469 and 1472, reigning in local chiefs who were harassing trading caravans coming from the sea-routes through treacherous hilly routes. He captured Goa in 1472. In March of the same year, Gawan’s forces undertook the first recorded use of gunpowder in the Deccan, in the siege of Belgaum fort.

But for all his ability, Mahmud Gawan presided over a viper’s nest of intrigue. On one side were the Deccanis and on the other, Westerners, like Gawan himself. The divide was also physical. Sultan Ahmad II ordered the Deccanis to occupy the left side of the throne and the Westerners the right side. The lowest point of this relationship was reached in 1447 when a military expedition to subdue rebels in the Sahyadri Mountains ended in defeat with the two factions separating, instead of tackling the enemy together.

Gawan’s success and the curbs he put on the power of other nobles made him the object of envy. The envious nobles bribed his seal-bearer to put the seal on a blank paper, later showing it to Sultan Muhammad III as being a communication from Gawan to the Raja of Odisha inviting him to invade the Bahmani territory. In a drunken and hazy state of mind, the Sultan ordered the execution of his chief minister.

Mahmud Gawan died on April 5, 1481, nearly three decades after he stepped off a boat at Dabhol. His madrasa at Bidar still stands, albeit a hollow shell of what it once was. There is no evidence of the great library it possessed. Only one of its two magnificent minars exists. Bidar fort and its palaces are still in place, their empty precincts greeting the odd visitor and the fort grounds becoming arena for Bidar’s budding cricketers. Maybe in some corner, the spirit of Gawan still watches over the place.

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