84 THE TUKKS IN DELHI ish chiefs demanded a strong hand to keep them down, and nothing but Balban's vigorous energy could have maintained the throne unimpaired through those twenty troubled years. On Nasir-ad-din's death in 1266, the great minister, whose loyalty towards his gentle sovereign had never wavered, naturally stepped into his place. The same rule continued, but the mild influence of the dervish Sultan no longer softened the severity of his vizir. The energetic minister became an implacable king. With ambitious Turkish khans treading on his heels, Hindus everywhere ready to spring at the smallest opening for revolt, marauders infesting the very gates of Delhi, as- saulting and robbing the bhistis and the girls who fetched water, above all with the Mongols ever ham- mering at the doors of the frontier posts, Balban had reason to be stern and watchful, and if he carried his severity to extreme lengths, it was probably a case of his own life against the rest. He suppressed with an iron hand the forays of the hillmen who terrified the suburbs of Delhi; his armies scoured the jungles about the capital, destroyed the villages, cleared the forest, and at a sacrifice of one hundred thousand men turned a haunt of bushrangers into a peaceable agricultural district. By building forts in disturbed parts and estab- lishing Afghan garrisons in blockhouses, he freed the roads from the brigands who had long practically closed them. " Sixty years have passed since then," says Barani, our chief authority for this reign, " but the roads have ever since been free from robbers." Such
