MAS'UD'S CAMPAIGN IN INDIA 45 troops, and lie was equally intimate with the khwaja, who made him his confidential secretary and interpreter. He was granted the distinction of a state tent and parasol, kettle-drums were beaten at his quarters, after the Hindu fashion, and his banners had gilt cusps. This Hindu paragon set out to chastise Myaltagin. Matters were going badly and there was anxiety at Ghazni. The Seljuks were beginning to cause serious alarm in the west, and a battle had been lost at Kar- man in the eastern hills, where the Sultan's Hindu troops, who formed half the cavalry, had behaved like poltroons and fled the field. When they came back, Mas'ud shut their officers up in the chancery, where six of them committed suicide with their daggers. " They should have used those daggers at Karman," said the Sultan. At last the news came that the bar- ber's son had routed Niyaltagin, and that the Jats had caught the fugitive viceroy and cut off his head, which they sold to Tilak for a hundred thousand pieces of silver. The elated Sultan vowed that he would him- self go to India and take the fort of Hansi, which he had once before attacked. The ministers in vain tried to dissuade him, urging the troubles in other parts of his empire. If the Seljuks should conquer Khorasan, or take even a village there, they argued, " ten Holy Wars at Hansi would not compensate." But he was immovable. " The vow is upon my back," he said, " and accomplish it I will." Leaving the khwaja as his deputy, and appointing Prince Maudud viceroy at Balkh, the Sultan set out
