NORTHWESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH. 365 Indus at Attock, he marched through the Punjab to Delhi, under the walls of which he defeated the Sultan Muhammad Tughlak, who escaped to Gujarat Timur entered in state the imperial capital, which his fierce soldiery sacked, apparently against his will. From Delhi he made his way through the Doáb, swept across Meerut District into Rohilkhand, recrossed the Ganges at Hardwar, and finally left the Provinces by Saharanpur District. Wherever he passed, massacres and plunder marked his path. Hindustản recovered but slowly from this terrible blow. Muhammad Tughlak returned for awhile to Delhi, where he exercised a precarious authority for 12 years, until Khizr Khán, governor of the Punjab, seized upon the throne in 1414. The new dynasty, known as that of the Sayyids, ruled nominally as the viceroys of the Mughals, for 30 years, during which their sway became gradually restricted to the country immediately visible from the walls of Delhi. Meanwhile the Jaunpur kingdom had risen to great power, and under Sultan Ibrahim (1401-40) became the leading state in the Ganges valley. Ibrahim adorned his capital with magnificent architectural works, and several times strove to wrest Kaler, the key of the Junina, from the Delhi Empire. His son Mahmud succeeded in 1442 in his designs upon Kálpi ; after which he marched eastward, reduced the fort of CHANAR, and invaded Orissa. In 1450, Bahlol Lodi, of an Afghán family, deposed the last Sayyid Emperor, Alá-ud-dín, and made himself supreme at Delhi. Two years later, Mahmúd of Jaunpur laid siege to Delhi itself; but Bahlol Lodi returned from the Punjab, raised the siege, and drove Mahmúd back to his own capital. After 28 years of prolonged struggle between the two empires, Bahlol finally defeated Husain, the last of the Jaunpur Sultáns, in 1478; and the whole of the North-Western Provinces were once more united to the Delhi dominions under the Lodi dynasty. In 1517, Ibrahim Lodi ascended the throne, and reigned for 9 years, with constant revolts on every side. At length, in 1526, Bábar marched against Ibrahim from Ferghana, defeated him on the famous battle - field of Panipat, captured Delhi, and founded the famous line of the Great Mughals.' In the fiftieth year of his age and the fifth of his Indian reign, Bábar died at AGRA (1530), and his son Humáyún continued to reside in the same city. Agra had already formed a favourite residence of the Lodi princes; and under the early Mughal Emperors it ranked as the capital of India. The city then stood on the left bank of the Jumna, not, as now, on the right. Humáyún's empire was almost restricted to the present Provinces by the revolt of his brother, who took possession of Kábul and the Punjab; while in 1539, the Emperor was driven back from the east to his capital, and in the next year was expelled from Agra itself by Sher Shah, leader of the Bengal Afgháns. Humáyún, after a serious defeat at
