Summary of Tughlaq By Girish Karnad

Tughlaq is a play written by Indian film director and writer Girish Karnad. The play was originally published in 1964. Girish Karnad has made this play about the life of Muhammad Big Tughlaq. Muhammad bin Tughlaq was the Sultan of Delhi from 1325 to 1351.

Tughlaq By Girish Karnad

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Summary of Tughlaq By Girish Karnad

Muhammad bin Tughlaq was a famous educated fool. Tughlaq did many experiments in his life which were completely unsuccessful. That is why people called him a mad king. Let me tell you about the three biggest mistakes of Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s life.

The first big mistake of Tughlaq’s life was that he changed his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad. He made Daulatabad his capital from Delhi, due to which he suffered a huge financial loss and many of his people lost their lives. This happened because changing the capital is not an easy task.

The question is why Tughlaq wanted to change his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad. There are two main reasons for this, the first reason was to protect himself from the attack of the Mongols. The second reason was that he wanted to rule both the north and south parts of India. By staying in Daulatabad, he was able to rule both North India and South India.

The second biggest mistake of Tughlaq’s life was that he introduced silver and gold coins. The population was very high and the demand for coins was very high, so to meet that demand they made coins of grass and copper and gave them equal value as gold and silver.

When the coins of grass and copper started being made, people started copying it as it was very easy to copy them. People started making coins of grass and copper and started replacing them with gold and silver coins as both had the same value. Due to which Tughlaq suffered huge losses.

The third biggest mistake of Tughlaq was imposing taxes. There was a place called Doab which was a very fertile land and the farmers of that land were very rich. So Tughlaq imposed heavy taxes on Doab to earn money from them. As soon as Tughlaq imposed heavy taxes on Doab, the farmers of Doab fled due to which there was no one left to farm in Doab. These are the three biggest mistakes of Tughlaq’s life which made him the mad sultan of India.

Muhammad bin Tughlaq had some good qualities as he was a secular person. He never discriminated between his people on the basis of caste and religion. He respected all religions equally.

Tughlaq By Girish Karnad Summary

The story of the drama begins with a character named Aziz who is a Muslim but has disguised himself as a Hindu Brahmin. He changed his name from Aziz to Vishnu Prasad so that people would not understand that he is a Muslim. After becoming a Hindu Brahmin Aziz files a case against Tughlaq, he claims that Tughlaq has occupied his land so he demands his land back. Aziz’s demands are fulfilled by giving him 500 Dinars in exchange for his land. The question is why Aziz became a Hindu to file a case against Tughlaq?

This is because Tughlaq wanted to win the trust of his Hindu people. He wanted to show people how secular he is. So Aziz thought that if he became a Hindu then Tughlaq would treat him with respect. So Aziz became a Hindu and got 500 Dinars in exchange for his occupied land. Tughlaq wanted to be a secular person, but he did not know that the person he was helping was not a Hindu but a Muslim.

After this Muhammad bin Tughlaq tells his court that he is moving his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad. Daulatabad is a city of Hindus where Hindus are in majority. Tughlaq believes that after moving to Daulatabad he can unite Hindus and Muslims. The second reason was that he could defend himself from the attack of the Mongols because the Mongols easily attacked Delhi. Tughlaq does not order the people of his court to come with him to Daulatabad, he just asks them. He just invites them to come with him.

A new character comes, Ain ul Mulk, who was a friend of Tughlaq but has rebelled against him. Ain ul Mulk is coming to fight Tughlaq with his thirty thousand soldiers. On the other hand, Tughlaq has only six thousand soldiers. If there will be a fight between them, Tughlaq will surely lose.

Now a new character comes in the story, Sheikh Imam Uddin, who does not like Tughlaq. Sheikh is inciting people against Tughlaq. Tughlaq knows that Sheikh Imamuddin does not like him. He invites the Sheikh and asks him to meet Ain ul Mulk for a peace proposal. Tughlaq asks him to tell Ain ul Mulk that he wants peace and does not want to fight with him. Tughlaq gives Sheikh Imamuddin royal dress and a big elephant to meet Ain ul Mulk.

When Sheikh Imam goes to meet Ain ul Mulk, he was looking like a king and when Ain ul Mulk saw him, he thought he was Tughlaq. Ain ul was thinking he was Tughlaq so he ordered to attack him. As soon as Ain ul ordered to attack, his soldier shot an arrow at him which killed him on the spot. After this, Tughlaq decided to move to Daulatabad as soon as possible. After coming to Daulatabad, Tughlaq announced that the value of copper coins would be equal to silver and gold coins. Due to which people made a lot of copper coins and replaced them with silver and gold coins.

People started calling him a mad king because of his wrong decisions. Tughlaq had a good friend named Najib, he was the only person in Tughlaq’s life whom he trusted more than anyone else in the world. Najid used to help Tughlaq a lot and gave him the right advice.

One day Tughlaq’s best friend Najib was murdered by Tughlaq’s stepmother. Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s stepmother poisoned Najib which led to his death. As soon as Tughlaq came to know about his stepmother, he ordered his soldiers to stone her until she dies.

Through this decision the author is trying to tell us how frustrated Tughlaq was and how everything was getting out of his control. The story now has a new character named Ghiyas Uddin Abbasid who is coming to the capital Daulatabad to meet Tughlaq. The story now comes to Aziz who killed Ghiyas Uddin and took his place. Aziz goes to meet Tughlaq and tells him that he is Ghiyas Uddin. He convinces Tughlaq that he is Ghiyas Uddin. When Tughlaq gets to know the real identity of Aziz and how he was fooling him by becoming Ghiyas Uddin. He does not punish him but makes him an officer in his court. At the end of the story Tughlaq falls asleep and wakes up tired.

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