TAGHALAQ, a dynasty that ruled in India front A.D. 1321 to 1412. Juna Khan, who took the title of Muhammad Tag,halaq, ruled from A.D. 1325 725) to A.D. 20th March 1351 (Aar. 752). His father, Ghaias-ud-Din Taglialaq, was killed by the fall of a wooden pavilion which Juna Khan had erected. Julia Khan was the most eloquent and accomplished prince of his age. He was regular in his devotions, and conformed in his private life to all the moral precepts of his religion. In war he was distinguished for his gallantry and personal activity. He established hospitals and almshouses on a liberal scale, and distributed gifts and pensions to his friends and to men of learning with a profusion never before equalled. But his whole life was passed in the pursuit of visionary schemes, and with a total dis regard of the sufferings of his subjects.
He bought off an army of Moghuls, under Timurshin Khan, by an immense contribution ; he completed the reduction of the Dekhan ; he resolved to conquer Persia, but his immense army dissolved for want of pay, and carried pillage and ruin to every quarter. He assembled 100,000 men to conquer China, but when they had crossed through' the Himalaya they were met by a great army of Chinese, and' scarcely a man returned. He tried to introduce paper money with copper tokens, but it failed. More than once he moved out his army over a great tract, as if for a hunt, and ordered it to dose iu to the centre, and all 1\ Rhin were slaughtered like wild beasts. His
nephew Muhammad, governing in Malwa, re belled, but was pursued into the Dekhan, taken, and flayed alive. Malik Bahram, his• father's friend, rebelled in the Panjab, but was defeated and slain. Bengal and the Coromandel coast revolted, and were never again subdued. His arnay was attacked by a pestilence at Warangal. The Hindu kingdoms of Karnata and Telingana were re-established, A.D. 1344 (A.H. 744), aud the governor of Sambal, he of Beder, also a Moghul chief, and others in the Dekhan and Gujerat, re belled. He at length died at Tatta, ou the Indus, A.D. 20th March 1351 (A.n. 21 Maharrana 752). His tomb stands by itself, surrounded by an artificial lake: Thrice during his reign he changed his capital from Dehli to DeOgiri, to which he gave the name of Dowlatabad, and compelled the people to remove. Ibn Batuta visited his court A.D. 1341. At the close of the 14th century, during the minority of Mahmud, the last Taghalaq king, Gujerat, Malwa, and Juanpur proclaimed their independence, the last kingdom being the Ganges country from Bengal to the centre of Oudh. After the invasion of Timur (A.D. 1398), other provinces threw off the yoke, and the terri tory of Dehli was reduced to it few miles near the capital. New Heidi is still known to the people as Taghalaqabad. — Elphinstone's India, pp. 350-414 ; Tr. of a Hindu, p. 214.