Ikhtiyar Uddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji was a Turkic military general of Qutb-ud-din Aybak.
Khalji defeated Lakshmana Sena of Bengal without losing a single personnel and occupied Bengal for the first time as Muslim ruler.
The people of Pirpal do not sleep on beds or chowkis till now since the Khilji conquest in 1204 fearing another sudden attack. They have been sleeping on the ground for hundreds of years.
The highly surprising part is that most of the people sleeping on the ground are from Hindu community in Indian state of West Bengal’s Gangarampur police station under South Dinajpur district.
Bakhtiyar, a member of the Khilji tribe, a Turkic tribe long settled in what is now southern Afghanistan, was head of the military force that conquered much of eastern India at the end of the 12th Century and at the beginning of the 13th century. He conquered Nadia first from Lakshmana. The city dwellers took him to be a horse-dealer and he captured the palace by surprise. King Lakshmana Sena fled away by the back-door bare footed. Meanwhile the main army of Bakhtiyar Khalji arrived and joined the Muslim military ruler. Finally, Nadia came under the Turkic leader’s possession without any blood-shed.
He went on to capture the capital and the principal city, Gaur, and intruded into much of Bengal later. He allegedly run hazardous campaign that ruined ancient Nalanda, the centre of higher education and research.
In 1206, Khilji marched with ten thousand horsemen for Tibet expedition and returned to Devkot (currently located under Dinajpur area) with only a hundred troops after being defeated.
Devkot is the place where he died following the injury sustained in the middle of Tibet expedition and buried there. His tomb is now located in Pirpal village.
It seems not realistic, but true that the people of Pirpal are still in fear of the fastest foot-sound of Khilji’s horse, through which Bangla had gotten alien ruler for a long time.
Khilji’s tomb is so neglected than his name is pronounced, studied and remembered in the pages of history books.
It is said that, since Bakhtiar Khilji is lying on the ground, people of Pirpal sleep on the ground instead of high platforms like beds or chowkis for hundreds of years.
If the fast-run equines come again to conquest Bengal as well as Pirpal again like Khilji’s, the people sleeping in ground will detect the sound via ground vibrations and do needful.
