"But some other acts of his, which are boastfully mentioned by Persian chroniclers, do defy justification. These are not given chronologically and we have no context of circumstances to find an explanation for them. It is said that in Mathura “and other places” he turned temples into mosques, and established Muslim Sarais, colleges and bazars in the Hindu places of worship.' The author of the Tartkh-i-Daidi adds that idols were given to butchers who used them as meat-weights. Mathura, one of the most venerable cities of the Hindus, associated with the life of Lord Krishna, had the strange fate of being situated between the two capitals of the Sultanate—Agra and Delhi. Time and again it suffered from the ravages of the iconoclasts right up to the time of Aurangzeb. That Sikandar’s bigotry found expression there is not surprising. But what were the ‘“‘other places’? Details given hint at Anahabad and Varanasi. It is mentioned that barbers were forbidden from shaving the Hindus at Mathura. Even bathing at these holy places was discouraged... Indeed the few facts mentioned by the chroniclers about Sikandar’s fanaticism are of the common type witnessed here and there throughout the Muslim rule in India.... Thus there does not seem to be anything extraordinary in the acts and policies of Sikandar Lodi.... in the last chapter. In such an atmosphere the few acts of intolerance on the part of Sikandar Lodi appeared to be so much out of tune with the spirit of the age that they shocked even the Persian chroniclers. In the fourteenth century, Sikandar Lodi’s attitude would have caused no surprise. He would have been considered one among the common one of monarchs. But in the fifteenth century his bigotry was particularly noticeable. Hence the assertion of the chroniclers."