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Mohammed bin Tughlaq is one of the most famous king of the Tughlaq dynasty, often reffered as 'Genius-fool'. His innovative ideas, however, provoked revolts, questions about his sanity among contemporaries, and historical controversy later. One of his early reforms was to move the capital from Delhi 800 kilometers south to Daulatabad in 1327, so as to administer recently conquered kingdoms in peninsular India more effectively. Neither the nobles nor the Muslim clerics liked the forced move; the climate of the new location also proved inhospitable. In 1329 Muhammad introduced token currency by proclaiming silver equivalencies for brass and copper tokens that could be redeemed at the royal treasury. The scheme proved an expensive and short-lived failure, unlike the Chinese scheme of paper currency which it emulated.
His attempts to encourage agricultural development and adopt liberal policies toward the (Hindu) cultivators were defeated by seven consecutive years of drought that led to widespread economic discontent and rebellion. Rebellion was most successful in the south where one Governor, a recent convert from Islam, Harihara, founded the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar and another discontented Muslim noble, Hasan Ganga, founded the Bahmani Sultanate of the Deccan in the 1340s.
Bengal detached itself from Delhi in 1338, and Muhammad Tughlaq was killed while fighting rebellion in Sind in 1351.
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