their wántas or hereditary lands. The attempt to follow this advice stirred to resistance the chief men of Ídar, Sirohi, Dúngarpur, Bánsváda, Lúnáváda, Rájpípla, Dohad, and the banks of the Mahi. The king strengthened his line of outposts, establishing one at Sirohi and another at Ídar, besides fresh posts in other places. At the same time he began to persecute the Hindus, allowing them to be killed on the slightest pretence, branding Rájputs and Kolis, forcing them to wear a red rag on the right sleeve, forbidding them to ride in Áhmedábád, and punishing the celebration of Holi and Diwáli. [806] In A.D. 1554 Burhán, a servant of the king's, conceived the idea of killing him and reigning in his stead. [Death of Mahmúd, 1554.] He accordingly gave his master an intoxicating drug, and when he was overcome with sleep stabbed him to the heart. Then summoning the principal nobles in the king's name, he put to death Ásaf Khán the prime minister and twelve others, and endeavoured to have himself accepted as Sultán. No one aided him; even his accomplices deserted him. Imád-ul-Mulk Rúmi, [807] Ulugh Khán, and others joined to oppose him, and when marching against them he was cut down by Shirwán Khán. Mahmúd's persecutions had raised such bitter hate among the Hindus, that they regarded Burhán as a saviour, and after Burhán's death are said to have made a stone image of him and worshipped it. [808] Mahmúd moved his capital from Áhmedábád to Mehmudábád, eighteen miles south of Áhmedábád where he built a palace and enclosed a deer park. At each corner of the park he raised a palace the stone walls and ceilings of which were ornamented with beautiful and precious gold traceries and arabesques. [809] His strict regard for public morals led him to forbid Muhammadan women visiting saints' tombs as the practice gave rise to irregularities. He died at the age of twenty-eight after a reign of eighteen years.