# Timur Attacks Haridwar (c. January 1399)

URL: https://allhistories.com/hinduism/timeline/1399-timur-attacks-haridwar
Location: Haridwar, Uttarakhand
Themes: Religion

Timur's army reaches Haridwar on the Ganges in January 1399, with the fall of the town dated to 13 January, and fights Hindu defenders in the area, as recorded in the Malfuzat-i-Timuri. The raid follows his sack of Delhi a month earlier. Haridwar is one of four Kumbh Mela sites alongside Prayagraj, Nashik and Ujjain, but the source does not describe a Kumbh. Scholars differ on when the Kumbh Mela became an organised festival in its present form, and detailed written accounts of the fair increase only from the early modern and colonial periods.

## Why it matters
It is an early recorded sign of mass pilgrimage at Haridwar, a tradition now one of the world's largest religious gatherings.

Paramount Power at the Time: [Nasir ud-Din Mahmud Shah Tughluq](https://allhistories.com/hinduism/rulers/nasir-ud-din-mahmud-shah-tughluq)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Kumbh Mela](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela)
- [Wikipedia — Haridwar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haridwar)
- [Wikipedia — Timur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur)