Historical Figures

24. Muhammad Ghori entered India via Punjab!

After a severe defeat from the Chaulukyas of Gujarat in AD 1178, Muhammad Ghori understood that he should conquer the Muslim nobles of India before laying his hands on the Hindu kings of India, so that he could move slowly in India. In those days Punjab was ruled by many small Muslim-Amirs which were established in India by Mahmud Ghaznavi.

So Muhammad Ghori planned to leave Gujarat and enter India via Punjab. At that time Peshawar was ruled by Khusrav Malik of Ghaznavi dynasty. Ghori invaded Peshawar in AD 1179 and occupied Peshawar. In AD 1181, Ghori made a second attack on Punjab and conquered the region up to Sialkot.

In AD 1182, Muhammad Ghori invaded the lower Sindh region of India and conquered the kingdom called Dewal and forced the Hindu ruler there to accept his subjugation. In AD 1185, Muhammad Ghori made the third attack on Lahore and included the region up to Lahore in his kingdom.

Thus Muhammad Ghori became the master of a vast area from Ghazni to Lahore. Now he could talk looking into the eyes of the Hindu kings of India. After taking possession of Lahore, the border of Muhammad Ghori's kingdom reached Sirhind of Punjab, which is called Tabarhind by Muslim historians.

The fort of Sirhind was under the empire of Prithviraj III, the Chauhan ruler of Delhi and Ajmer. Muhammad Ghori decided to attack the Chauhan Empire from here.

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In AD 1189, Muhammad Ghori made the first direct attack on the kingdom of Prithviraj Chauhan and captured the fort of Bhatinda. At that time the fort of Bhatinda was under the Chauhans. Prithviraj Chauhan remained silent at that time, but in AD 1191, when Muhammad Ghori, after conquering Tabarhind i.e. Sirhind, went ahead, Prithviraj stopped his way in the plain of Tarain in Karnal district.

This battle is known as the first battle of Tarain in the history of India. Now Tarain has come to be called Narain. According to some historians like Farishta, Nizamuddin Ahmed and Lenpool etc., the wars of AD 1191 and 1192 between Muhammad Ghori and Prithviraj Chauhan were fought at the place named Narayan, which is also called Tarawadi.

The name Tarain is given in Tabaqat-i-Nasiri written by contemporary writer Minhaj Us Siraj. This difference between Tarain in place of Narayan or Narayan instead of Tarain is due to the Shiksta type of writing in Persian script, in which the difference of a few dots above the first syllable causes Tarain to be Narain or Narain to Tarain. Ishwari Prasad has written in Midival India that in most of the history it has been written as Narain which is wrong. The name of the village is Tarain. It is situated between Thaneshwar and Karnal. This error is probably caused by the Persian script.

In the battlefield, Gauri faced the king of Delhi, Govind Rai Tomar. Muhammad Ghori threw his spear at Govindaraya and hit him with two teeth of Govindaraya. Govindarai also shot his spear at Gauri in response. Gauri was badly injured by this blow and her life was in danger.

Seeing this, Gauri's soldiers ran away from the battlefield. A stampede broke out in the remaining army. Taking advantage of this stampede, Muhammad Ghori also managed to escape from Tarain. He fled to Lahore and after healing his wounds returned to Ghazni.

King Prithviraj went ahead and recaptured the fort of Sirhind so that Qazi Ziauddin, the fortress of Gauri, was taken prisoner and brought to Ajmer. The Qazi prayed to Prithviraj Chauhan that the life of the Qazi should be spared. In return, the Qazi will provide huge wealth to Prithviraj Chauhan. Prithviraj took pity on the Qazi and freed the Qazi. Ziauddin returned to Ghazni after dedicating huge wealth to Qazi Prithviraj Chauhan.

After reaching Ghazni, Muhammad Ghori continued to increase his army for a whole year. He collected one bloodthirsty predator in his army. When 120,000 soldiers had gathered in his army, in AD 1192 he again moved towards Ajmer to fight with Prithviraj.

According to Prithviraj Raso, there were 21 battles between Prithviraj Chauhan and Muhammad Ghori in which Chauhan was victorious. The Hammir epic describes the defeat of Gauri seven times by Prithviraj. Singhvi refers to the Hindu-Muslim conflict eight times by quoting the Jain text Mala, Prithviraj Prabandha. The author of the Prabandha Kosh describes the release of Muhammad Ghori from prison by Prithviraj twenty times. Gauri's defeat is mentioned 21 times in Surjan Charitra and 23 times in Prabandha Chintamani.

On the basis of so many details, it can be said that there were many conflicts between the armies of Muhammad Ghori and Prithviraj Chauhan. Some of these battles must have been very small and some big. For example, it can be understood that even after the big conflict of 1962 between India and China, there have been many conflicts like Battle of Nathu La, Battle of Chao La, Doklam dispute, Battle of Galwan Valley, Pangong Lake skirmish etc. Similarly, there must have been many battles and skirmishes in the armies of Muhammad Ghori and Prithviraj Chauhan, about which much information is not available.

Watch in the next episode- Public literature distorted the personality of Prithviraj Chauhan in an attempt to make him very great!

-Doctor. Mohanlal Gupta