Historical Figures

25. Folk literature distorted the personality of Prithviraj Chauhan in an effort to make him very great!

In the previous episode we had discussed that according to Prithviraj Raso, there were 21 battles between Prithviraj Chauhan and Muhammad Ghori in which the armies of King Prithviraj Chauhan were victorious. The Hammir epic describes the defeat of Gauri seven times by Prithviraj. The Prithviraj Prabandha mentions the Hindu-Muslim conflict eight times. The Prabandha Kosh tells the release of Muhammad Ghori twenty times after being imprisoned by Prithviraj. The defeat of Muhammad Ghori is mentioned 21 times in Surjan Charitra and 23 times in Prabandha Chintamani.

Based on the descriptions of these texts, it has become a widely accepted belief in India that Prithviraj Chauhan captured Muhammad Ghori on the battlefield twenty-one times and left him alive. It sounds good to bring an emotional boil to the blood of the youth of any country, but there does not seem to be a historical truth in it.

Apart from the Prabandha Kosh, no other text mentions Prithviraj's capture and release of Muhammad Ghori alive. Each book mentions the defeat of Muhammad Ghori several times.

Of these, the most notable is the defeat of Muhammad Ghori in the First Battle of Tarain, in which Muhammad Ghori fled to Lahore after getting injured and was captured by Qazi Ziauddin Prithviraj Chauhan, the fortress of Sirhind and brought to Ajmer. Taking a lot of money from the Qazi, he was allowed to go to Ghazni alive.

Perhaps by twisting these events, the story of Prithviraj capturing Muhammad Ghori twenty one times and leaving him alive became popular. This is exactly the same as on the basis of Kanhaiya Lal Sethia's poem 'Hey Ghas Ri Roti Hi Jad Ban Bilawado Le Bhagyao, Nanho So Amaryo Cheek Padyo Rana Ro Soyo Dukh Jagyo! Maharana was defeated in the war and his family was forced to eat grass bread. While both these things are wrong.

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It has often been seen that folk-literature and romantic tales dominate history and make it a myth, and on the basis of that myth, the opposing side gathers courage to deny even the real facts of history. The same happened in the case of Prithviraj and Muhammad Ghori.

The folk literature related to King Prithviraj has created such a huge controversy by distorting the historical facts that the entire personality of King Prithviraj Chauhan has changed. A great king of India has been declared a fool by the communists because of this literature, who instead of destroying the enemy who comes at hand, leaves him alive again and again and in the end is killed by him.

Even an ordinary person would not leave his enemy alive twenty-twenty-one times, then he was the master of such a huge empire. He also understood the meaning of politics and he also knew how to kill his enemies.

There are only two battles between Muhammad Ghori and Prithviraj Chauhan, the first of which is the first battle of Tarain in AD 1189 and the second battle is the second battle of Tarain in AD 1192.

It is written in Tabaqat-i-Nasiri that Gauri was provided military aid by Raja Jaichand of Kannauj and Vijaypal of Jammu. This statement of Tabaqat-e-Nasiri is not corroborated by any other text that Raja Jaichand assisted Muhammad Ghori in this war.

According to Harbilas Sharda, the Gahadawalas of Kannauj and the Chaulukyas of Gujarat conspire together to invite Shahabuddin Ghori to attack Prithviraj Chauhan.

Harbilas Sharda was a learned writer and whatever he wrote must have had some basis, yet his statement that the Chaulukyas of Gujarat and the Gahadavalas of Kanauj conspired together to invite Muhammad Ghori to attack Prithviraj, Seems utterly wrong.

The bigger enemies of the Chaulukyas of Anhilwara were those of the Chauhans than those of the Muslim invaders from Ghazni and Gor. The reasons for this were also clear. Mahmud Ghaznavi had caused great damage to Gujarat by breaching Somnath and Muhammad Ghori himself had also tried to damage Gujarat by attacking it a few years ago. Therefore it was not possible that the Chaulukyas of Gujarat would have joined hands with the heretical enemy to destroy their self-righteous enemy! One of whom was a self-righteous and the other a heretic!

The king of Jammu was killed in the battle field at the hands of a feudatory of Prithviraj Chauhan fighting on behalf of Muhammad Ghori in the second battle of Tarain.

Therefore, on the basis of these facts, it can be said that when Muhammad Ghori came to attack India in AD 1192, he also got some powers of India in which all the Muslim nobles of the Punjab region were there, along with them of Jammu. Hindu kings and Prithviraj Chauhan's own feudatories were also involved, but due to lack of sufficient evidence, this cannot be blamed on the Chaulukyas of Gujarat! We will discuss the Jaichand Gahadwal episode in the next episode.

Watch in the next episode- Raja Jaichand Gahadwal was not a traitor!

-Doctor. Mohanlal Gupta