MUHAMMED GHORI AND PRITHVIRAJ CHAUHAN BATTLES

The 1st Battle of Tarain 1191 C.E. - Victory of Prithviraj Chauhan

Muhammad Ghori threw the gauntlet by laying siege to the fortress of Bhatinda in East Punjab which was on the frontier of Prithviraj's domains. Prithviraj's appeal for help from his father-in-law was scornfully rejected by the haughty Jaichandra. But undaunted Prithviraj marched on to Bhatinda and met his enemy at a place called Tarain (also called Taraori) near the ancient town of Thanesar. In face of the persistent Rajput attacks, the battle was won as the Muslim army broke ranks and fled leaving their general Muhammad Ghori as a prisoner in Prithviraj's hands. Muhammad Ghori
was brought in chains to Pithoragarh - Prithviraj's capital and he begged his victor for mercy and release. Prithviraj's ministers advised against pardoning the aggressor. But the chivalrous and valiant Prithviraj thought otherwise and respectfully released the vanquished Ghori.

The 2nd Battle of Tarain 1192 C.E. - Defeat of Prithiviraj Chouhan

Second Battle of Tarain

The very next year Prithviraj's gesture was repaid by Ghori who re-attacked Prithviraj with a stronger army and guilefully defeated him by attacking the Rajput army before daybreak. (The Hindus incidentally followed a hoary practice of battling only from sunrise up to sunset. Before Sunrise and after Sunset there was to be no fighting- as per a time honoured battle code).The defeated Prithviraj was pursued up to his capital and in chains he was taken as a captive to Ghor in Afghanistan.

Blinding of Prithviraj

The story of Prithviraj does not end here. As a prisoner in Ghor he was presented before Muhammad where he looked Ghori straight into the eye.

Blinding of Prithviraj Chauhan

Ghori ordered him to lower his eyes, whereupon a defiant Prithviraj scornfully told him how he had treated Ghori as a prisoner and said that the eyelids of a Rajputs eyes are lowered only in death.On hearing this, Ghori flew into a rage and ordered that Prithviraj's eyes be burnt with red hot iron rods.

This heinous deed being done, Prithviraj was regularly brought to the court to be taunted by Ghori and his courtiers. In those days Prithiviraj was joined by his former biographer Chand Bardai, who had composed a ballad-biography on Prithviraj in the name of Prithviraj Raso (Songs of Prithviraj). Chand Bardai told Prithviraj that he should avenge Ghori's betrayal and daily insults.

The Blind Prithviraj Avenges the Injustice done to him

The two got an opportunity when Ghori announced a game of Archery. On the advice of Chand Bardai, Prithviraj, who was then at court said he would also like to participate. On hearing his suggestion, the courtiers guffawed at him and he was taunted by Ghori as to how he could participate when he could not see. Whereupon, Prithviraj told Muhammad Ghori to order him to shoot, and he would reach his target.

Avenge of Prithviraj Chauhan

Ghori became suspicious and asked Prithviraj why he wanted Ghori himself to order and not anyone else. On behalf of Prithviraj Chand Bardai told Ghori that he as a king would not accept orders from anyone other than a king. His ego satisfied, Muhammad Ghori agreed.

On the said day, Ghori sitting in his royal enclosure had Prithviraj brought to the ground and had him unchained for the event. On Ghori's ordering Prithviraj to shoot, we are told Prithviraj turned in the direction from where he heard Ghori speak and struck Ghori dead with his arrow. This event is described by Chand Bardai in the couplet, "Dus kadam aggey, bees kadam daey, baitha hai Sultan. Ab mat chuko Chouhan, chala do apna baan." (Ten feet ahead of you and twenty feet to your right, is seated the Sultan, do not now miss him Chouhan, release your baan - arrow)

Thus ended the story of the brave but unrealistic Prithviraj Chouhan - the last Hindu ruler of Delhi. Delhi was to remain under Muslim rule for the next 700 years till 1857 and under British rule till 1947. Those few Hindus who came close to liberating Delhi during the seven centuries of Muslim rule were Rana Sanga in 1527, Raja (Hemu) Vikramaditya in around 1565 (2nd battle of Panipat), and Shrimant Vishwas Rao who was the Peshwa's son and was co-commander of the Maratha forces in the 3rd battle of Panipat in 1761. Metaphorically speaking, the next Hindu ruler to actually preside over Delhi was to be Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of Independent India (and Jawarharlal Nehru - who was the President's first Minister).

Establishment of Muslim Rule in Delhi and the Ganges Valley

But before his death at the hands of Prithviraj Chouhan, Muhammad Ghori had once more attacked India and defeated the haughty Jaichandra Gahadwala at the battle of Chandwar in 1194 and captured Kannauj. The Rajput princes had refused to unite and had gone down one after another leaving the field open to the Muslim Aggressor, who now established himself in the heart of North India by 1194 C.E. Muhammad Ghori, himself did not settle in India, but he left his slave named Kutub-ud-din Aibak to rule by proxy. Kutub-ud-Din Aibak, asserted his independence soon after Muhammad Ghori's death in Afghanistan and formed his own dynasty - the Slave Dynasty or the Gulam Saltanat. The word Gulam occurs frequently among Muslims both as a first name and a family name. This indicates that many of them descended from slaves captured from the subjugated people.

Thus in the period from 715 C.E. to 1194 C.E. we see the gradual establishment of Muslim rule over all parts of North India, which in the following 120 years spreads itself over the whole of India with the campaign of Malik Kafur, the general of Alla-ud-din Khilji in 1324 C.E. overrunning the kingdoms of the Yadavas at Devagiri in Maharashtra, the Kakatiyas at Warangal in Andhra, the Hoysalas at Belur-Halebid in Karnataka and the Pandyas at Madurai in Tamil Nadu. This invasion marked the eclipse of Hindu sovereignty for the next 753 years from 1194 C.E. till 1947 C.E. 

The Rajput Resistance to Muslim Rule - Man Singh Tomar

In spite of the establishment of Muslim rule in Delhi and UP (Uttar Pradesh) in the former kindoms of Prithviraj Chauhan and Jaichand Rathod, the Muslim invaders could never overrun the entire country. The Rajput dynasties like the Tomaras of Gwaliar and the Ranas of Mewad still continued to rule central India. One such Rajput ruler was Man Singh Tomar the king of Gwaliar. Man Singh put up a stout resistance to the Lodis and he succeeded in halting the Muslim ruler Sikandar Lodi's southward march at Gwaliar. While the Tomaras of Gwaliar held back the Muslims from advancing into Malwa, the Ranas of Mewad held up the banner of Indian independence from Mewad in those trying times of Muslim aggression in India. In South Rajasthan especially, the Rajputs had defiantly preserved their writ by resisting the Delhi Sultans. The center of this Rajput resistance was the kingdom at Chittor.