The next Muslim onslaught came in the year 1187, when the Muslim chieftain of a place named Ghor in Afghanistan, overthrew the Ghaznavid ruler in Ghazni. These Gauris (pronounced by the Muslims as Ghauri, Ghori and rendered in English as Ghurid) were originally Hindu cowherds and were subjects of the Shahiyas, who had been converted by force to Islam, by the Ghaznavids, who overthrew the Shahiya power in Afghanistan in 980 C.E.
Now in the 1187 After a lapse of 200 years, these ex-Hindus who had been forced to embrace Islam, had become cruel and merciless like any other Muslims and not a trace of their Hindu ancestry was evident in their mindset, except for the name Gauri (derived from Gau which means cow in Sanskrit). Their name “Gauri” traced their humble origins as Hindu cowherds. From their name Gauri, the place from where they hail, derived its Islamized name Ghaur or Ghor. Though Muslims, the Gauris got poetic justice, by annihilating the kingdom of their former tormentors, the Ghaznavids. But ironically these former Hindu cowherds, the Gauris had now become the new ruthless tormentors of their former compatriots - the Hindus.
After overcoming the Ghaznivid governor of Punjab, Mohammed Ghori found his way into India proper blocked by three powerful Hindu kingdoms – the Solankis (Chalukyas) of Anahilwada in Gujarat, the Chahmanas (Chouhans) of Delhi, Ajmer and Sambhar; and the Rathods (Gahadwals) of Kannauj (Uttar Pradesh).
Mohammed allied himself with the Muslim governor of Sindh and in 1187, unleashed the full fury of his aggression on Gujarat. But to his misfortune, the Hindu Solankis (Chalukyas) of Anahilwada, defeated him utterly at the battle on the plains below Mount Arbuda (Abu) and forced him to retreat across the Thar desert.
Thus the Solankis of Gujarat once again lit the bright flame of Hindu valor in Gujarat in repelling a Muslim attack. The next time this flame in Gujarat was to be lit while resisting a Muslim barbarity was in March 2002, when the Hindus of Gujarat, retaliated massively against the Muslims who had roasted alive 58 Hindu pilgrims in a Railroad coach near Godhra Railroad Terminal when they were returning from a pilgrimage to a Hindu holy town Ayodhya.
It was at Ayodhya where Babar another Muslim invader had demolished a major Hindu temple dedicated to Rama…The dynasty founded by Babar literally took their mindset after his name and should aptly be called “Babarians” as they demolished temples (as was done by Aurangzeb at Varanasi, Ayodhya, Mathura and many other places), they also slaughtered soldiers who had surrendered (as was done by Akbar at Chittod where he slaughtered thirty thousand Rajput soldiers who had surrendered to him good faith.)
Returning to the 12th century when Mohammed Ghori was defeated by the Solankis and had to retreat from the western edge of the Thar, he tried invading India from another route. But on the other side of the Thar lay the domains of the Maharaja of Sambhar (Shaka-ambara) Prithviraj Chauhan, who was known for his bravery and chivalry.
Mohammed having tasted defeat at Hindu hands once, decided to make use of subterfuge. He studied Hindu warfare, as had been done by Sabuktgin two hundred years before him. Thus, fully prepared to invade India, he advanced through West Punjab and laid siege to the fortress of Bhatinda in East Punjab, that lay on the borders of Prithvitraja’s domains. Soon, he had to face the wrath of the Rajputs, and at Tarain (also known as Taraori) in today’s Haryana, the two armies clashed furiously.
In face of the repeated onslaughts of the Rajput cavalry, the Muslims broke ranks and fled leaving their king Mohammed Ghori a prisoner in Prithviraja’s hands. Their defeat by the Solankis of Anahilwada had given the Muslims a foretaste of Hindu valor. But in that retreat they had to leave behind many of the best steeds in their cavalry which fell in to the hands of the pursuing Solanki army.
To prevent this from happening again this time, the Muslims resorted to a trick. Once the fortunes of the battle turned against them at Tarain, and their king Mohammed Ghori himself was captured by the Rajputs, the Muslims broke into retreat, with the Rajputs in hot pursuit, the fleeing Muslim general Kutub-ud-din Aibak let loose a large herd of cows chained to each other to block the path of the pursing Hindu army. Thus with their path blocked by bovines, whom the Hindus looked upon as a deity, it was impossible for the Hindus to cut down the cows blocking their path, and the Muslim army shrewdly made its escape, reducing its losses and preventing many Muslim soldiers from being taken as captives by the victorious Hindus.
When the captured Mohammed Ghori was brought before Prithviraja as a captive bound in chains, he pretended to be repentant, while internally he was seething with rage at being humiliated for having been captured by a Kafir king. This rage proved itself a few years later when their (Prithviraj’s and Ghori’s) roles were reversed.
But for now as a prisoner in chains before Prithviraja, Mohammed Ghori begged for mercy and promised that he would never lift his eyes toward India.
This foolishly melted the innocuous Prithviraja and he ordered that Mohammed’s chains be removed. In his feigned gratitude Mohamed told Prithviraja that he was like a “brother”. This statement floored Prithviraja even further. Going against the advice of his friend Chand Vardai, his generals Hammira, and the brave warrior twins Aalaa and Uddhal, he ordered Mohammed to be released and as a token of his generosity, he also gifted his captive with five hundred horses and twenty elephants, and honorably released him!
Once freed, the vengeful Mohammed who was seething with rage and thirsting for revenge made his way back to Ghori and carefully planned his next attack on Prithviraj!
On reaching Ghor, Mohammed reneged on his sham promise to Prithviraj and promptly murdered the Rajput escorts and envoys that Privithraja had sent to accompany Mohammed to Ghor. Displaying utter contempt for noble behavior, Ghori sent their severed heads as a token of his “goodwill” to the astonished Prithviraj. Mohammed Ghori also immediately started preparing for another assault on India. Going by the experiences of his two defeats at the hands of the Solankis and Chauhans, the wily but twice beaten Mohammed decided to go by subterfuge, the patented mentality of the Muslims that has given them victory over more powerful, but less scheming and treacherous adversaries.
Mohammed’s spies told him that whenever the Hindus battled each other, the armies fought from sunrise up to sunset. There was no warfare before Sunrise and after sunset (in the hours of darkness).
In the following year, Mohammed broke his deceptive promise to Prithviraja and attacked India once again. The two armies again gathered at the same battlefield of Tarain (Taraori) near the ancient town of Thanesar (Sthaneshwara). Thanesar had been the winter capital of Harsha Vardhana during 620 - 644, the last major Hindu king who ruled over most of Northern India at the beginning of the Muslim onslaught.
Now after assaults of over five hundred years, the Muslims had breached the outer defenses of India in the north and west, and started making their second forays in to the Indian heartland – the first forays under Mohammed Ghazni having been unsuccessful in establishing permenant Muslim bases beyond the Punjab. In 1191, the Rajput army under Prithviraj had camped near a river so as to do their morning ablutions before the war could be joined on the next morning, as was decided by the two commanders. But violating convention, the Muslim army attacked at 3 A.M. before dawn, as had two centuries earlier the Muslim army led by Sabuktgin in the year 980 (a fact which the Hindus had foolishly forgotten).
When the Muslims unexpectedly broke into the Hindu camp, Prithviraj’s soldiers had begun their morning ablutions and some were still asleep, and so were totally unprepared for the assault. But they did their best to group their forces and resist the Muslims. The Muslims had the advantage of surprise which they had gained by deceit.
The uneven battle continued till noon, by when the Muslims had slaughtered many of the Rajputs. But the Rajputs did not yield and in turn, slaughtered many of their treacherous Muslim enemy too and gradually gained the upper hand. By midday, it looked like the second battle of Tarain would also go the way the first had gone. Mohammed saw victory slipping from his hands once again.
So he resorted to another patented Muslim subterfuge of single combat – called Mard-o-Mard in Farsi (Persian). This was a technique which Muslims had used quite cunningly against the Zoroastrian Persians, some six centuries earlier when the barbaric Muslim hordes first burst out of Arabia and attacked Iran.
In order to humiliate Prithviraj, Mohammed sent word that he would call off the battle, if Prithviraja came and fought his champion Qutub-ud-din Aibak in single combat. To save the lives of his soldiers, and to conclude the war quickly Prithviraja agreed. The rule in single combat was that when one combatant is either pinned down or killed, the army to which he belongs concedes defeat retreats. No other combatant is allowed to participate in this combat, hence the name - single combat.
But with the insidious Muslims, this rule did not hold. So at the battle of Tarain, when the two met and Prithviraja’s sword felt heavy on Qutub who risked losing his life, Qutub resorted to a feint and by whirling below his saddle he cut off one of the feet of Prithviraja’s horse, before Prithviraj could realize what he was up to. As the horse lost balance, Prithviraja tripped and fell off his wounded horse.
This was a foul move, and it would have been fair, had after this, Qutub, also dismounted and fought Prithviraja on foot. Instead at a pre-arranged signal from Qutub, a band of truculent Muslim soldiers, who had till then stood aside in the grab of horse-tenders, jumped on Prithviraja, pinned him down, pressed on his face a dose of hashish (that grew abundantly in the poppy farms of Afghanistan as they do till this day). They bound the drugged Prithviraja in chains and galloped away with him as a prisoner into their ranks, before the Rajputs could realize and react to this unexpected act of treachery.
The Muslims immediately carried away the captive and drugged Prithviraj and hoisted him on one of the elephants that Prithviraj had gifted to Mohammed Ghori when he had released Ghori. The Muslim spread a rumor in the Rajput camp that Prithviraj was dead and that they were holding aloft his dead body to show the Rajputs the futility of fighting further.
When the Rajputs saw that they their Maharaj (King) was evidently dead with his corpse in the hands of the enemy, they lost nerve and through enraged, fell back against Pithoragarh, their fortified capital at Mehrauli near Delhi. The Muslims retreated with the captured Prithviraj to Afghanistan.
When Prithviraj was presented in chains before Mohammed Ghori, he reminded Mohammed how Ghori was himself presented before Prithviraja in chains and how Prithviraja had honorably released him. On hearing this Mohammed and his courtiers laughed derisively at Prithviraja…
When Prithviraja glared back at Mohammed and his courtiers, Mohammed ordered him to lower his eyes as he was now a captive. When Prithviraja told him that a Rajput’s eyes are lowered only after death, Mohammed in a fit of rage ordered that Prithviraja’s eyes be pierced with red hot irons. He kept the blinded Pritiviraja in solitary confinement and had him occasionally hauled to his court for being made fun of as the “Lion of Delhi”.
During this period of humiliating captivity, Prithviraja was joined by his friend and biographer Chandra Vardai (Chand Bardai) who joined his master in prison, after offering himself as a prisoner to Mohammed. It was in prison, that Chandra Vardai told Prithviraja of a plan to avenge his betrayal and humiliation. Before an annual event of Buskhazi (a kind of wild sport in which the Muslims indulged) was to be organized, Chandra Vardai told Mohammed, that Prithviraja would like to show his skill in archery, but he would accept orders only from a king who had defeated him. And as Mohammed was the only king who had done that, Mohammed Ghori himself would have to order Prithviraj to shoot!
Mohammed’s ego being rubbed the right way, he readily agreed. On the said day Prithviraja was brought to the assemblage. And when Mohammed gave the order for Prithviraja to shoot, Chandra Vardai in the following poetic stanza “Char bans, chaubis gaj, angul asta pramaan, Ete pai Sultan hai, Ab mat chuko Chouhan." (Ten measures ahead of you and twenty four feet away, is seated the Sultan, do not miss him now, Chouhan). On hearing these words Prithviraja whirled in the direction of Mohammed and shot three arrows one after the other and wounded Mohammed fatally. Thus Prithviraja had his justice, although due to his folly in pardoning the ghoulish fiend Mohammed, he lost his kingdom and India lost its sovereignty to the Muslims.
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