Prithviraj Chauhan's Defeat in the Battle of Tarain (1190-92)- A Graphic Account of his Battle with Ghori
Ghurs who inhabited the remote highlands of Central Afghanistan
had always been at loggerheads with the Ghaznavids. Due to the relatively
inaccessible nature of their mountainous homeland, they had managed to retain
independence from the empire based in Ghazni for a long time; many of them had
remained non-Muslim as well. In the year 1010, Sultan Mahmud, who would later
raid and desecrate the holy Somnath temple, marched on to Ghur and forced its
ruler to accept his suzerainty. Some decades later, his descendant Behram Shah
had the Ghur king brought over to Ghazni and publicly executed. The next Ghur
king, who was the former king's brother, tried to avenge his death. However, he
was captured through treachery, paraded on the streets of Ghazni on the back of
an old cow and put to death.
The succeeding Ghur king, Alauddin Hussain avenged these murders
by occupying Ghazni for seven days and putting its inhabitants to the sword.
Women, children, elderly, none were spared.
By the time, Prithviraj Chauhan's legendary adversary, Muizuddin/
Shihabuddin became the king of Ghurs, Ghaznavids had been weakened to the
extent that they had been ousted from Afghanistan itself, and now ruled in
modern-day Punjab from their capital in Lahore. However, they were not easy to conquer
yet. Now, they enjoyed the loyal support of a local warlike tribe, namely Khokhars; with whom they had been nurturing deep ties. A medieval
historian describes Khokhars as, 'a barbaric race devoid of religion and morality'.
Muizuddin was looking to subdue these remnants of Ghaznavids at
Lahore; not just to carry on his traditional blood feud, but also because they
blocked the gateway to India, where lay flourishing cities, thriving temples
and fabled wealth. Initially, he tried to overcome this difficulty by heading
towards Gujarat instead, through the Thar desert, in the likeness of his famed
predecessor Mahmud of Ghazni. However, his army got lost
in the desert, forced at one point, according to one description, 'to cut open
their horses’ guts and drink their blood to quench their thirst'. And then, an
expeditionary force sent by the king at Anhilwara (Gujarat) managed to
trace them in this emaciated condition and inflict a crushing defeat.
Muizuddin had been lucky to escape alive.
Recovering from this defeat, Muizuddin decided to use cunning for the
time being. He laid a trap that resulted in the capture of the
Ghaznavid king without a single man's blood having been shed. The last of the
Ghaznavids were quickly put to death. (1190) Muizuddin finally controlled
Punjab, the gateway to rich lands further inland.
A restless man, he immediately captured the fort of Bhatinda, the
last outpost of Prithviraj Chauhan's empire. Probably, Muizuddin was not
prepared for an all-out war yet, and he intended to use this fortress as an
advanced base for future operations. But, to his surprise, intelligence was
received that a task force had immediately been dispatched by Prithviraj; under the leadership of his brother, prince Gopal Rai. By this time Muizuddin's army was marching
home, towards Afghanistan. In terms of morale and logistics, it was in no shape
for a tough battle. But, hot-headed Muizuddin decided to turn around
nonetheless and march towards Gopal Rai's army.
The two armies came face to face at the village of Tarain, not
much distant from Thanesar (1191). In the wide-open field, Gopal Rai’s cavalry
swiftly manoeuvred itself into two halves and overwhelmed Muizuddin's left and right flanks. Within a matter of minutes, the Ghurid vanguard
consisting of ‘Afghan and Khokhar braggarts' began to scatter. Having routed
the enemy’s left and right vanguards, Gopal Rai's cavalry now meticulously
turned inward towards Muiziddin's centre from two sides. As this pincer
converged, many of Muizuddin's personal bodyguards began to slip away. The
Sultan was urged by his loyal followers to immediately order a retreat.
However, undaunted by his hopeless situation, Muizuddin rallied his last
remaining elite guards and made a bold dash towards the command elephant
mounted by prince Gopal Rai. Watching Muizuddin's party approaching him, Gopal
Rai ordered his mahout to move forward to meet the assault.
The two generals came face to face. Shihabuddin's javelin knocked out two of
Gopal Rai's front teeth, while his own left upper arm was hit by a lance thrown
by Gopal Rai. Muizuddin was prevented from falling by a brave Khalji youth who
supported him from behind, jumped onto his horse, and swiftly rode him away
from the battlefield to safety. The first battle of Tarain had ended in the
complete rout of the Ghurid army.
An indefatigable warrior, Shihabuddin was back the next year. This
time well prepared and better supplied. Though contemporary chroniclers present
a bloated figure of 120000, at the core of his army lay two elite divisions – a
steel-clad heavy cavalry force of 12000, trained for massed charges, and a
10000-strong force of mounted Steppe archers.
Here, a word is in order about these Central Asian mounted
archers. Mounted archers, it was said, were not trained, but born in the
grasslands of Central Asia. They learned to ride at a tender age and by
adulthood attained the ability to shoot with both hands while riding. A
European traveller marvelling at the skill of Mughal mounted archers wrote,
‘the best of them can shoot at a rate of six arrows per minute, and at a range
further than any musket' (He was writing in the 17th century,
hence the reference to muskets; for the present context it is reasonable to
assume that Shihabuddin's mounted archers would have been nearly as skilled).
Shihabuddin met Prithviraj's army, led by him in person this time,
on the same battlefield. (2nd Battle of Tarain, 1192). Unlike
the last occasion, this time Shihabuddin had a plan. On the day of battle, he
left camp with his army much before dawn. The heavy cavalry shock force was
kept at some distance in the rear, awaiting Shihabuddin’s signal to strike.
Whereas the front was formed by Shihabuddin’s mounted archers, whom he had
divided into four loosely organized formations. These were ordered to ride
ahead and rain arrows on Prithviraj's vanguard from different directions. When
given chase they would quickly retreat- being lightly armoured enabled them to
easily outrun their pursuers. But, as soon as the chase was given up, they
would wheel around to rain arrows again. Prithviraj's cavalry had no answer
for these Steppe tactics. This cat-and-mouse game went on for hours, without his
cavalry catching up with Shihabuddin’s mounted archers even once, who kept
inflicting heavy casualties.
All this while elite Ghurid cavalry lay hidden in the rear, away
from Prithviraj’s eyesight. By early afternoon, his army lay stretched thin and
wide across the battlefield. Sensing that the time was ripe, Shihabuddin gave the
signal to his heavy cavalry to advance. Prithviraj’s lines were by now in no
shape to withstand a massed charge of such scale. Like a sledgehammer Ghurid
elite horsemen smashed through Prithviraj’s lines, cutting his army into two
from the middle. What followed was a disarrayed retreat. Prince Gopal Rai fell
fighting on the battlefield. Emperor Prithviraj was captured on his way to the
capital. The second battle of Tarain was over. The gateway to India now lay
wide open.
Shihabuddin's tactical brilliance and the prowess of his mounted
archers had carried the day. None of them could have guessed that on that
fateful day their acts had changed the course of a subcontinent's history.
Bibliography
Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, The Slave Kings and
The Islamic Conquest, 11th-13th Centuries- Andre Wink, Brill, New York, 1997
A Comprehensive History of India, Vol-5, The Delhi Sultanate
(1206-1556)- ed. KA Nizami and
Mohammad Habib, People’s Publishing House, 1960
The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History- Peter Jackson, Cambridge University Press,
1999
The Sultanate of Delhi (1206-1556): Polity, Economy, Society and
Culture-Aniruddha Ray,
Routledge, 2019
Military History of India- Sir Jadunath Sarkar, MC Sarkar and Sons Private Limited,
Calcutta, 1960
Comments
Post a Comment