Bharat Ki Kahani

  In the year 1200, Turkish plunderer-adventurer Bakhtiyar Khalji proceeded toward Nalanda University with a band of just 200 armoured cavalrymen. He had received intelligence about a lightly defended fortress, guarded by a handful of men and possibly containing huge amounts of gold. Gone were the days when such plundering expeditions from the northwest were met by massive field armies deployed by Maharajas in north India. Samrat Prithiviraj Chauhan, the gatekeeper of Delhi, had died eight years ago. The Gahadavala dynasty that ruled over much of modern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in those days fell soon after. Now a vast ancient land lay unprotected before the conquerors- its cities and temples teeming with gold and no army to protect them. Petty Rajas that ruled from their rural mud fortresses were in no position to take on professionally trained armor-clad Turkish cavalrymen. The invaders had little interest in governing this newly conquered realm yet. They lived confined within the wal