Backgound:
Muhammad Ghori was determined to establish his authority
over India. In 1191, he proceeded towards Indian Sub-continent
through the Khyber Pass and stormed the
strategic fortress of Tabarhindah (either Bhatinda or Sirhind), which was
situated within the dominion of Prithviraj Chauhan and laid siege to the city.
Historical evidences show that Prithviraj Chauhan was not prepared for this
attack made in a sudden and deceitful manner. Hence the army defending the city
was defeated and it laid down its arms after the defeat.
Muhammad Ghori placed this fort under the charge of
Zia-ud-din, the Qazi of Tulak, supported by 1200 horsemen. Prithviraj was
alerted about the news, He then marched towards Tabarhindah with his
feudatories, including Govindaraja of Delhi.
Muhammad's original plan was to return to his base after
conquering Tabarhindah, but when he received the news that Prithviraj's army,
along with Govind Raja were on their way to besiege the fortress, he decided to
put up a fight. He set out with an army, and encountered Prithviraj's forces at
Tarain. Thus The First Battle of Tarain (Taraori) was fought between a Ghurid
force led by Mu'izz al-Din Mohammad Ghori and a Chauhan Rajput army led by
Prithviraj Chauhan in 1191 near the town of Tarain 14 miles from Thanesar in
present-day Haryana. The army of Mohammed Ghori was defeated by the Rajput army
of Chauhan.
The Prithvi Raj’s forces chased them for 40 miles. Muhammad
Ghori did not stop at Lahore but went get back to his own country Ghazni.
Prithviraj besieged Tabarhindah.
Mohammad Ghori was not disheartened over his defeat. He
increased his strength and army power and made preparations to avenge his
defeat. According to Tabaqat-i Nasiri, he gathered a well-equipped army of
120,000 selected Afghan, Tajik and Turkic horsemen. He then marched towards the
Prithviraj's kingdom. With a large cavalry of unrivalled marks-men, He reappeared
in 1192 A.D at Tarain, He then fought again with Prithvi Raj Chauhan in Second
Battle of Tarain.
Prithviraj had been left with few allies as a result of his
wars against the fellow Hindu kings. Nevertheless, Jai Chandra of Kanauj, not
only kept himself aloof from the battle but is also said to have helped
Muhammad Ghori in order to wreck his vengeance on Prithviraj. Still, he managed
to gather a large army to counter the Ghori’s force.
According to Firishta, the Rajput army consisted of 3,000
elephants, 300,000 cavalry and infantry, most likely a gross exaggeration and Minhaj-i-Siraj,
stated Mohammad Ghori brought 120,000 fully armoured men to battle.
Battle:
Prithviraj wrote a letter to Muhammad of Ghor, promising him
no harm if he decided to return to his own country. Muhammad insisted that he
needed time to confer his Ghazna-based brother Ghiyath al-Din. According to
Firishta, he agreed to a truce until he received an answer from his brother.
However, he secretly planned an attack against the Chahamanas.
According to Jawami ul-Hikayat, Muhammad assigned a few men
to keep the fires in his camp burning at night, while he marched off in another
direction with the rest of his army. This gave the Prithviraj's army an
impression that the Ghori’s army was still encamped, observing the truce. After
reaching several miles away, Muhammad formed four divisions, with 10,000
archers each. He kept the rest of his army in reserve. He ordered the four
divisions to launch a surprise attack on the Chahamana camp, and then pretend a
retreat.
Before dawn, the four divisions of the Ghori’s army attacked
the Prithviraj army’s camp, while
Prithviraj was still asleep. Rajputs had a tradition of fighting from sunrise
to sunset. Although they were able to quickly form formations, they suffered
losses due to surprise attack before sunrise. After a brief fight, the Ghori’s
divisions pretended to retreat in accordance with Muhammad's strategy.
Prithviraj was thus lured into chasing them, and by the afternoon, the Prithviraj's
army was exhausted as a result of this pursuit. At this point, Muhammad led his
reserve force and attacked the Prithviraj's army and decisively defeating them.
According to Taj-ul-Maasir, Prithviraj's camp lost 100,000 men including
Govindaraj in this battle.
Minhaj-us-Siraj wrote about the
second battle of Tarain as: " Before the Sultan could arrive, the fort of
Sarhind had capitulated and the enemy was encamped in the vicinity of Narain
(Tarain). The Sultan drew up in battle array, leaving his main body in the rear
with the banners, canopies and elephants to the number of several divison. His
plan of attack being formed, he advanced quietly. The light unarmoured horsemen
were made into four divisions of 10,000 and were directed to advance and harass
the enemy on all sides, on the right and on the left, in the front and in the
rear, with their arrows. When the enemy collected his forces to attack, they
were to support each other and to charge at full speed. By these tactics the
infidels were worsted, the Almighty gave us the victory over them and they
fled."
Firishta wrote about the second battle of Tarain as:
"Inspired by their first victory with arrogance and pride, they (the rais)
sent a haughty letter to the Sultan: 'The strength and numbers of your army
will be soon known to you and reinforcements are coming to us from all parts of
Hindustan. Be merciful, if not to yourself, at least to the misguided men you
have brought hither. If you repent of your venture and go back, we swear by our
idols that we will not harass your retreat; otherwise we will attack and crush
you tomorrow with more than three hundred thousand horsemen, archers beyond all
computation and an army which the field of imagination is not wide enough to
contain.' '
Your message is wonderfully affectionate and kind,'
Mu'izzuddin replied, 'but I have not a free hand in the matter. It is by my
brother's order that I have come here and undertaken the hardships of the
campaign. If you will give me sufficient time, I will send some messengers to
inform him of your overpowering strength and obtain his permission to conclude
peace on the terms that Sirhind, Multan and Sindh belong to me and the rest of
Hindustan remains under your sway.
"The Rajput leaders thought that the humility of the
reply was due to the weakness of the Muslim army and went to sleep. But
Mu'izzuddin spent the night in preparing for battle; and when, in the morning,
the Rajputs came out of their entrenched positions to satisfy the call of
nature and wash their hands and faces, he fell upon them with his lines drawn
in order. The Hindus were taken aback by the unexpected attack, but somehow or
other, they hurriedly took up their arms and came to the field.
The Sultan knew the fearless courage of the Hindu forces and
had divided his army into four divisions, which came forward to fight the enemy
by turns. When the Hindu elephants and horses attacked Mu'izzuddin's army, it
filed away; but when the enemy, deceived by the trick, followed in pursuit, it
turned back and with the blows of its axes relieved the bodies of the enemy of
the "weight of their heads.
Thus the battle raged from forenoon to afternoon, when
Mu'izzuddin put on his helmet and armour and charged the enemy at the head of
twelve thousand men with drawn swords and lances. The blood of brave warriors
was mingled with the earth and in the twinkling of an eye the Hindu lines began
to break. At the same time Kharmil and the other Amirs attacked the Rajputs on
all sides and drove them away from the field."
According to Firishta, "Like a great building, this
prodigious concourse of the Rajputs, once shaken, tottered to its fall and was
lost in its ruins." Govind Raj was killed in the battle-field. Prithvi Raj
got disheartened, got down from his elephant and tried to escape but was captured
near the town of Sirsuti.
There are many versions about the death of Prithvi Raj.
According to Minhaj-us-Siraj, Prithvi Raj was captured and sent to hell.
According to Hassan Nizami, Prithvi Raj was taken to Ajmer and later on put to
death as he was found to be guilty of treason.
Chandbardai, the court poet of Prithviraj has another
version to tell. According to him Prithviraj was taken to Ghori as a
prisoner. In a show of exhibiting his skill as an archer, the blind Prithviraj
shot a sound-guided arrow at Muhammad Ghori killing him instantly. Prithviraj
later committed suicide. Col-Todd, the well known historian of the Rajput
period, does not attach credence to this version of Chandbardai.
The after the battle:
Muhammad of Ghor captured Ajmer after killing
several thousand defenders, enslaved many more, and destroyed the city's
temples. He followed up
this victory by defeating Jayachandra in the Battle of Chandawar.
There was a general demoralisation in the country and there was no ruler in Rajputs who could bring all his fellow princes together to stop the further advance of the Muslims in India. Due to the lack of unity the Muslims were able to capture Samana, Kuhram and Hansi without much difficulty.
The Ghori destroyed the pillars and foundations of idol temples and built in their stead mosques and colleges and the precepts of Islam and the customs of the law were divulged and established.
Son of Prithvi Raj was made as the ruler of Ajmer and he promised to pay tribute. Muhammad Ghori went back to Ghazni, leaving Qutb-ud-Din Aibak in-charge of his Indian possessions. In a short time, Qutb-ud-Din conquered Meerut, Kol and Delhi and made Delhi the seat of his government.
Comments on Second Battle of Tarain:
"The second battle of Tarain is regarded as the
decisive contest which ensured the ultimate success of the Mohammadan attack on
Hindustan. All the numerous subsequent attacks were merely consequences of the over-whelming defeat of the Hindu league on the historic plain to the North of Delhi", According to V. A. Smith.
Dr. D.C. Ganguly writes, “The defeat of Prithviraj in the second
battle of Tarain not only destroyed the imperial power of the Chauhans, but
also brought disaster on the whole of Hindustan.”
S. Lanepoole has said, “The
result of this victory was the annexation of Ajmer, Hansi and Sirsuti, ruthless
slaughter and a general destruction of temples and idols and building of
mosques.”
Dr. Habibullah says, "Muizzuddin's victory on the
plains of Tarain was not, as is generally supposed, an isolated personal
triumph, nor was it an accident. It was, on the one hand, the execution of a
deliberate plan by a resolute conqueror and on the other, the consummation of a
process which extended over the whole of the 12th century. His was only the
most successful of the many attempts made by the Turks from the northwest to
obtain a foothold in Hindustan all of which may therefore be regarded as
preliminaries to Tarain.
Prof. K. A. Nizami says, "Tarain was a major disaster
for the Rajputs. Rajput political prestige, in general and the Chauhan
ascendancy, in particular, suffered a serious setback. The whole Chauhana
kingdom now lay at the feet of the invader. As Tarain was a concerted action on
the part of a very large number of Rajput princes, its repercussions were also
felt on a very extensive scale and demoralization became widespread."
 - Death of Prithviraj Chauhan){kind=link}
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