The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c7.29

c7.29

Pressure on the Chauhanas. Durlava II of Sambhar is said to have lost his life in fighting the Turks. Ajayadeva is credited with having repeatedly defeated the Muslim intruders². During the reign of Arnoraja, the Turks destroyed Pushkar and reached as far as Anasagar. In the following reign of Vigraharaja IV, they advanced on Balbera (modern Rupnagar, Kishangarh state)³. The Delhi pillar inscription of the same monarch, dated V. S. 1220/1163 A.D., records his conquest of the land between the Vindhya and the Himalayas, his extermination of the *mlecchas*, and to his restoring the country to the *Aryas*⁴. He exhorts his descendants to continue the war against the unclean invaders. A more definite evidence of the threatening advance of the Turks is furnished by an inscription of Prithviraja I recording the fortification of the frontier town of Hansi to check the progress of the "Hammira who has become the cause of anxiety to the world"⁵. The inscription also mentions the conquest of "Pachapur", probably identical with Pachapattan (Pakpattan) on the old bank of Sutlej. The mention of Hansi along with Pakpattan indicates the tract through which these attacks were delivered. The fortification of Hansi points to a policy of occupying important towns on this area for better defence. No epigraphic records exist to show the extent to which this policy was subsequently continued by the Chauhanas, but a few years later, as we know from the Muslim accounts, Bhatinda, situated about a hundred miles north of Hansi, had become a Chauhana frontier stronghold when Muizzuddin, opening his attacks on Hindusthan¹, closely besieged it in 587/1189.