The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c7.39

c7.39

According to Ferishta the battle was lost owing to the negligence of the Afghan, Khalji and Khurasani officers whom he subjected to great humiliation at Ghazni. Next year he returned to the attack with a force of one hundred and twenty thousand cavalry and once more met his Chauhana adversary on the field of Tarain. He naturally was cautious this time. In order, possibly, to gain time for completing his preparations and also to throw the enemy off his guard, he sent Qiwamul Mulk from Lahore demanding Prithviraja's submission³. The answer, full of defiance and scorn, was probably expected. When battle was eventually joined, Prithviraja's army is reported to have numbered three hundred thousand men "according to the most authentic accounts"⁴. Muizzuddin divided his forces into five divisions, four of which engaged the enemy on all sides. At the end of the day the fifth division, kept in reserve, attacked the exhausted enemy and thus decided the issue¹. Khandi Rai, (Govinda Rai), who had wounded Muizzuddin in the last year's engagement, was killed and Prithviraja, trying to escape, was captured near Sarsuti². According to Hasan Nizami, he was taken to Ajmer where after some time, on being found guilty of treason, he was put to death³. A few of his coins with the Sanskrit superscription "Hammira" on the obverse, would however, indicate his initial acceptance of Muizzuddin's suzerainty⁴.