The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.44

v3.c20.44

The date of Mahmūd's next expedition is given by some historians as 1019, but those authorities are to be preferred which place it in 1021. Its occasion was the formation of a confederacy, headed by Nanda, raja of Kālinjar, for the purpose of punishing Jaichand of Kanauj for his pusillanimity and ready submission to the invader. Nanda led the army to Kanauj and defeated and slew Jaichand, whose death Mahmūd resolved to avenge, and an army greater than any which he had hitherto led into India was assembled at Ghaznī for the purpose. Jaipāl II, who had tamely acquiesced in Mahmūd's passage through the Punjab, was now dead, or had abdicated the throne, and had been succeeded by his more spirited son, Bhīmpāl the Fearless, who joined the Hindu confederacy but, instead of rashly opposing Mahmūd on his western frontier where he would have been beyond the reach of help from his allies, withdrew to the banks of the Jumna, where they might have supported him. Here Mahmūd found him encamped, and hesitated to attempt the passage of the swollen river in the face of his army, but eight Muslim officers, apparently without their king's permission or knowledge, suddenly crossed the river with their contingents, surprised the Hindus and put them to flight. The eight officers continued to advance and occupied a city which cannot now be identified¹, and Mahmūd, whose way was cleared before him, crossed the Jumna and the Ganges, and found Nanda awaiting him on the banks of the Sai with an army of 36,000 horse, 105,000 foot, and 640 elephants. Before this host Mahmūd's heart failed him for a moment, and he repented of having left Ghaznī, but prayer restored his courage and he prepared for battle on the following day. In the night, however, Nanda was unaccountably stricken with panic and fled with a few attendants, leaving his army, his camp and his baggage at the mercy of the invader. The confusion which prevailed among the Hindus on the discovery of Nanda's flight was at first suspected by Mahmūd to be a stratagem to induce him to attack, but having ascertained that it was genuine he permitted his army to plunder the camp, and a vast quantity of booty was collected without a blow. Of Nanda's elephants 580 were taken and Mahmūd, who was apprehensive of disturbances in the Punjab, returned, content with this victory, to Ghaznī.