The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.47

v3.c20.47

In the autumn of 1022 Mahmūd again invaded Hindūstān in order to inflict further punishment on Nanda of Kālinjar. He marched through the Doāb, crossed the Jumna below Delhi, and was attracted by the strong fortress of Gwalior, to which he laid siege but, finding that the operation was likely to be protracted, permitted the Kachhwāha raja to compound for a formal submission by a gift of no more than thirty-five elephants, and pursued his way towards his real objective, Kālinjar, to the reduction of which he was prepared to devote more time. After a protracted siege Nanda was permitted to redeem his stronghold for three hundred elephants which, instead of being formally delivered, were mischievously driven in a body towards the Muslim camp, in the hope that they would throw it into confusion; but the Turks had by now some experience of elephants, and caught and managed them. According to a possibly mythical account of the event, their success compelled the unwilling admiration of Nanda, who addressed to Mahmūd an encomiastic poem which was so highly praised by learned Hindus in the Muslim camp that its author was rewarded with the government of fifteen fortresses, a grant probably as hollow as the flattery which had earned it. After this composition with Nanda, Mahmūd returned to Ghaznī with his spoils.