The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c12.131

v1.c12.131

I have already briefly referred to the gradual advance of the Arabs on this frontier. The Ṣaffārid ruler Ya'qūb is said to have captured Kābul in 870 A.D., while his brother 'Amr, the next ruler, claims to have defeated Kamalū, the *Sāhi* king. The Samanids of Transoxania, who succeeded them, do not appear to have made any systematic efforts to extend their power in the Kābul valley. In *c.* 322 A.H. (933 A.D.), when the power of the Samanids was already on the decline, we find a person named Abu Bakr-i-Lawīk ruling as *Wālī* of Zābulistān at Ghazni.⁴ As the word *Wālī* signifies a chief or a sovereign, it is likely that he held almost an independent power.⁵ In *c.* 933 A.D. this ruler was driven out of Ghazni by Alp-tigīn, a Turkish slave of the Samanīd Amīr Manṣūr, who founded an independent power and repulsed all the efforts of his former masters to dislodge him.⁶ The establishment of this Turkish principality at once led to a renewal of the vigorous forward policy of the early Arabs, which further drove the *Śāhis* towards the Punjab and ultimately led to their extinction in the first quarter of the 11th century A.D. Of their once extensive dominions on the Kābul and Helmund rivers, Lamghān now alone remained. According to Firishta, the dominions of Jayapāla ‘extended in length from Sirhind to Lamghān and in breadth from the kingdom of Kashmir to Multan.’¹ We are further told that ‘he resided in the fort of Bhatinda (بهتنده in Patiala State) for the convenience of taking steps for opposing the Mahommedan,’ who troubled him by their repeated invasions.² Thus pushed by an irresistible pressure, the *Sāhis*, like many others in Indian History, were compelled to take shelter in the Punjab. Fortunately for them the power of the kings of Kashmir, the Amirs of Multan, and the Gurjara-Pratīhāras of Kanauj was on the decline during this period. And this no doubt helped them in re-creating their kingdom in the land of the five rivers. Thanks to these favourable circumstances they had again become so powerful that Minhāj ud-Dīn calls Jayapāla the ‘greatest of the Raes of Hind.’³ Strategic reasons had also compelled them to transfer their capital from their ancient seat at Udabhāṇḍapur, the Waihand of al-Bīrūnī⁴ (mod. Und, near Attock on the Indus), to a city beyond the Sutlej. From the frequent reference to Jayapāla as Rājā of Lahore in Firishta, it appears that that city marked an earlier stage in the migration of the capital from Ohind to Bhatinda.⁵