The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c12.192

v1.c12.192

But in the meantime Ānandapāla had died, leaving his son Trilocanapāla to succeed him on the throne.⁴ According to al-Bīrūnī he ‘was the very opposite of his father,’ who, as we have seen, “cherished the bitterest hatred” against the Musalmans. By this al-Bīrūnī probably means that Trilocanapāla was not so inimically disposed towards Maḥmud. But this did not save him from the fury of the Ghaznavids, who were now bent on the complete destruction of his dynasty. Both Niẓām ud-Dīn and Firishta tell us that Maḥmūd first marched against “the fort of Nandanah which is situated among the Bālnāth hills” (Salt range).¹ Finding himself unable to meet the Sulṭān alone with any hope of success, Trilocanapāla “left tried warriors for the protection of the fort” and retired into the valley of Kashmir. The fort surrendered after a siege, and Maḥmud then followed the *Śāhi* prince who had in the meantime taken up with his son Nidar Bhīm a position “which was narrow, precipitous and inaccessible.” In this supreme crisis of the fortunes of the *Śāhis*, Trilocanapāla appears to have appealed for help to the Kashmirian king, Saṁgrāmarāja (1003-1028 A.D.).² As a result of this appeal Tuṅga, the prime minister of Kashmir, who had already married Bimbā a *Śāhi* princess to his son, was sent with a large army to the assistance of Trilocanapāla. Kalhaṇa has preserved the following interesting record of this expedition and the subsequent conflict with the *Hammīra*.³ "When he, together with his son, had been hospitably received by the *Śāhi*, who had gone to meet him, and had been in the land for five or six days, the *Śāhi* noticed that they gave no thought to night watches, the posting of scouts, to military exercises, and other (preparations) proper for an attack, and spoke thus to *Tuṅga*, who was intoxicated (with self-confidence).