The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c16.448

v1.c16.448

The struggle of the Gāhaḍavālas and the Senas was soon hushed up at the appearance of the conquering Turk. The second battle of Taraori (1192 A. D.) had been fought and lost by the Hindus. The gate of Delhi was forced; and small bands of adventurous Muhammadan cavaliers spread over the valley of the Ganges and the Jumna. One of these named Malik Ḥusām ud-Dīn Āghūl-Bak had carved out a principality in Oudh. Under him Ikhtiyār ud-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Bakht-yār, a Turk belonging to the Khalj tribe of Ghūr, held the fiefs of Bhakwat ( بهکوت ) and Bhīwalī ( بهيولي ) between the Ganges and the Karmanasa, eastward of and adjoining Chunargarh, which was probably included in it.¹ This Turkish chief, we were told, had an ‘ungainly build,’ so that when he stood upright on his feet and lowered his arms his hands reached below his knees so far that the fingers could touch the calves of his legs.² But he was a daring and reckless cavalry leader, and making his fiefs the base of his operations he carried on regular incursions into the territory of ‘Muner and Bihar.’³ After gaining much booty and ample resources in the shape of horses, arms, and men, he organised an attack upon ‘the fortified city of Bihar.’ According to the informants of Minhāj, the force under Muḥammad consisted of only ‘two hundred horsemen in defensive armour.’ The attack resulted in the capture of the ‘fortress,’ and with it great booty. Minhāj thus describes the capture on the place: “The great number of the inhabitants of that place were Brahmans, and the whole of those Brahmans had their heads shaven, and they were all slain. There were a great number of books there, and when all these books came under the observation of the Musalmans, they summoned a number of Hindus, that they might give them information respecting the import of those books; but the whole of the Hindus had been killed. On becoming acquainted (with the contents of those books), it was found that the whole of the fortress and city was a college, and in the Hindūī tongue they call a college (مدرسه) Bihar.”¹ The following account of Niẓām ud-Dīn is substantially the same: “(He) conquered the fort of Behar, plundered and ravaged the whole of the country, and acquired much booty. He made the inhabitants of the country, who were all old and ascetic Brahmans, and had their heads shaven, food for his merciless sword. In the language of Hindustan, a college is called a Behar, and as this province had formerly been a mine of learning it had got the name of Behar.”²