The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c32.s4.204

v2.c32.s4.204

Ḥasan Niẓāmī, almost a contemporary, adds some interesting details of this conflict. We are told that on reaching Lahore Mu‘izz ud-Dīn sent an officer calling upon Pithora Rāe "to embrace the Musalmān faith and acknowledge his supremacy. The Chohan prince sent an indignant reply; and having received aid from most of the Rājās of Hind, with 300,000 horse......advanced to meet him......Pithora Rāe sent a message to the Sulṭān, saying ‘It is advisable thou shouldst retire to thine own country, and we will not follow thee.’ The Sulṭān in order to deceive him, and throw him off his guard, replied: "It is by command of my brother, my sovereign, that I come here and endure trouble and pain: give me sufficient time that I may despatch an intelligent person to my brother, to represent to him an account of thy power, and that I may obtain his permission to conclude a peace with thee under the terms that Tarhind (Tabarhindah), the Panjāb, and Multan shall be ours, and the rest of the country thine.’ The leaders of the infidel forces, from this reply, accounted the army of Islam as of little consequence, and, without any care or concern, fell into the slumber of remissness. That same night the Sulṭān made his preparations for battle, and, after the dawn of the morning, when the Rājputs had left their camp for the purpose of obeying calls of nature, and for the purpose of performing ablutions, he entered the plain with his ranks marshalled. Although the unbelievers were amazed and confounded, still in the best manner they could, they stood to fight and sustained a complete overthrow.’"¹ As Ḥasan Niẓāmī was almost contemporary, and as the story is also repeated in Firishta,² I am disposed to believe that there may be some truth in it. It is quite possible that Mu‘izz ud-Dīn really attacked the Hindu camp during a truce which the Cāhamāna generals accepted as genuine.