History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s3.42

v3.c33.s3.42

The Sultan's attention, as stated before, was constantly divided between the east and the west and his far reaching and unceasing activities extended in both directions with equal vigilance. Having settled some disputes and troubles in Kirman and Kohistan in the west and the north, Mahmud again directed his attention to the settlement of the question of the Panjab. He had humbled the king of the Panjab and taken one of the strongholds of that kingdom, Kangrakot. He determined to capture Nardin another strong place on which probably the king relied. And he arrived in the provinces of India, and "began to devastate the land, to punish the infidels, to overturn the idols and to make an example of high and low. And as to the prince of those accursed ones, he sent him prostrate to hell. And when the king of Hind saw these wounds in the nearest and distant parts of his kingdom, he sent his kindred to offer submission" (Utbi p. 361). Such is the succinct account which Utbi gives of this expedition. Although he mentions Nardin as stormed in the heading of this chapter, he does not describe it. From later historians-Elliot thinks that there were two expeditions and not one, as some suggest, and that by Nardin Utbi means to refer to Naharwala the capital of Gujarat. The second expedition was against the fort of Nandan, as will be stated in the next chapter, and is described by Firishta and others. It indeed appears plain, even according to Utbi, that there were two expeditions and the second he describes later on. It is, however, difficult to identify Nardin with Naharwala as Mahmud could not have gone so far south, leaving the Panjab yet unsubjugated. We, therefore, take it that Nardin was some place in the Panjab itself and that Mahmud carried a devastating campaign which compelled the king of India to proffer submission. Who this king was is not mentioned; no doubt one chief is said to have been killed, and it is probable that Anandapala himself was killed in one of these combats.