History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s4.11

v3.c33.s4.11

The above account is simple and indicates that there was a stubborn fight with some chief not mentioned and that the elephants for which Mahmud principally came were secured. There is no mention of an idol being broken, but Utbi in the beginning mentions idol-breaking as one of the objects of Mahmud. The identification of Thanesar becomes doubtful owing to the difficulty of arriving at a stream after marching through a desert which does not fit in with the actual position of Thanesar (Elliot Vol. II 452). But we must remember that Utbi does not write from personal knowledge and is always hyperbolical in his descriptions. There is the river Sarasvati near Thanesar and the Karnal District Gazetteer, in describing its physical aspects, states that there are hilly tracts to the north of Thanesar from which torrential rivers come such as the Sarasvati (p. 1). The battle may not have been fought in the immediate vicinity of Thanesar but at some distance. The battle is rightly placed in 1014 A. D., as the Gazetteer also does, a year after the annexation of the Panjab and Mahmud may have come upon Thanesar suddenly through the desert via Multan. The whole of the Panjab was now under him and he could take any route he liked. He had visited Multan ere this a second time and punished the Mahomedans there for again relapsing into the Karmatian heresy.