History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s4.17

v3.c33.s4.17

4. From this poetical but concise account of the secretary of Mahmud who was probably in Ghazni, we can determine the course of the expedition by the help of other information. Mahmud marched with an army of about one lakh of men of whom 20,000 were irregular amateur Turkish soldiers from beyond the Oxus. But he kept strict discipline on the march, as a great commander does, rising in the early morning and marching throughout the day. For he had to surprize the enemy by the celerity of his movement. He marched along the foot of the Himalayas in order probably to avoid crossing big rivers lower down. And on the way, every castle must have submitted to, or been conquered by, such a formidable force. He did not allow Hindus, in the name of submission, to join his army and create a discordant treacherous element and he asked the Kashmir contingent to march ahead. (It is difficult to imagine that Kashmir could have really sent one and we will speak about this later on). Having crossed the Jumna, on the 20th of Rajjab or in December 1018 he marched southwards without crossing the Ganges, through Antarbed, as Kanauj was on the west bank of the river and as he did not wish to place that river before him as an obstacle in attacking Kanauj. Naturally he was opposed here and there by feudatory Rajput chiefs, but generally they submitted as the king of Baran did. Baran is undoubtedly the modern Bulandshahar; it is an ancient town sometimes identified with the Vāraṇāvata of the Mahābhārata and ancient coins of the second century B. C. of Śaka satraps and Kushans have been found there as also a copper-plate belonging to the Gupta period. There was a feudatory king probably belonging to the Dor Rajput clan and his name was Haradatta (which was read as Harun in Persian). A copper-plate belonging to this line of kings dated 1096 A. D. has been found here, giving the genealogy of this line and in it Haradatta is the 7th king and he submitted to Mahmud (Bulandshahar Gazetteer). Probably his conversion with ten thousand of his followers is an hyperbole of Utbi. Marching southwards, Mahmud was opposed near Mathura by one Kaljand with a considerable force and this Kulachandra fearlessly and stubbornly fought with the vast army of Mahmud. He was most probably a general of, and a feudatory chieftain under, the Pratihāra emperor Rājyapāla of Kanauj.