History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s4.31.4

v3.c33.s4.31.4

It is probably at this climax that Utbi ends his account which does not seem to have an abrupt end. But we at this time are unfortunately deprived of a reliable account of the subsequent doings of this great sovereign. Elliot mentions the battle of the Rahib as the thirteenth expedition and enumerates four more expeditions thereafter on the authority of Nizamuddin and Firishta. These do not mention their own authorities, yet it is probable that they had some reliable sources of information for their narrative, though we find that owing to distance of time and ignorance of localities they make many wrong statements. Utbi mentions state documents such as a register of expeditions and even memoirs written by Mahmud himself and it is probable that other contemporary writers such as Baihaki whose works are not available to us, supplied them with information. It is not, therefore, possible that these later writers give us imaginary stories though we must accept their accounts with caution and try to tally them with information available from Indian epigraphic evidence. Thus the statement of Nizamuddin that the Raja of Kanauj was killed by a Raja named Nanda for having submitted to the Sultan (Elliot II p. 63), a statement made by him from some contemporary Mahomedan writer, is borne out and supported by Chandella and Kachhapaghāta inscriptions.