History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s4.33

v3.c33.s4.33

Mahmud led in 1022 an expedition against Kirat, Nur, Lohkot and Lahore (reckoned as fourteenth by Elliot); the first two are identified with Swat and Bajaur where Hinduism still lingered and the people were worshippers of the lion which Elliot thinks means Śākya Sinha or Buddha. But though this district was a staunch Buddhist district in the days of Hiuen Tsang yet, we think, Buddhism was dead in the tenth and eleventh centuries throughout these territories. The lion refers to the man-lion Avatāra of Vishnu and we have shown in Volume I, that the worship of Narasinha was prevalent in the Panjab, Multan being known as Prahlādapura or the city of Prahlāda, devotee of Narasinha. Mahmud conquered this territory and converted the people to Mahomedanism. He then went to Lohkot the impregnable fortress of Kashmir and returned without effecting an entrance into that inaccessible country, after paying a visit to Lahore* which was now the capital of one of his Indian provinces. He must have learnt here of the events at Kanauj and determined to lead an expedition against Gwalior and Kalanjar next autumn.