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death of Muhammad Ghori and established the
empire in India. He only wanted to collect
resources for his struggles against his enemies in Sultanate of Delhi. Muhammad Ghori is rightly
Central Asia. He targeted many wealthy temple called the founder of the Muslim empire in the
Indian subcontinent.
cities such as Thaneswar, Mathura, Kannauj and
Somnath. He plundered several temples and
Info Bits
carried away immense riches from the Info Bits
subcontinent. The plunder of the Somnath Temple
of Gujarat was among his most important raids. q In the first battle of Tarain, Prithviraj Chauhan’s
His forces looted the temple of all its wealth. He army had 300 elephants whereas the Turkish
used some of this wealth to beautify the city of army had none. Many of the Turkish soldiers had
Ghazni. Mahmud was also responsible for never seen an elephant before.
sending a scholar called Al-Biruni to the Indian q The second battle of Tarain is believed to be the
subcontinent. Al-Biruni’s account Kitab-al-Hind is most significant battle in the history of India as
a valuable source of information about this period. it opened the path for many other conquerors
As a result of Mahmud’s raids, the Turks knew into India.
how to cross the chain of mountains defending
India from the north-west. But soon after the death CAUSES FOR DEFEAT OF THE RAJPUTS
of Mahmud, his empire collapsed. It was only We can enumerate the causes of the defeat of the
more than 150 years after Mahmud’s death that Rajputs and success of the Turks under the
the Turkish invaders were able to invade India following points :
under the leadership of Muhammad Ghori.
q Disunity among the Rajputs was the most
Muhammad Ghori important reason for their defeat.
Muhammad Ghori q The Turks were militarily superior to the
was the ruler of Ghor. Rajputs. They used horses which moved very
His aim of invading swiftly as compared to elephants used by
India was different Rajputs.
from that of Mahmud
of Ghazni. His q The Turks had better planning and strategy.
objective was not to While the Rajputs constantly fought among
plunder India. In 1196 themselves and did nothing to equip
themselves with better weapons and tactics.
AD, he captured
Multan, Sindh and
Muhammad Ghori q The Rajputs had no standing armies. They had
Lahore. These became
to depend on their feudal lords.
part of Muhammad Ghori’s empire. When he
crossed Punjab, he was opposed by Prithviraj q The Turkish invasion failed to arouse national
Chauhan, the Rajput ruler of Delhi. In the first consciousness in India. The masses did not
battle of Tarain in 1191, Muhammad Ghori was really cooperate the rulers.
defeated. However in 1192, he came back to q The Turks were inspired by a great religious
revenge his defeat. Since Rajput failed to form a enthusiasm. They believed that their victory
confederacy, Prithviraj Chauhan was defeated and would help in spreading Islam in India.
killed in the second battle of Tarain. After this
remarkable success, Muhammad Ghori defeated
Jaichand of Kannauj in the battle of Chandawar in Activity
1194. Muhammad Ghori appointed Qutub-ud-din Make a project report on the main kingdoms which
Aibak as his viceroy in India. Qutub-ud-din existed before the advent of sultans in Delhi.
became the first Muslim sultan of Delhi after the
Contemporary Social Science-7
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