Battle of Chhandwar

Battle of Chhandwar

The reason of this  battle of Chhandwar must not happened if Jai Chand Rathor had helped Prithavi Raj Chauhan. Jai Chand Rathor, the king of Kanuj was not in good relations with Prithavi Raj Chauhan. Jai Chand Rathor was very happy when he was defeated by Muhammad Ghori. This war had  happened only one year after the second war of Taraori. Muhammad Ghori had ended his first expedition in Ganges plain when he was defeated by Prithavi Raj Chauhan in the frist battle of Taraori in the year of 1991. in the following year he again returned Taraori defeating Prithavi Raj and founded the Delhi Sultanate.
The battle of Chhandwar was the next winning war of Muhammad Ghori in 1993-1994.
Jai Chand was the ruler of Beneras and Kanauj at time. When it became clear that Muhammad is conqueror and not a raider, Jai Chand Rathor was forced to fight. After winning the battle of Taraori, Muhammad Ghori had returned to Ghazni leaving back Qutb-ud-din Aibak to invade Delhi. But when he realized that Jai Chand had planned to fight. Muhammad Ghori returned back to India. The both combined Muslim armies attacked Kanauj. Aibak attacked Jai Chand and the battle was fought at Chandwar on the Jumna River very near to Agra. The army was very near to victory, only one arrow changed the result. An arrow hit the eye of Jai Chand and killed him. Jai Chand fell off his elephant and trampled.  He could be identified after the war by the gold caps of his teeth. The battle of Chhandwar gave control of Northern India

Second Battle of Tarain

The Second Battle of Tarain

The second battle of Tarian also known as the second battle of Taraori was again fought between Prithviraja and Muhammad Ghori in 1192 AD.  In this battle Prithviraja chauhan had defeated. This battle was fought in Taraori.

Muhammad Ghori had lost the first battle of Tarain.  After his defeat in the first time, Muhammad Ghori prepared a strong force and attacked in Punjab in 1192 AD .  The strength of his force was 120,000. 

The techniques, strategy and plans of battles were prepared in advance. Again he recaptured  Bathinda fort.  Muhammad Ghori again had reached Tarain without any difficulty. Opposite to this Prithviraja Chauhan had prepared  a unity of some some Hindu Kings because he was aware that this time Muhammad Ghori came well prepared to defeat him in this battle.

Prithviraja had tried his best to block all the passages of Muhammad Ghori. In this battle the Skanda,  Veteran General and the hero of Prithaviraja of the first battle  was absent.  Skanda was busy in welfare at any other place and failed to provide his support to Prithaviraja.  As Muhammad Ghori was a superior General and had prepared advanced techniques, he routed the Prithaviraja army completed  and imprisoned Prithaviraja. In the end he had executed Prithviraja.
The second battle of Tarain (Taraori) completely destroyed the Chauhan Dynasty. The other Hindu Kings failed to oppose strong armies of  the Muslim. This battle of Tarain proved as strong foundation of Muslim power in India.

The Second Battle of Tarain 1192 A.D. destroyed the imperial power of the Chauhan Dynasty.  The subsequent attempts of the Hindu kings to resist the Muslim tide proved futile. Muslim power was strongly founded in Northern India after the battle. Thus the Second battle of Tarain 1192 A.D. may be regarded as a turning point in India’s history.

First Battle of Tarain

First Battle of Tarain

The first battle of Tarain is also known as the battle of Taraori.  This battle was fought in 1191 A.D.  In this battle Mohammad Ghori was defeated. He faced this defeat when he was on the campaigns in Northern India.  Mohammad Ghori laid the foundation of Delhi Sultanate.  He was the viceroy of Ghazni during the reign of his brother Ghiyas-ud-din.  He was the Emperor of Ghaur.  Muhammad Ghori was the younger brother of Ghiyas-ud-din. Muhammad Ghori started his campaign to invade Hindu Kingdoms in 1175 AD. It took him one decade  to Ghaznevid in Punjab areas. Muhammad was not free to give full attention to Northern India ruled by Hindu Kings.  First Muhammad won the fort of Bhatinda.  Bhatinda was the Part of Prithvi Raj Chauhan’s Kingdom.  In 1990-91 AD on the invitation of Jaichandera Muhammad taken over the Batinda fortress.fortress. Prithiraja opposed Muhammad Gori and attacked him with a great force to make him ran away. The two opposite armies met in Tarori (very near to Karnal).  Prithviraja succeeded in this battle by defeating Muhammad Gori.  In this battle Prithviraja's brother Govind Rai and Muhammad were face to face and he smashed the teeth of Govind Rai. Govind Rai also gave a serious arm injury.  Muhammad Gori was now week enough due to much blood loss.  He was very close to be captured but he was safely rescued by a Khalj Truck. The remaining numbers of Muhammad's army escaped themselves back across the Indus Valley and reached back to Ghazni.  A garrison which was left in Bhatinda was held . Muhammad again prepared himself again to attack Prithviraja reign. So, he again fought against Prithviraja in Tararoi again.  

In the next blog the Second Battle of Tarain will be discussed.


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Invasion of Sind

Invasion of Sind

The battle of Sind is the landmark of rise of Islam in Indian.   Sind was a state, now a days is a part of Pakistan and old Indus Valley civilization.  Mohammed-bin-Qasim was the first Muslim invader who conquer the territories of India. This battle was fought in 711-712 AD and the place of battle was Sind and Punjab regions.  The conquest of Sind was successful after many attempts.  He spread the Islamic religion in India. At that time the age of Mohammed-bin-Qasim was only 17 years when conquered the Sind. Sind is also known by its nick name Bab-e Islam.

Arab Empire was founded in Sind in 712AD.   Mohammed-bin-Qasim took over Sind in his third attempt. The Islamic rulers conquered Persia and Hertal and composed a great Islamic Kingdom. Now their eyes were on India because at that time commercial trade relations were between India and Arabia.  The Arabs were very much familiar with the Indian sea coast.  Further vast wealth of India attracted Arabs to invade India territories and also to spread Islam in India.  Important reason of India’s invasion at time was that some Sindi  pirates seized some Arab Ships near Debal Coast.  One more reason was that the Kind of Ceylon has sent gifts to Khalifa of Baghdad and to the Governor of Iraq on these ships. Hajaj, the Governor asked for compensation from King Dahir.  As he had no control over the pirates, he refused to give any compensation. Hajaj started the first army expedition under Ubaidullah against the King Dahir but failed.  Second time attempt was made under Budail but again unsuccessful.  The Third attempt was made under Muhammad-bin-Qasim .  This was a successful attempt to win the Sind.  By killing Dahir, he occupied Debal.  After the death of Dahir, his wife Queen Rani Bai fought against Arabs.  Mohammad-bin-Qasim also defeated her.  Queen Rani Bai performed Johor to save her pride.  Mohammad also captured Nirun, Rewar, Brahmanbad, Alor, Multan and Sind.  Khalifa recalled back Mohammad-bin-Qasim and put him to death. The strength of Dahir’s Military was about fifty fhousand. As Qasim crossed the Indus River, Dahir went to Bahmanabad to Rewar to fight with Qasim.  In the battle the elephant of Dahir was killed with an arrow which was attached with buring cotton.  The afraid elephant fled towards the river which was already covered by the enemy soliders killed the King Dahir.  Mohammad-bin-Qasim could conquer some territories but after his death the Arabs failed to expand the Islam Dynasty beyond Multan and Sind. Arabs couldn’t conquer the Rajputs, ruling in North and East India.  Qasim established a good administrative system in the places he conquered. No other Arab King  could conquer other territories of India. Qasim respected all other religions but converted poor Hindus to Muslim.  It revealed from the historians that many rulers did not fought with the Arabs as a result of this Mohammad Ghazni and Mohammad Ghori attacked India easily. 

Kalinga War

                                                                 Kalinga War

The Kalinga battle is one of the bloodiest battles in Indian History.  No such war has ever  been fought in Indian subcontinent.  Its results were very devastating that it changed the life ideas of ruthless Mauryan Emperor, Ashok the Great.  After this war Ashoka adopted Buddhism.  After this war Ashoka dropped the rule of expansion of Mauryan Empire.  After this battle Ashoka ruled Mauryan dynasty for forty years with peace, prosperity and harmony.  The life in his empire was so peaceful that he was rewarded with the title “Ashoka the Great”.

From the very ancient times the state Kalinga (now Orissa) maintained the identity as a power State. Its extension was from river Ganga to Godavari including eastern seal coastal of India.

This battle was fought in 261 B.C. and Mauryan Dynasty won this war.  In this battle millions of people lost their life. Geographer Ptolemy’s Gerini came to conclusion that, “The mighty people of Kalinga had established an empire in Burma long before Asoka led his victorious soldiers into Kalinga”.

Kaling Military was very much powerful. Elephants forces was also the reason of Kalinga‘s powerful military. Megasthenes who was in the court of Chandragupta strengthened the military power.

The reason of Kalinga war was the defeat of Chandragupta and Bindusara.  Chandragupta Maurya was the founder of throne of Magdha in 273 BC.  Ashoka like his father and grandfather wanted to expand his empire.

During the times of Nanda dynasty Kalinga was also the part of Magadha Empire. Chandragupta defeated Nandas to expand Mauryan dynasty but could not succeed to takeover Kalinga. Kalinga was an independent state.  Chandraguta and Bindusara wanted to re- conquer it but they could not succeed. Ashoka wanted to conquer it again. In its opposite, due to trade with Java, Malay and Ceylon Kalinga was much prosperous and the power of military was at its peak.

Ashoka in his 12^th year of reign sent a message to Kalinga’s ruler to surrender Kalinga.  Ruler of Kalinga refused Ashoka to submit.  His refusal became the reason of Kalinga war in 261 B.C.

The Mauryan forces was led by Emperor Ashoka and in his opposition was the Kalinga ruler Anantha Padmanabhan.  In this battle Emperor Ashok was present physically.

This battle started Dhauli hill and after this the whole State of Kalinga turned into this battle.  In the  battle 150,000 worriors of Kalinga and 100,000 warriors of Mauryan warriors lost their lives. In this battle Ashoka won but it turned the life ideals of Ashoka. Ashoka sent his missionaries to Srilanka, Macedonia, Greece and Syria to spread the message of Buddhism and peace.

Important wars of Indian History- An Introductory

Important battles of Indian History- An Introductory

Welcome  to all the readers of my blog!

The History of India is the most ancient one across the world.  The history of India has seen many change in its culture, politics and environment.  The history of India is specially characterized with lots of battles. In these battles some are native battles and many are foreign invaders. Out of these some battles are so important those have changed the Indian history completely. The battle of Panipat which was fought in 1526 has its great landmark on the Indian History. Panipat is located in northwest Delhi. The battle of Panipat is the starting to invasion of Delhi.
Babur, the great Mugal first to invade India. He became the ruler of Kabul in 1904. Ibrahim Lodi  was the ruler of Delhi at that time. The main aim was Babur to invade India is that was a large country and with lots of gold. After that Talikota battle which was fought in  1565. This battle was to expand the sultanate to south India. Vijayanagar Empire was a strong and well settled state under Behmani Sultanate. The battle of Talikota resulted in weakening of south India.
After this the battle of  Karnal which was fought in 1739 completely weakened the  Mughal Empire.  At the very beginning of Eighteenth century the Mughal Empire and Safavid empire completely declined. There various reasons for these decline but most are continued Hindu-Maratha attacks and civil war within Mughal empire, further an Afghan rebellion for Safavid. Nader Shah established Persia and that had enveloped that state for two decades. Although this dynasty was new but facing legitimacy and wealth.  But at the same time Muhammad Shah was an incompetent to rule. Hence, the Nader Shah invaded the Mughal Empire in 1738 and taken over Kabul, Peshawar and Lahore. After the battle Nader Shah allowed to Muhammad shah to continue his throne but at heavy costs which includes crown jewels and the lands of Indus river.

The Battle of Plassey which was fought in 1757 has a great landmark on the history of India. With this battle the British Empire started in India. British rule started in Bengal. East India Company came into existence and had established a strong Empire in Bengal. Their trading post was at Calcutta. Siraj ud Daulah fought the British for at least seven years but due to the organised battle techniques and with the help of Mir Zafar, Lord Clive defeated Siraj ud Daulah.
The Battle of Kohima in 1944 has also an effect on Indian History.  Kohima is an Indian eastern state of Negaland.  During the second World War it was occupied by Japanese. India was regarded extremely vital to the war efforts due to its resources for the British. Strength of Japanese army was 15000 and one unit of Indian National Army division fought the 2500 strong garrison at Kohima. This battle prevented parts of India into Japanese hands under the commands of British and pushed back the Japaneses, proceeded India to Independent India in 1947.
So, there were many battles in Indian history which will be described in the next posts.