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Describe the conflict between Prithviraj Chauhan and Muhammad Ghori. What were the causes of the defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan ?

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During the time of invasions of Muhammad Ghori upon India, there was rule of Prithviraj Chauhan upon Delhi and Ajme. He is renwoned by the name of ‘Rai Pithora’ in history. Prithviraj was born in 1166 CE. After the death of his father Someshwar, he became the successor of Chauhan dynasty at a young age of 11 years.

After remaining under the guardianship of his mother for one year, Prithviraj handled the actual control of his kingdom in 1178 CE in an independent way. Conflict between Prithviraj Chauhan and Muhammad Ghori After being appointed as the Governor of Ghazni, Muhammad Ghori invaded Multan in 1175 CE and occupied it. After this, he proved his might by gaining victory in the battles of Gujarat, Sialkot and Lahore.

According to Rajasthani sources during this time, Ghori waged several battles upon Prithviraj Chauhan and he had to face defeat each time. The claim of Prithviraj’s victories on Ghori has been made as 21 times in Prithviraj Raso and for 7 times in Hammir Mahakavya. Two decisive battles took place between both of them.

First Battle of Tarain (1191 CE) – In 1191 CE, Muhammad Ghori proceeded from Lahore and reached upto Tarain while occupying a place named Tabarhind. Here a fierce battle took place between the two rulers in which Prithviraj Chauhan’s Delhi feudal lord Govindraj injured Muhammad Ghori with the blow of his harpoon. Injured Ghori fled away along with his army towards Ghazni.

Prithviraj occupied Tabarhind and imprisoned Qasi Jiauddin who was released later in exchange of a huge amount of cash. Second battle of Tarain (1192 CE) – After one year, Muhammad Ghori reappeared in the battlefield of Tarain along with his army. Prithviraj reached the venue to confront him, but this time, Ghori trapped his enemy under pretense of a reconciliation talk.

As the talk of reconciliation continued for an extended period, the Chauhan army became careless and got engaged in material pleasure. Taking advantage of this, Ghori suddenly attacked one night. The Rajput army could not bear this sudden attack and was defeated. The defeated Prithviraj was imprisoned near Sirsa at a place called Saraswati.

According to Prithviraj Raso imprisoned near Sirsa at a place called Saraswati. According to Prithviraj Raso, Ghori took the imprisoned Prithviraj to Ghazni, where at the time of exhibiting the ‘shabd bedhi’ arrow, Prithviraj killed Ghori. While according to the contemporary historian Hasan Nizami, after the second battle of Tarain, Prithviraj Chauhan had ruled upon Ajmer in the form of a subsidiary ruler of Ghori.

In favour of this statement of Hasan, a coin has also been referred to, upon which, on one side, the name of Muhammad Ghori and on the other side, the name of Prithviraj Chauhan is inscribed. Causes of against Prithviraj Chauhan’s Defect Instead Even after being a conqueror, Prithviraj Chauhan lacked foresightedness and diplomacy. He did not establish cordial relations with his neighbouring kingdoms.

Instead he waged wars against them and made them his enemy. For this reason, he did not receive their assistance at the time of war against Muhammad Ghori. In 1178 CE when Muhammad Ghori had invaded upon Gujarat ruler Bhimdev-II, at that time Prithviraj committed a mistake by not providing help to Gujarat. Another major fault of his was not attacking the Turkish army which was fleeing after being defeated in the first battle of Tarain.

If he had violently attacked the army of his enemy at that time, Muhammad Ghori would never have dared to attack upon him again. He started to neglect the administrative obligations after his marriage with Samyogita and had started to live a luxurious life. Evaluation of Prithviraj Chauhan Prithviraj was a brave and courageous ruler. Right from the beginning of his reign, he waged wars, one after the other which proves him to be an efficient soldier and commander.

After gaining victory in several battles, he gained the title of Dalpangul (conqueror of the world). Before the second battle of Tarain in which Muhammad Ghori resorted to treason and deception, he had not lost even a single war. Along with being a conqueror, he was alao a great scholar.

Various scholars were present in his court among which Vidyapati Gaud, Vageshwar, Janardan, Jayanak, Vishwarup, Ashadhar etc. were the major ones. Chandar Bardai was his royal poet whose text ‘Prithviraj Raso’ is regarded as the first epic of Hindi literature.

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