Very
few people know that Muhammad Ghori first invaded India 13 years before first
battle of Tarain.
In
1178 AD, Ghori entered India from west and continued his march through the
sandy desert towards Gujarat. Acting against the dictates of geography and historical
precedence, the idea behind this expedition was to outflank the Ghaznavids in
the Panjab and to open up an alternative route into Hindustan, through the rich
territories of the Caulukyas.
At
that time, Gujrat was ruled by Naikidevi. She was the widow of Chalukya king Ajayapala.
After her husband’s death, she served as queen reagent as her son Mularaja II
was just a child.
The
Muslim army was exhausted and famished by the time the battle ensued at village
of Kayadra (near to Mount Abu, about forty miles to the north-east of
Anhilwara). Hindus drove their elephant phalanx onto the battlefield in such a
manner that all the horses of the army of Ghori were scattered.
This
defeat induced the Ghurids not to persist with the southern route into
Hindustan via the Gomal Pass. Gujarat as a whole remained exempted from any
further serious Muslim attack for more than a century.
Hindu
(Prthiviriija Vijaya), Jain (Prabandha Chintamani) and Muslim (Minhaj-i-Siraj)
scholars chronicled this victory of Naikidevi over Ghori.
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