First Battle of Tarain

The First Battle of Tarain, also known as the First Battle of Taraori, was fought in 1191 at the town of Tarain (Taraori), near Thanesar in present-day Haryana, approximately 150 kilometres north of Delhi.

Background

The battle pitted the armies of Muhammad of Ghor, conqueror of the Ghaznevid Kingdom of northwestern India, against the armies of Prithviraj III, a Rajput of the Chauhan clan who ruled the most powerful kingdom in northern India. Muhammad's conquests had brought his kingdom right to the border of Prithviraj's, and in 1191 Muhammad captured a fortress, either Sirhind or Bathinda in present-day Punjab state, on Prithviraj's northwestern frontier. Prithviraj's army, led by his vassal Govinda-raja of Delhi, rushed to the defense of the frontier, and the two armies met at Tarain.

The battle

According to myth common in contemporary India, the armies clashed first with the charge of the Rajput cavalry. The two wings of the Turkic army were turned and fled while Muhammad held out in the center with the body of the soldiers; here he met Govind-raja in personal combat. Govinda-raja lost his front teeth to Muhammad's lance, but he wounded Muhammad with a spear to his upper arm. Muhammad fainted from the shock of the blow, and the remainder of his army, already shaken by the rout of their two wings and fearing their leader dead, broke down in retreat, leaving their leader, Muhammad Ghori, a prisoner in Prithviraj's hands. Muhammad Ghori was brought in chains to Pithoragarh, Prithviraj's capital. The mythology later has him begging his captor for mercy and release; Prithviraj's ministers advised against pardoning the conqueror, with Prithviraj thinking otherwise.

It is possible that the entire story is an apologia for the subsequent establishment of Ghorid rule across northern South Asia. More conservative sources do not even refer to the events in this tradition independent of the religious profession of their authorship. What is known is that the Ghorid army was exhausted, shorn of water, and unfamiliar with the scale of its opponent. Upon defeat it retreated in apparent disarray towards the Afghan highlands.

The following year, in 1192, the Ghorid army returned to challenge Prithviraj at the Second Battle of Tarain.

Bibliography

*Mahajan, V. D. (2007). "History of Medieval India". New Delhi: S. Chand
*Rottermund, H. K. (1998). "A History of India". London: Routledge.