Rohtas Fort of Sher Shah in Pakistan

Rohtas Fort Jhelum Punjab / Image Credit

Located near Dina city in the Jhelum district in Pakistan, Rohtas Fort (also called Qila Rohtas) was built in the 16th century on the instructions of Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri who did not live longer to see its completion which was overseen in the later years by his son Islam Shah, popularly known as Salim Shah. 

The construction of Rohtas Fort started in 1541 under the supervision of Sher Shah's official Todar Mal who later on joined the Mughal Empire under Akbar as its finance minister.

The construction of this gigantic fort was undertaken by Sher Shah to keep the refractory tribes of Gakkhars in check and guard the northern frontier boundary of Sur Empire. The fort was named by him after his famous strong fortress of the same name in Bihar. Qila Rohtas was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. 

The Gakkhars ruled in the mountainous region between the upper courses of the Jhelum and the Indus. 

Invasions and Plunder of Muhammad Ghori

Grave of Muhammad Ghori / Image Credit

After Mahmud of Ghazni, the next prominent invader on India was Muhammad Ghori (1202-1206), who took the title of Moizuddin Muhammad bin Sam after he became sultan. 

The actual name of Muhammad Ghori was Shahab-ud-din. The dynasty to which he belonged was Ghurid dynasty which supplanted the Ghaznavids in Afghanistan when he conquered the last Ghaznavid principality of Lahore in 1186 by defeating its ruler, Khusrau Malik, who was executed in 1191. His dynsty was so named as his family belonged to the territory of Ghor in Afghanistan.

He conquered several territories but remained a loyal subordinate  to his brother Ghiyas-ud-din, the Ghur Sultan,  until the latter's death in 1202 after which he became the Sultan and ruled until his murder in 1206.

Muizuddin  made his first Indian expedition in 1175 AD. these invasions were on the Muslim states of Multan and the fortress of Uch.

During the reign of Chalukya or Solanki ruler Bhima II (1178-1241), Muhammad Ghori made an unsuccessful attempt to subjugate Gujarat in 1178 AD and was comprehensively defeated in the Battle of Kayadara that took place in Sirohi district in Rajasthan.

In 1191 Muhammad Ghori fought against Prithviraj Chauhan (known as Rai Pithaura to the Muslim historians), who was the Rajput ruler of Delhi, Ajmer and its allies, and was the greatest ruler of the Chauhan dynasty, whose kings also came to be known as Chahamanas of Sakambhari.

Rajput forces inflicted a terrible defeat on Muhammad Ghori whose army was completely routed. Muhammad Ghori saved his life with difficulty and retired to Ghazni. This is famously known as the First battle of Tarain or Thaneswar in history.

The defeat however did not deter Muhammad Ghori from carrying another military campaign against Prithviraj in the next year, in 1192 AD. Prithviraj appealed the neighboring rulers to join the campaign against the Sultan. Almost everyone, except the powerful Gahadvala king Jaichand, supported him. According to Tod, Jaichand, father-in-law of Prithviraj, felt a sense of jealousy of latter’s exalted position among the Indian rulers.

In this battle, known as the Second Battle of Tarain, fortune favoured Muhammad Ghori. The Turkish army dealt a body blow to the Hindu ranks. Prithviraj was captured and killed.

When Muhammad of Ghur died in 1206 issueless, Qutb-ud-din Aibak, who was his slave (Mamluk), assumed the title of Sultan and became the ruler of Indian territories won by his master. The dynasty which Qutb-ud-din founded came to be known as Mamluk Dynasty (Slave Dynasty), the first in the line of five dynasties that comprised Delhi Sultanate that ruled from 1206 to 1526.

Another slave, Nasir-ud-din Qabacha became the ruler of Sindh and Multan. He was defeated by the Slave Sultan Shams-ud-din Iltutmish (son-in-law of Qutb-ud-din Aibak) and Sindh and Multan became part of the Delhi Sultanate. He died in 1228 CE.

Tajuddin Yalduz, successor of Muhammad of Ghor in Ghazni, was beheaded at Badaun on the instruction of Iltutmish in 1216. 

Another important slave was Bakhtiyar Khilji who is infamous for destroying the universities of Nalanda, Odantapura or Odantapuri and Vikramshila. He attacked the Sena capital Nadia in Bengal. The last Hindu ruler of Bengal Lakshman Sena of the Sena dynasty surrendered meekly to Bakhtiyar Khalji and escaped for his life by flight in 1203.

Badaun: History In Medieval Times

Jama Masjid Shamsi, Badaun / Image Credit

Today, Budaun may be a non- descript town in the district of the same name in the western Uttar Pradesh, history weighs heavily on it. 

About 235 km from Delhi, Budaun came into prominence when it became a centre of power during the reign of Iltutmish of the Slave Dynasty of Delhi Sultanate. Iltutmish, who ruled from AD 1210 to 1236, served as the governor of Badaun under the Delhi Sultan Qutab ud-din Aibak before becoming the Sultan. It was at Badaun where Tajuddin Yalduz, successor of Muhammad of Ghor in Ghazni and a rival of Iltutmish, was beheaded on the instruction of the latter in 1216. The imposing Shamsi mosque in the town was commissioned by Iltutmish. 

Budaun was the birthplace of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya (1236-1325), one of the most famous Sufi saints of Chisti order. His Dargah in Delhi attracts a large number of visitors. 

Alauddin Alam Shah, the last ruler of Sayyid Dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, found it better to retire in Badaun after abdicating the throne in favour of Buhlul Khan Lodi who founded a new dynasty which came to be known as the Lodi dynasty. 

The tombs of Alam Shah and his mother are an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) protected monument in Badaun.  

Samprati

Samprati

A grandson of 3rd Mauryan Emperor Ashoka,  Samprati (r. 224 – 215 BCE) was a Mauryan Emperor. He was the son of Kunala who was blind by birth. 

After Asoka's death in 232 BC, the territory of Mauryan empire was divided into the eastern and western parts. Sampriti and Dasaratha succeeded Asoka in the western and eastern parts respectively.

Samprati had embraced Jainism. He was converted to the religion by Jain monk Suhastin.

His contribution to Jainism is similar to that of Asoka to Buddhism. After a rule of nine years Samprati was followed by his son Salisuka who ruled for 13 years. 

Junagadh (Girnar) Inscription of Rudradaman

Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman / Image Credit

The Junagadh rock inscription of the Saka ruler Rudradaman is a eulogy inscribed on a rock located near Girnar hill near Junagadh in Gujarat. Composed in about 150 AD, the inscription,  which is the earliest inscription written in Sanskrit prose, refers to his reconstruction of a great dam or Sudarshan reservoir for irrigation which was excavated by Pushyagupta, the provincial governor (rashtriya) of Chandragupta Maurya in the provinces of Anarta and Saurashtra (Gujarat). 

Written in the Brahmi script , this inscription is engraved on a rock which contains one of the fourteen Asokan Major Rock edicts and another inscription of the Gupta ruler Skandagupta. The inscription was first translated in 1837 by scholar and Orientalist James Prinsep, an official of the Calcutta Mint and secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

 

Military Conquests of Chandragupta Maurya

 

                              Maurya Empire, c.250 BCE / Wikimedia Commons

Ruling from 324 to 297 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya was the founder of the first and one of the greatest empires that appeared in Indian subcontinent. 

The scarcity of sources dealing with the military conquests of Chandragupta Maurya makes it difficult for us to ascertain whether he first overthrew Mahapadma Nanda, the unpopular last Nanda ruler, or drove out the Greeks from the North-West part of India.

From the inferences from the Jaina and Greek sources, it seems that liberation of Punjab was the first military activity by Chandragupta Maurya who felt emboldened by the confusion in the Greek empire that followed Macedonian ruler Alexander’s sudden death in 323 BC in Babylon. Greek writer Justin writes about the prevailing condition of the time, “India, after the death of Alexander, had shaken, as it were, the yoke of servitude from its neck and put his Governors to death. The architect of this liberation was Sandrocottus.”

Chandragupta Maurya is described as Sandrocottus in the Greek sources.

Chandragupta Maurya / Image Credit

After driving out the Greeks, Chandragupta turned his attention to the overthrow of the Nanda dynasty that was ruling Pataliputra at that time. Again, we are faced with the scarcity of accounts about this conquest. From the Jaina work Parisisthaparvan (12th-century Sanskrit work by Hemachandra, the court poet of the Chalukyas of Anhilwara) we come to know that Chankya, the able Brahmin advisor of Chandragupta, aided him in the conquest of Pataliputra by making him allying with a neighbouring king Parvataka. The combined armies of both the powers dealt the body-blow to the Nanda empire. According to the Buddhist text Milinda-panho which dates from sometime between 100 BC and 200 AD, Nanda army was led by its general Bhaddasala.

After the defeat of the Nanda power, Chandragupta declared himself the ruler of Magadha. He, however, again embarked on a policy of fresh military expeditions thereby bringing different parts of India under his suzerainty.

War with Seleucus I Nicator

A war with Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander’s generals, became inevitable for Chandragupta as the former after his master’s death became ruler of Babylon and tried to recover Alexander’s Indian provinces which had become part of the Mauryan empire.  However, Seleucus was defeated and entered into an alliance by ceding the Satrapies of Archosia (Kandahar) and the Paropanisade (Kabul), together with portions of Aria (Herat) and Gedrosia (Baluchistan). Under the terms of the alliance, the Mauryan emperor presented 500 elephants to the Greek general. According to Appian, the peace was concluded by a marriage alliance. However, the exact nature of this alliance is not known. Megasthenes was sent as ambassador to the Mauryan court to reside at Pataliputra.

Conquests of Western India and South

That western India was included in the Mauryan empire under Chandragupta can be ascertained from the Saka ruler Rudradaman I's Girnar Rock Inscription of about 150 AD which refers to his (Rudradaman I's ) reconstruction of a great dam and reservoir for irrigation which was excavated by Pushyagupta, the provincial governor (rashtriya) of Chandragupta Maurya in the provinces of Anarta and Saurashtra (Gujarat).  

Chandragupta further extended his boundaries into the Konkan in Maharashtra where Asoka’s Rock Edict has been found at Sopara. Ashoka, grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, had excavated several edicts and inscriptions throughout the length and breadth of his kingdom. Since Bindusara, who was the son and successor of Chandragupta Maurya, is not known to have made any conquest and Asoka only conquered the Kalinga kingdom of Odisha, it can be said with certainty that Konkan was annexed to the Mauryan empire by Chandragupta.

Same can be said of Chandragupta’s expansion of his territories beyond the Vindhyas. The Rock Edicts II and XIII of Asoka state that the Mauryan empire shares its border with those of the southern kingdoms of the Cholas, Pandyas, Satyaputras and Keralaputras.

Mahalakshmi Temple at Doddagaddavalli

 Mahalakshmi Temple at Doddagaddavalli / Image Credit

A ASI protected monument, Mahalakshmi Temple at Doddagaddavalli in the Hassan district of Karnataka is a 12th-century Hindu shrine built in 1113 CE by a wealthy merchant Kalhana Ravuta and his wife Sahaja Devi during the reign of Hoysala King Vishnuvardhana  (r. 1108–1152 CE).

In 2020 Kali idol in the Mahalakshmi Temple was damaged.