Prithviraj Chauhan led a coalition of several Rajput kings and defeated the Ghurid army led by Muhammad Ghori near Taraori in 1191 AD.
63 Facts About Prithviraj Chauhan
2.
Prithviraj Chauhan fled the battlefield, but was captured near Sirsa and executed.
3.
The extant inscriptions from Prithviraj Chauhan's reign are few in number and were not issued by the king himself.
4.
Prithviraj Chauhan has been mentioned in Kharatara-Gachchha-Pattavali, a Sanskrit text containing biographies of the Kharatara Jain monks.
5.
Some other Indian texts mention Prithviraj Chauhan but do not provide much information of historical value.
6.
Prithviraj Chauhan was born to the Chahamana king Someshvara and queen Karpuradevi.
7.
The medieval biographies of Prithviraj Chauhan suggest that he was educated well.
8.
Someshvara died in 1177 CE, when Prithviraj Chauhan was around 11 years old.
9.
The last inscription from Someshvara's reign and the first inscription from Prithviraj Chauhan's reign are both dated to this year.
10.
Prithviraj Chauhan, who was a minor at the time, ascended the throne with his mother as the regent.
11.
Prithviraj Chauhan is known as Kaimasa, Kaimash or Kaimbasa in the folk legends, which describe him as an able administrator and soldier devoted to the young king.
12.
Bhuvanaikamalla, the paternal uncle of Prithviraj Chauhan's mother, was another important minister during this time.
13.
The first military achievement of Prithviraj Chauhan was his suppression of a revolt by his cousin Nagarjuna, and recapture of Gudapura.
14.
Prithviraj Chauhan besieged Gudapura with a large army comprising infantry, camels, elephants and horses.
15.
Ultimately, Prithviraj Chauhan's army emerged victorious, and captured the wife, mother, and followers of Nagarjuna.
16.
The Kharatara-Gachchha-Pattavali mentions that Prithviraj Chauhan had embarked upon a digvijaya.
17.
Prithviraj Chauhan's army repulsed the attacks but suffered serious casualties in the process.
18.
Prithviraj Chauhan invaded the Chandela kingdom and besieged Sirsagarh, which was held by Udal's cousin Malkhan.
19.
Prithviraj Chauhan then dispatched his general Chavand Rai to Kalinjar Fort to capture Paramardi.
20.
The Madanpur inscriptions establish that Prithviraj Chauhan sacked Mahoba, but historical evidence suggests that his occupation of Chandela territory is either a fabrication by the bards, or did not last long.
21.
Cynthia Talbot asserts that Prithviraj Chauhan only raided Jejakabhukti, and Paramardi regained control of his kingdom soon after his departure from Mahoba.
22.
Talbot continues that Prithviraj Chauhan was not able to annex the Chandela territory to his kingdom.
23.
The historically unreliable Prithviraj Chauhan Raso provides some details about the Chahamana-Chaulukya struggle.
24.
Prithviraj Chauhan refused to participate in this ceremony, and thus, refused to acknowledge Jaichand as the supreme king.
25.
Jaichand's daughter Samyogita fell in love with Prithviraj Chauhan after hearing about his heroic exploits, and declared that she would marry only him.
26.
In Delhi, Prithviraj Chauhan became infatuated with his new wife, and started spending most of his time with her.
27.
Prithviraj Chauhan started ignoring the state affairs, which ultimately led to his defeat against Muhammad of Ghor.
28.
The claim about his daughter's marriage to Prithviraj Chauhan appears to have been concocted at a later date.
29.
Prithviraj Chauhan's predecessors had faced multiple raids from the Muslim dynasties that had captured the north-western areas of the Indian subcontinent by the 12th century.
30.
Prithviraj Chauhan shifted his base from Ghazna to Punjab, and made attempts to expand his empire eastwards, which brought him into conflict with Prithviraj.
31.
However, the Hindu and Jain writers state that Prithviraj Chauhan defeated Muhammad multiple times before being killed:.
32.
Prithviraj Chauhan placed it under the charge of Zia-ud-din, the Qazi of Tulak, supported by 1200 horsemen.
33.
Prithviraj Chauhan set out with an army, and encountered Prithviraj's forces at Tarain.
34.
Prithviraj Chauhan did not pursue the retreating Ghurid army, not wanting to invade hostile territory or misjudge Ghori's ambition.
35.
Prithviraj Chauhan only besieged the Ghurid garrison at Tabarhindah, which surrendered after 13 months of siege.
36.
Prithviraj Chauhan seems to have treated the first battle of Tarain as merely a frontier fight.
37.
Prithviraj Chauhan had been left without any allies as a result of his wars against the neighbouring Hindu kings.
38.
Prithviraj Chauhan successfully marshaled a sizeable army composed of over 100 Rajput rulers, mainly War elephants, cavalrymen and foot soldiers.
39.
Prithviraj Chauhan wrote a letter to Muhammad of Ghor, promising him no harm if he decided to return to his own country.
40.
Prithviraj Chauhan kept the rest of his army in reserve.
41.
Prithviraj Chauhan ordered the four divisions to launch an attack on the Chahamana camp, and then pretend a retreat.
42.
At dawn, the four divisions of the Ghurid army attacked the Chahamana camp, while Prithviraj Chauhan was still asleep.
43.
Prithviraj Chauhan was thus lured into chasing them, and by the afternoon, the Chahamana army was exhausted as a result of this pursuit.
44.
Prithviraj Chauhan himself tried to escape on a horse, but was pursued and caught near the Sarasvati fort.
45.
Prabandha Chintamani by the 14th-century Jain scholar Merutunga states that Prithviraj Chauhan cut off the ears of one of his ministers, who guided the Ghurid invaders to his camp as revenge.
46.
Prithviraj Chauhan was in deep sleep after a day of religious fasting, and therefore, was easily captured.
47.
Prithviraj Chauhan tried to escape on his horse, but his musicians sounded the drums.
48.
An angry Prithviraj Chauhan attempted to kill Kaimbasa with an arrow one night, but ended up killing another man.
49.
At the time of Ghurid invasion of Delhi, Prithviraj Chauhan had been sleeping for ten days.
50.
Sometime later, Prithviraj Chauhan rebelled against Muhammad, and was killed for treason.
51.
The 13th-century Persian historian Minhaj-i-Siraj states that Prithviraj Chauhan was "sent to hell" after being captured.
52.
Viruddha-Vidhi Vidhvansa by the Hindu writer Lakshmidhara is the only source that claims that Prithviraj Chauhan was killed on the battlefield.
53.
Prithviraj Chauhan had a dedicated ministry for pandits and poets, which was under the charge of Padmanabha.
54.
Prithviraj Chauhan's court had a number of poets and scholars, including:.
55.
Majumdar, Prithviraj Chauhan inherited a kingdom that only stretched till modern day Hissar and Sirhind on north west, and till Delhi in North.
56.
Prithviraj Chauhan's territories were bounded on southern frontier by Guhilas of Mewar along with Chauhans of Nadol, on the eastern border by kingdoms of Bayana, Kachchhapaghatas of Gwalior and Gahadavalas of Varnasi and on north-west frontier by empire of the Ghaznavids.
57.
Only seven inscriptions dated to Prithviraj Chauhan's reign are available; none of these were issued by the king himself:.
58.
The Hammira Mahakavya, which was probably intended to please a Chauhan lord, retains the elements of the Jain tradition that occur in the two Prabandha texts, but attempts to glorify Prithviraj who was an ancestor of the text's hero Hammira.
59.
Over time, Prithviraj Chauhan came to be portrayed as a patriotic Hindu warrior who fought against Muslim enemies.
60.
Prithviraj Chauhan is remembered as a king whose reign separated the two major epochs of Indian history.
61.
Prithviraj Chauhan has been described as "the last Hindu emperor" in eulogies.
62.
Memorials dedicated to Prithviraj Chauhan have been constructed in Ajmer and Delhi.
63.
The Indian animated film Veer Yodha Prithviraj Chauhan was released by Rakesh Prasad.