1 Prithvi Raj Chauhan

In 1179 A.D. the Indian history witnessed the accession of the

youngest king of Rajputana clan. Prithvi Raj Chauhan was born in
the royal family of the King of Ajmer, Raja Someshwar Chauhan, and
Maharani Karpuri Devi in 1168 AD. At the sudden demise of his
father on the battlefield, it was his courage and strength that made
his grand father Angam declared him the king of Ajmer. Prithviraj
Chauhan was the last ruler of the Chauhan Dynasty in India.
JAGRAN JOSH
SEP 3, 2015 18:04 IST
From the very early years Prithvi Raj showed his sharpness and brilliance by
learning all military skills. He was known to master the skills of aiming the
target on the basis of its sound, known as the “Shabdbhedi” technique. He
once killed a tiger without any weapon. A true Rajput ruler by nature, Prithvi
Raj expanded his empire mainly towards North West India. These regions
mainly included the regions of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar
Pradesh. His historical wars and victories over Chandela kings in 1182 A.D.
were significant in fetching immense riches to his treasury. But the
Chandella king reclaimed his kingdom back soon from Prithvi Raj. History
also tells about his lost battle with the Chalukyas in 1187 A.D. This lost
battle further took Prithvi Raj to annex Kannauj which in those times was
ruled by the Gahadvala Tribes. He fought two major battles:

1. First Battle of Tarain, 1191

2. Second Battle of Tarain, 1192
Somewhere Prithvi Raj’s trails of annexations and wars were disliked by the
neighboring rulers. This spirit of his was onwardly pushing him towards
isolation.

His entire life was an episode of courage and gallantry which was looked up
with envy by Jai Chand, king of Punjab. But as luck could have it, Jai
Chand’s daughter Sanyunkta fell in love with the brave remnants of this
warrior king. Through secret correspondence Sanyukta shared her feelings
with Prithvi Raj but as Jai Chand came to know about it he tried to put a end
to this romantic episode by announcing Sankyuktas “Swayamvar”, and
invites all the valiant kings, to woo his daughter. To further show his hatred,
Jai Chand places a statue of Prithvi Raj on his palace gate as an insult to
show him as a guard. Not knowing that Sanyukta has already warned Prithvi
Raj of the same. On the day itself, Sanyukta walks down the aisle with the
garland, she walks past all the invitees to garland Prithvi Rajs statue, who
emerges out from behind the idol and elopes away with Sanyukta on the
horseback.

The matrimony makes Prithvi Raj neglect his kingdom for sometime, this
moment is used by Mohammed Ghori the Afghan ruler who wages a war
against the Chauhan king in 1191 at the first battle of terrain. Prithvi Raj
gallantly fights back and emerges victorious. He makes his first blunder in
freeing Mohammad Ghori who prepares his army to strike back again in
1192 in the second battle of terrain, captures Prithvi Raj and torture him by
blinding him. Hearing this Sankyukta commits suicide to save herself from
Ghoris disgrace.

In these testing times of Prithvi Raj, his court poet Chand Bardai disguises
himself as a thief to be with Prithvi in the cell. He provokes Prithvi Raj to
avenge this injustice.

As luck could have it, Ghori invites Prithvi Raj for an archery competition to
harass and insult him not knowing about the war technique which enabled
Prithvi to shoot on the basis of the voice. Prithvi Raj accepts the invitation on
the promise to shoot arrow only on the orders of Ghori. Ghori was elated
and orders Prithvi Raj who aims at Ghori as he voices out the order.
Mohammad Ghori dies instantly but to save themselves from the Afghans
Prithvi Raj and Chand Bardai stabbed each other to death. This put an end to
the rule of a brave and courageous ruler in 1192 AD at the age of 43.