| Mandalika,
the Abhira ruler of Somanatha, was also among the confederate princes who pursued Mahmud's
army. Mahmud could not withstand the onslaught. The Tarikh-i-Sorath states that the Muslim
army did not make a stand but fled. It was a rout. "Shah
Mahmud took to his heels in dismay and saved his life, but many of his followers of both
sexes were captured.... Turk, Afghan and Mughal female prisoners, if they happened to be
virgins, were accepted as wives by the Indian soldiers.... The bowels of the others,
however, were cleansed by means of emetics and purgatives, and thereafter the captives
were married to men of similar rank." |
