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Introduction > Page1
The career of Prithvi Raj Chauhan has a tragic irony of its own. Though among the bravest of India's warrior heroes, his political naivet=82 bordering on stupidity caused India to knuckle under Muslim rule and usher in an era of unmitigated rape, plunder, chaos, repression and religious conversions which lasted for 600 years.
But what is more tragic is that the Prithvi Raj trait of blundering generosity has continued to haunt all of India's rulers ever since down to Mohandas K. Gandhi, Jawahar L. Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri. While the former two, like Prithvi Raj, showed misplaced clemency to the invader and bartered away large chunks of Indian territory for some illusive peace, the latter failed to win back Lahore and Sialkot and the occupied part of Kashmir in the finest hour of India's victory. It will be a day to celebrate when the Prithvi Raj spell of frittering away of India's advantages will be exercised and Indian rulers will once again restore Hinduism to the territories it owned and ruled before Mohammed Qasem's depredations.
Born in 1159 A.D. Prithvi Raj was the last Hindu emperor of India and yet it was he who inflicted some of the most crushing defeats on Muslim invaders. But in spite of putting their armies to rout he committed the blunder of not following the pest to its source and making an end of it. His portrait should hang in India's Cabinet room and Parliament House as a warning to India's future rulers.
It is a pity that though Prithvi Raj ranks amongst some of India's greatest warriors, some vital details of his career remain unknown. The alien Muslim spell on India has been so blighting that no body seems to have bothered to piece together the life story of this great warrior and last Hindu emperor from beginning to end. This is a measure of India's tragic neglect of its brave and patriotic traditions.
Prithvi Raj Chauhan is also known as Rai Pithora. The surname Chauhan is the corrupt form of Chahaman. This solar dynasty hailing from Sambhar and Ajmer has given India some of her most distinguished rulers. A scion of that family, Vigraharaj IV, was not only a great warrior and ruler but also a celebrated scholar who wrote a Sanskrit drama.
Author : Shri Purushottam Nagesh Oak
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