After
capturing the temple he ordered the linga to be disfigured and broken into pieces and
thereafter the whole of the temple to be burnt to the ground. The Sultan did not stay
there for more than a fortnight.1 According to the official (contemporary) historians, he
turned away in haste since Paramadev, the, great ruler of the Hindus, was advancing with a
force to block the Sultan's way of retreat. With a view to avoiding a conflict, the Sultan
had, therefore, to take a more westerly route through Cutch and Sind. Thereafter he
reached safety after suffering great distress and hardships, as admitted both by Farrukhi
and Gardizi.2
1 Mahammad Nazim, The Life and Times of Sultan
Mahmud of Ghazna (Cambridge, 1931), pp. 118 and 220. The later historians, however, make
the Sultan stay there for almost three years since, according to them, he was so charmed
with the climate that he had resolved to settle there. Nor is it stated by any
contemporary authority that he left a governor to complete the destruction.
2 Ibid., p. 119; Gardizi, Zainu'l-Akhbar, p. 87; and Farrukhi, Diwan, f 20b and 25a. |
