MOHAMMED%u2019S USE OF SUBTERFUGE TO DEFEAT PRITHVIRAJA
In the following year, Mohammed broke his deceptive promise to Prithviraja and attacked India once again. The two armies again gathered at the same battlefield at Tarain. The Rajput army had camped near a river so as to do their morning ablutions before the war could be joined on the next morning, as was decided by the two commanders. But violating convention, the Muslim army attacked at 3 A.M. before dawn, as had the army of Sabuktgin in the year 980 (a fact which the Hindus had foolishly forgotten).
When the Muslims unexpectedly broke into the Hindu camp, Prithviraj%u2019s soldiers had begun their morning ablutions and some were still asleep, and so were totally unprepared for the assault. But they did their best to group their forces and resist the Muslims. The Muslims had the advantage of surprise which they had gained by deceit.
The uneven battle continued till noon, by when the Muslims had slaughtered many of the Rajputs. But the Rajputs did not yield and slaughtered many of their treacherous Muslim enemy too and gradually gained the upper hand. By Midday, it looked like the second battle of Tarain would also go the way the first had gone. Mohammed saw victory slipping from his hands once again.
So he resorted to another patented Muslim subterfuge of single combat %u2013 called Mard-o-Mard in Farsi (Persian). This is a technique which Muslims had used quite cunningly against the Zoroastrian Persians, some six centuries earlier when the barbaric Muslim hordes first burst out of Arabia.
In order to humiliate Prithviraj, Mohammed sent word that he would call off the battle, if Prithviraja came and fought his champion Qutub-ud-din Aibak in single combat. To save the lives of his soldiers, and to conclude the war quickly Prithviraja agreed. The rule in single combat was that when one combatant is either pinned down or killed, the army to which he belongs concedes defeat retreats. No other combatant is allowed to participate in this combat, hence the name single combat.
But with the insidious Muslims, this rule did not hold. So at the battle of Tarain, when the two met and Prithviraja%u2019s sword felt heavy on Qutub who risked losing his life, Qutub resorted to a feint and by whirling below his saddle he cut off the feet of Prithviraja%u2019s horse, before Prithviraj could realize what he was up to. This made Prithviraja trip and fall of his horse.
This was a foul move, and it would have been fair, had Qutub, also dismounted and fought Prithviraja on foot. Instead at a pre-arranged signal from Qutub, a band of truculent Muslim soldiers, who had till then stood aside in the grab of horse-tenders, jumped on Prithviraja, pinned him down, pressed on his face a dose of hashish (that grew abundantly in the poppy farms of Afghanistan as they do till this day) bound the drugged Prithviraja in chains and galloped away with him as a prisoner into their ranks, before the Rajputs could realize what had happened.
The Muslim immediately carried away the captive and drugged Prithviraj and hoisted him on one of the elephants that Prithviraj had gifted to Mohammed Ghori when he had released Ghori. The Muslim spread a rumor in the Rajput camp that Prithviraj was dead and that they were holding aloft his dead body to show the Rajputs the futility of fighting further.
When the Rajputs evidently saw that they their Maharaj (King) was dead with his corpse in the hands of the enemy, they lost nerve and through enraged, fell back against Pithoragarh, their fortified capital at Mehrauli near Delhi.
