Punjab, which offered better prospects. Gradually Multan, Lahore and Sind
became part of the Ghurid empire.
     After consolidating his conquests, Muizz-ud-din seized Tabarhinda
(Bhatinda) in 1189, which made Prithviraj Chauhan to react immediately.
The two met in a battle at Tarain, near Delhi, in 1191. The Sultan himself was
about to fall when a Khalji soldier saved him. Prithviraj recaptured
Tabarhinda but did not pursue the invaders further. But the second battle of
Tara in (1192) resulted in Muhammad’s victory. About one lakh Rajput
soldiers died, including the brave Tomar prince of Delhi, Govindaraja.
Prithviraj was taken prisoner to Ajmir, where he ruled for some years as a
Ghurid vassal. Later he was executed for treason.
     Jayachandra, the Gahadavala ruler of Kannauj, was killed in 1194 in the
battle of Chandwar on the Jamuna. Kalinjar, Mohaba and Khajuraho were
also conquered by the Turks under the leadership of Muhammad’s
commander, Qutub-ud-din Aibak. By 1200 Turkish military outposts had
been set up and fort commandants appointed from Banaras to Punjab and
from Gwalior to Anhilwara.
     In the meanwhile Bihar and Bengal were conquered by Bakhtiyar Khalji,
another slave of Muhammad. He conquered regions as far as the Buddhist
university of Odantapuri, Bihar, where he slaughtered the Buddhist monks
and seized the town. In 1204–5, Bakhtiyar rushed to Nadia or Navadvipa, one
of the two capitals of Lakshmanasena, the king of Bengal. According to the
Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, only eighteen horsemen were with him when he forcibly
entered the palace. Lakshmanasena fled and Bakhtiyar finally took up his
quarters in the Sena’s western capital, Lakhnauti near Gaur. Unfortunately
Bakhtiyar was soon assassinated by one of his own commanders.
     Meanwhile Muizz-ud-din Muhammad was defeated on the Ox us by the
allies of the Khwarazm rulers. The news of the disaster encouraged the
Kokkhar tribes of the Punjab to revolt, but Muhammad crushed their uprising
and then returned to Ghazni. In 1206 he was assassinated by a Kokkhar on
the banks of the Jhelum. Muhammad had no sons, but he had bought a large
number of slaves. The most prominent slave was Taj-ud-din Yilduz, who was
therefore recognised as the ruler of Ghazni.