HOSPITALITY HONOURED, INDEED, AND IN DEED

HOSPITALITY HONOURED, INDEED, AND IN DEED

[ Write-up triggered by Amrita Bhattacharjee's piece on Prithviraj Chauhan as tribute to his memory on his birthday, 19 May ]

Hindu rulers have forgiven Muslim invaders to a fault. A case in point is Prithviraj Chauhan who let Muhammad Ghori free after defeating and imprisoning him post the First Battle of Tarain in 1191 C.E. Ghori returned to pay his compliments with a redoubled army the following year, defeated the Rajput king, took him captive to Afghanistan, blinded and executed him. Thus was Hindu hospitality repaid in ample terms by Muslim realpolitik as eyes, life, kingdom and the freedom of India was lost for the next 855 years. The Sanatan civilisation came to a grinding halt before picking up the synthetic slow momentum of a resolved cosmopolitan culture. We are still recovering.

Written by Sugata Bose

P.S. : The historical accounts of Prithviraj Chauhan's battles with Muhammad Ghori and the Rajput king's final fate are galore and inaccurate as they are interspersed with legendary tales that widely differ and are often fantastic. The above piece, thus, assiduously avoids such mythical pitfalls in narration and merely highlights the contrasting character of the two kings and their corresponding cultures.

Born, 19 May, 1166 C.E., Prithviraj Chauhan was only 26 when he died. The year was 1192.

14Nilanjana Chakraborty, Tapan Bhattacharya and 12 others

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