Haryana - History - Muslim
The state continued to play a leading part in the history of India till the advent of the Muslims and the rise of Delhi as the imperial capital of India. The expansion and propagation of Islamic culture was attempted by means of peace as well as force. The former was followed by the Arab traders and Muslim saints or dervishes. The latter was adopted by the Arabs, Turkish and Mughal invaders. The Arabs took a very active part in India's commerce. The Arabs, therefore, entered India as traders and sailors. In spite of the previous repeated attacks of the Muslim powers, foundation of the Muslim Empire in India was laid by Shahab-ud-din Ghori (1175-1206).
As per the inscription found from Bohar village, Rohtak district, this region was known as Hariyanak. The inscription pertains to the period of Balban during 1337 Vikram Samvat. Later, the word `Haryana’ was inscribed on a stone found during the reign of Sultan Mohammad-bin-Tughlaq. Dharanidhar in his work Akhand Prakash says that “this word comes from Haribanka, connected with the worship of Hari, the Lord Indra. Since the tract is dry one; its people worship Indra (Hari) always for rain”. Another thinker, Girish Chander Avasthi traces its origin from Rigveda where Hariyana is used as a qualifying adjective with the name of a king (Vasuraja). He says, the king ruled over this region and as such the tract came to be known as Hariyana after him.
The first salient feature is that the history of Mohammadan rule in India is more a chronicle of kings, courts and conquests than of an organic or a natural grow. It is the kings and their doings that fill page after page of Mohammadan history. The people and their culture do not very much matter and, therefore, are given a secondary place. The early dynasties were short-lived. Dynasty after dynasty tumbled down after ruling for a short period. Their history is of unceasing round of valour, greatness, discord, degeneracy and decay. The Mohammadans were the first invaders of India who were not absorbed into the elastic and ever expanding Hindu fold.
Haryana in the sense of geographical unit was not known before the 12th century AD. Although the term Haryana is of late origin yet the antiquity of this area has never been questioned. The Tomara Rajputs ruled over `Hariyana’ from Delhi when the Ghaznavids invaded India from north -west. The kingdom of Lahore was annexed by the Ghaznavids in 1020. Sultan Masud, the successor of Sultan Mahmud, in the effort to extend his power,advanced towards Hansi and invested the fort. After the fall of Hansi he marched to Sonipat and defeated its governor, Dipal Hari. While the Tomaras of Delhi succeeded in recovering these territories,they made no attempt to oust Muslims from the kingdom of Lahore.
The position, however, changed with the fall of Ghaznavids, when the kingdom of Lahore fell into the hands of Ghuris and the Tomaras of Delhi were overpowered by the Chahamanas. The Chahamanas of Ajmer,after subduing the Tomaras by the middle of the 12th century soon came face to face with the Ghuris. After taking Lahore in 1186 A.D. :Muhammad Ghuri encountered the Chahamanas under Prithvi Raj. Beaten in his first encounter in 1190-91 at Tarain (Traori) in the Karnal district, he came back the following year to defeat Prithvi Raj in 1192. Prithvi Raj was defeated and taken prisoner or killed in the neighbourhood of the river Saraswati. During this encounter he destroyed the most important town of Meham of Rohtak district. After the battle of Traori in 1192, the Karnal area more or less firmly attached to Delhi.
On June 24, 1206, Qutab-ud- din Aibak sat on the throne of Delhi and inaugurated Muslim rule in North India. The Turks of central Asia, professing the religion of Islam in a fanatic and militant form became masters of a country, the teeming millions of which believed in diverse cults collectively described as Hinduism. In spite of relentless pressure and ruthless persecutions,a vast majority of people offered an unflinching resistance to the alien conqueror and their creed and showed a dogged persistence in shunning their contacts and maintaining their exclusiveness.
On the plains of Panipat three historic battles were fought, the first one between Babar and Ibrahim Lodhi in 1526, in which Babar defeated Ibrahim Lodhi; second between Hemu and Akbar in 1556, in which Akbar defeated Hemu; and the third one between Ahmed Shah Abdali of Afganistan and Sadashivrao Bhau, the son of Peswa Balaji Bajirao in 1761, in which Bhau died in the battle.
The Muslim rulers, by and large, adopted an intolerant attitude towards the Hindus and frequently destroyed their holy places. The Sufi movement soon wove itself with the complex culture pattern of India and helped removing the spirit of mistrust and isolation between two religionists. During the Sultanate period, Haryana witnessed the growth of Sufism. The earliest sect of this order in the region - the Chistis - was named after their founder Khawaja Muinudin Chisti. Under the Mughals Sufism extended to various other parts of Haryana. Hansi, its important strongold during the Sultanate, lost its former glory and Thanesar and Panipat emerged as the new centres of the Sufi activity.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
