Siege of Hansi

01The virgin fortress

Baihaqi, who was in Masud’s service, describes the campaign. Against the advice of his ministers, the sultan marched to India in 1037 and laid siege to Hansi, which the Hindus called the virgin fort because no enemy had ever taken it. The defenders resisted fiercely. Sappers mined the walls, and after repeated assaults the fort was carried by storm; the garrison was killed or taken, and the town plundered. Masud then went on to Sonipat before returning.

02Retaken

The expedition was a costly diversion. While Masud was in India, the Seljuq Turks were overrunning Khurasan, and three years later they crushed him at Dandanqan, which ended Ghaznavid power in the west. Hansi did not stay in Ghaznavid hands either. In 1043 a league of Hindu kings, often linked with the Paramara Bhoja and the Tomara ruler of Delhi, retook Hansi, Thanesar and Nagarkot, as told in the entry on the Hindu recovery of Nagarkot.