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Chahamanas (Chauhans) of Shakambhari and Ajmer

The Chahamanas grew from chiefs around Sambhar lake into the kings of Ajmer and Delhi. Prithviraj III defeated Muhammad of Ghor at Tarain in 1191 and fell to him there in 1192.

  1. Vasudevac. 7th century
  2. Vigraharaja IIc. 971–998
  3. Durlabharaja IIc. 998–1012
  4. Prithviraja Ic. 1090–1110
  5. Ajayarajac. 1110–1135
  6. Arnorajac. 1135–1150
  7. Vigraharaja IV (Visaladeva)c. 1150–1164
  8. +4
Period: c. 7th century–1192 CE (Ranthambore branch to 1301)Region: Sapadalaksha: the Sambhar lake country and central Rajasthan, at its height Delhi and HaryanaCapitals: Shakambhari (Sambhar), Ajayameru (Ajmer), Ranthambore (later branch)
Photo: CNG Coins · CC BY-SA 3.0

01Sambhar to Ajmer

The Harshanatha inscription of 973, on the hill temple near Sikar, gives the early line from Vasudeva, the founder, down to Vigraharaja II. Ajayaraja founded Ajayameru, Ajmer, early in the twelfth century, and his son Arnoraja beat back a Turkish raid near the city and dug the Ana Sagar lake where the battlefield had been, to cleanse the ground. The Chahamanas fought the Chaulukyas of Gujarat for decades and married into them too.

02Vigraharaja IV, poet and conqueror

Vigraharaja IV, called Visaladeva, took Delhi from the Tomaras. In 1164 he had his victories cut on the Ashokan pillar now at Firoz Shah Kotla in Delhi. He wrote a Sanskrit play, the Harakeli Nataka, on Arjuna and Shiva as Kirata, and had it engraved on stone slabs in a college he built at Ajmer. Those slabs were found in the Adhai Din ka Jhonpra mosque, which was raised on that site after 1192.

Hammiradeva Chauhan
Person · reigned 1283–1301 CEHammiradeva ChauhanThe last Chauhan king of Ranthambore turned back Jalaluddin Khalji in 1291, refused to hand over Mongol refugees to Alauddin Khalji, and died defending his fort in July 1301.Read →

03Tarain and after

Prithviraj III came to the throne as a boy in 1178. In 1182 he sacked the Chandela city of Mahoba. In 1191 at Tarain, near Thanesar, his army routed Muhammad of Ghor, who was wounded and carried from the field. The next year Muhammad returned with a larger cavalry army and won; Prithviraj was captured and killed. His son Govindaraja held Ajmer for a time under Ghurid overlordship and then founded the branch at Ranthambore, where Hammir Dev fought Alauddin Khalji to the end in 1301.

The rulers

  1. 1VasudevaFounder by the family’s own recordc. 7th century
  2. 2Vigraharaja IIHarshanatha inscription, 973c. 971–998
  3. 3Durlabharaja IIc. 998–1012
  4. 4Prithviraja Ic. 1090–1110
  5. 5AjayarajaFounded Ajmerc. 1110–1135
  6. 6ArnorajaAna Sagar lakec. 1135–1150
  7. 7Vigraharaja IV (Visaladeva)Took Delhi; Harakeli Natakac. 1150–1164
  8. 8Prithviraja IIc. 1164–1169
  9. 9SomeshvaraBijolia inscription, 1170c. 1169–1178
  10. 10Prithviraja III (Prithviraj Chauhan)Won First Tarain, fell at the Second1178–1192
  11. 11Hammir Dev (Ranthambore)Fell defending Ranthamborec. 1283–1301

What they left

  • Ana Sagar lake, Ajmer
  • Harakeli Nataka slabs, now in the Ajmer museum
  • The Delhi-Topra pillar inscription of Vigraharaja IV (1164)
  • Harshanatha temple ruins near Sikar
  • Jayanaka’s Prithvirajavijaya, a Sanskrit kavya on Prithviraj

People

Hammiradeva ChauhanRuler
reigned 1283–1301 CE

Hammiradeva Chauhan

Chauhan king of Ranthambore

Prithviraj ChauhanRuler
c. 1166–1192 CE; reigned 1178–1192

Prithviraj Chauhan

Chahamana king of Ajmer and Delhi

Places

Harshnath TempleRuined
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Harshnath Temple

A Shiva temple on the summit of Harsha hill near Sikar, the family shrine of the Chahamanas of Shakambhari. Its inscription of 973 calls the mountain Shiva’s second Kailasa; the temple now stands in ruins beside a newer shrine of 1718.

Ajmer (Ajayameru)Standing
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Ajmer (Ajayameru)

The Chauhan capital founded by Ajayaraja II, where Vigraharaja IV built a Sanskrit college and had plays carved in stone. After 1192 the college was turned into the mosque called Adhai Din ka Jhonpra.

Adhai Din ka Jhonpra, AjmerDestroyed
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Adhai Din ka Jhonpra, Ajmer

A mosque at Ajmer built after the fall of Prithviraj Chauhan from the pillars and stones of the Chahamana city, on the site where Vigraharaja IV had kept a Sanskrit college. Slabs carved with his own play, the Harakeli Nataka, were dug out of it in the 19th century.

Trinetra Ganesh Temple, Ranthambore FortStanding
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Trinetra Ganesh Temple, Ranthambore Fort

A Ganesh temple high inside Ranthambore fort, where Ganesh has a third eye and sits with Riddhi, Siddhi and his sons Shubh and Labh. Letters and wedding cards from all over India are posted to him here.

Ranthambore FortRuined
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Ranthambore Fort

The hill-fort in the forest where Hammiradeva Chauhan refused to hand over Alauddin Khalji’s rebels and held out for a year before falling in 1301. Its Trinetra Ganesh temple draws more pilgrims today than the tigers below draw tourists.

Battles

First Battle of Tarain

Prithviraj Chauhan met Muhammad of Ghor on the old Kurukshetra plain and crushed his army. The Sultan was wounded in a duel with Govindaraja and carried from the field.

1191 CE

Second Battle of Tarain

A year after his defeat Muhammad of Ghor came back to the same field with a reorganised army of mounted archers. He wore down the Rajput host in a day of harassing attacks and broke it at dusk.

1192 CE

Evidence

Hindu Shahi bull-and-horseman coinsCoin
c. 9th–10th century CE

Hindu Shahi bull-and-horseman coins

Silver coins of the Shahi kings of Kabul and Udabhandapura, with Nandi on one side and a horseman on the other.

Harakeli Nataka slabs, AjmerInscription
1153 CE (Vikrama Samvat 1210)

Harakeli Nataka slabs, Ajmer

Black stone slabs carrying a Sanskrit play written by the Chahamana king Vigraharaja IV himself, with a second play written in his honour.

Prithviraja Vijaya of JayanakaChronicle
c. 1191–1192 CE

Prithviraja Vijaya of Jayanaka

A Sanskrit mahakavya by Jayanaka, a Kashmiri poet at the court of Prithviraj Chauhan, written in the king’s lifetime.

The Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque inscriptionInscription
AH 587 (1191–92 CE)

The Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque inscription

The Persian foundation inscription of Delhi’s first mosque, which itself states that it was built from the materials of twenty-seven temples.

Kanhadade Prabandha of PadmanabhaChronicle
1455 CE

Kanhadade Prabandha of Padmanabha

A verse chronicle of Kanhadadeva, the Songara Chauhan king of Jalore, and his war against Alauddin Khalji.

On the timeline

  • c. 1135 CE

    Arnoraja routs the Turks and builds the AnasagarResistance

    The Prithviraja Vijaya says the Chahamana king beat a Turkish army before Ajmer and dug the Anasagar lake to wash the ground where their blood fell.

  • 1164 CE

    Vigraharaja IV’s inscription on the Delhi–Topra pillarResistance

    Having taken Delhi from the Tomaras, the Chahamana king added his record beneath Ashoka’s edict: he had cleared the land from the Himalaya to the Vindhya of the mlecchas and made Aryavarta true to its name again.

  • c. 1194–95 CE

    Hariraja’s last stand at AjmerResistance

    Prithviraj’s brother Hariraja rose against Ghurid rule and drove out the puppet ruler. Beaten by Aibak, he and his household entered the fire rather than surrender.

  • 1311 CE

    Jalore falls; Kanhadadeva dies fightingResistance

    The Chauhan king Kanhadadeva of Jalore, who had harried the army returning from Somnath, is besieged and killed with his son Viramade. Padmanabha’s Kanhadade Prabandha (1455) tells of their stand.