Anandapala

01The road to Multan

In 1006 Mahmud wanted to strike Abul Fath Daud, the ruler of Multan, and asked passage through the Shahi lands. Anandapala refused and brought his army out to block the road. Al-Utbi says Mahmud beat him and drove him into the hills of Kashmir before going on to Multan. The Shahi king had chosen to fight for a road he could have sold; it cost him his field army, and he began to rebuild it at once.

02Waihind, 1008

By the winter of 1008 he had a great host on the Chach plain near Waihind, with help from other kings of the north. Firishta says Hindu women sold their ornaments to pay for it and that Gakkhar fighters broke into Mahmud’s camp and cut down thousands. Then, by the chroniclers’ account, the elephant carrying Anandapala took fright and turned, the army thought the day lost, and it ran. Mahmud followed up by sacking the temple-fort of Bhimnagar at Nagarkot in Kangra. Anandapala made peace and died about 1010; his son Trilochanapala fought on from the Salt Range.

Place · Ancient city of the Sun temple and of Prahlad’s traditionMultan (Mulasthana)Mulasthana, the city of the great Sun temple and, by its own tradition, of Bhakta Prahlad. It fell to Muhammad bin Qasim in 713, was taken by Mahmud of Ghazni in the early 11th century, was held by the Sikh chiefs of the Bhangi misl from 1772 to 1780, and was taken by Ranjit Singh in 1818.Read →