01The young king of Ajmer
He was the son of Someshvara and the Kalachuri princess Karpuradevi, and came to the throne as a boy of about eleven in 1177–78, his mother governing at first. The best source for his life is the Prithviraja Vijaya, a Sanskrit poem by his own court poet Jayanaka, a Kashmiri. Inscriptions at Madanpur record that in 1182 he laid waste Jejakabhukti, the Chandela country of Paramardi. He also fought the Chaulukyas of Gujarat. His wars made him the strongest king of the north, and they also left him without friends to his east and south when the test came.
02Tarain, twice
In 1191 Muhammad of Ghor took Bathinda and Prithviraj met him at Tarain, near Thanesar. The Rajput host broke the Ghurid wings, and Govindaraja, the Tomara lord of Delhi, wounded the Sultan in single combat; he was carried from the field. Prithviraj besieged Bathinda but did not pursue further. In 1192 Muhammad came back with mounted archers, wore the Indian army down through a long day and broke it at dusk. Minhaj-us-Siraj says Prithviraj was taken near the Sarasvati and put to death. Govindaraja fell on the field.
The Prithviraj Raso of Chand Bardai, written down centuries later, adds Sanyogita and the blind archer’s revenge in Ghazni. Those are the Raso’s kathas, not the record.
