हिंदीOn this day
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Ruler

Raja Dahir

Last Hindu king of Sindh

Reigned until 712 CE

Dahir, son of the Brahmin king Chach, ruled Sindh from Aror when the Umayyad Caliphate turned on India. He beat back the first Arab expeditions and fell fighting Muhammad bin Qasim near Rawar in 712.

01The kingdom of Chach

Almost everything we know of Dahir comes from the Chachnama, a Persian work made in 1216 by Ali Kufi from an older Arabic book, and from the ninth-century historian al-Baladhuri. They agree on the outline. Chach, a Brahmin minister, took the throne of the Rai kings of Sindh. His son Dahir held a kingdom running from the sea at Debal up the Indus to Multan, with its capital at Aror near modern Rohri. When the governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj, sent armies over Makran, Dahir’s men killed the commanders Ubaydullah and then Budayl, who died before Debal.

02Rawar, 712

In 711–712 al-Hajjaj sent his young kinsman Muhammad bin Qasim with a fresh army and siege engines. Debal fell after its temple flag was brought down by a catapult. Nerun opened its gates; Sehwan fell. Qasim crossed the Indus, and Dahir met him near Rawar. The Chachnama says he fought from an elephant, was struck down when the beast broke from the line, and was killed. Inside Rawar fort his queen, called Bai in the Chachnama, held out, and when it could hold no longer the women burned themselves rather than be taken.

The tale of Dahir’s daughters avenging him on Qasim is told only in the Chachnama and many historians doubt it.

Debal (Banbhore)
Place · Port of Sindh at the Indus mouth; walled town from the 1st century BCE to the 13th century CEDebal (Banbhore)The sea port of Raja Dahir’s Sindh, whose great temple flag was brought down by a catapult when Muhammad bin Qasim stormed it in 711–712. It is widely identified with the excavated walled town of Banbhore, near Karachi.Read →

Battles

Raja Dahir’s last battle, Sindh

The first Arab conquest of an Indian kingdom. Raja Dahir of Sindh died on his elephant in battle, and his queen led the defence of Rawar fort after him.

712 CE

Places

Debal (Banbhore)Excavated
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Debal (Banbhore)

The sea port of Raja Dahir’s Sindh, whose great temple flag was brought down by a catapult when Muhammad bin Qasim stormed it in 711–712. It is widely identified with the excavated walled town of Banbhore, near Karachi.

Aror (Alor)Ruined
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Aror (Alor)

The ruined capital of Sindh under the Rai kings and then Chach and his son Dahir, on a ridge near Rohri. It fell to Muhammad bin Qasim after Dahir’s death, and the river that fed it later moved away.

BrahmanabadRuined
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Brahmanabad

The walled city in lower Sindh that held out for months against Muhammad bin Qasim after Raja Dahir’s death in 712. Its ruins lie beside those of Mansura, the Arab capital of Sindh, and the two are often treated as one site.

Multan (Mulasthana)Standing
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Multan (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.

Evidence

ChachnamaChronicle
c. 1216 CE (Persian version)

Chachnama

The account of Sindh under the Brahmana king Chach and his son Dahir, and of its conquest by Muhammad bin Qasim in 711–712.

On the timeline

  • 711–712 CE

    Raja Dahir falls defending SindhResistance

    Muhammad bin Qasim took the port of Debal and crossed the Indus. Dahir met him on his war elephant near Raor and was killed; Aror and Brahmanabad fell after him.

  • 712 CE

    Jauhar at the fort of RaorResistance

    The Chach Nama says Dahir’s queen and the women of the fort lit a fire and burned themselves rather than be taken. It is the earliest recorded jauhar.