Hindu armies, though using horses relied excessively on elephants. This single factor of close and instant interaction of the ‘horse, the rider and the sword’, resulted in achieving innumerable victories. Thus, the horse can anticipate commands of his master and give a real-time response. Through that physical touch, the horse can read the mind of his rider, including his state of confidence or panic. The sword is held (firmly) in the hand of the rider, who is in (firm) touch with the body of the horse, through his legs. The horse, the rider, and the sword, constitute the first example of what in modern military terminology is called the ‘Weapon System’. The most famous horse of history was Busephelus belonging to the most famous general of history, Alexander the Great. One common feature of all victorious generals was their unshakable faith in the horse as a weapon of war. Every famous general has ridden it and he has ridden nothing else. It had been used in that role from times immemorial almost from the beginning of human history. Muslims were fighting far away from their home base and were thus at a major disadvantage.īefore the invention of the machine, the horse was the most important weapon of war. Hindu armies had an enormous advantage in terms of Supply and Support Systems. As such, weapons of both sides could be considered to be of comparable class. In spite of the known and proven innumerable shortcomings and disadvantages of the elephant, the Hindu commanders, for some inexplicable reason, continued to use the elephant as their major weapon of war.īattle Venue: Both the above battles, as all other Hindu–Muslim battles, were fought in the very backyard of the Hindus. There is nothing to suggest that in weapons technology, Hindus could have been in any way less advanced than the Muslims could.
Weapons Technology: At the start of the second millennium AD, Hindu civilization was a very advanced one. That would lead us to conclude that Hindus armies must have had a significant numerical superiority they could have easily had twice or thrice the numbers of troops when compared to the Muslim armies. Troop numbers: As stated earlier, almost all the Rajput Rulers of North West India contributed their troops for both the battles. It is a rather complex issue and is discussed in detail in chapters 40 and 41.
Hindu Mindset: This is the subject at the center of our study. But, it would be difficult to avoid the conclusion that Prithviraj Chauhan was out-maneuvered and out-foxed by Muhammad Ghauri in 1192 AD. Amongst the Hindus, Prithviraj Chauhan was a general of very high caliber. Especially, Mahmud of Ghazni is counted amongst the best generals of the world. Generalship: It is generally believed that Muslim generals were of higher caliber.
The Muslim armies had special columns of ‘mounted archers’, who could fire arrows with precision, whilst at full gallop Hindu armies had no answer for that. Skill Levels: In terms of skill levels of troops, the Muslim armies appeared to have an advantage they had an edge at least in one respect, i.e.
In the following paragraphs, we examine the Software and Hardware factors of the Hindu and Muslim armies in the context of the above two battles. The second battle demonstrated how easy it was to subdue them for the long term. The first battle showed how vulnerable Hindus were. 1192 AD Muhammad Ghauri vs Prithviraj Chauhan.The one unimpeachable lesson of history is that maintenance of the delicate balance of civilizations requires War, or the ‘Threat of War’ that is the only language the world at large understands.
Those civilizations who could not understand the centrality of war in human affairs fell by the wayside unfortunately, the Hindu civilization falls in this category. War has dominated the human affairs right from the dawn of history, which is essentially a chronicle of wars. Civilizations rose to their glory and grandeur on the shoulders of war that was the case with all major civilizations, e.g. However, it is war, which determines the fates of nations, and their pecking order in the comity of nations. ‘War’ is a three-letter dirty word, involving death and destruction, murder and mayhem, and everything unpleasant and unpalatable. the factors that determine the outcome of war. To examine the reasons of that non-performance, we have first to understand the nature of war, i.e. What were the causes for Hindu defeats? The simple and short answer is ‘Military non-performance of the Hindus’.