The Ghizny troops bravely supported their king, rushing on with headlong impetuosity, and driving the enemy with great slaughter before them. Elik Khan, defeated on all sides, crossed the river with a few of his surviving attendants, and never after­wards appeared in the field during the remainder of Mahmood's reign. It is related in the Towareekh Yumny, that the King, after this victory, proposed to pursue the enemy, which was thought unadvisable by his generals, on account of the inclemency of the season, it being then winter, and the troops hardly capable of motion. But Mahmood, firm in his determination, followed the fugitives for two whole days. On the third night, a storm of wind and snow overtook the Ghiznian army in the desert. The King's tents were, with much diffi­culty, pitched, while the army was without shelter. Mahmood having ordered a number of munkuls or stoves to be brought within his tents, they became so heated, that many of the courtiers began to throw off their upper garments, when a fa­cetious chief, whose name was Dilchuk, came in, shivering with cold. The King observing him, said, “Go out, Dilchuk, and tell the Winter “that he may burst his cheeks with blustering, for “here we defy his power.” Dilchuk went out ac­cordingly, and returning in a short time, kissed the ground, and thus addressed his master: “I have “delivered the King's message to the Winter, but “the surly season replies, that if his hands cannot “reach the skirts of royalty, nor hurt the attend-“ants of the court, yet he will so evince his power “this night on the army, that in the morning “Mahmood may be compelled to saddle his own “horse.”

The King smiled at this reply, but it presently rendered him thoughtful, and he determined to proceed no further. In the morning, some hun­dreds of men and horses were found to have perished from the cold. Mahmood at this time received advice from India, that Séwukpál, * the renegado Hindoo, had thrown off his allegiance, and returning to his former religion, had ex­pelled all the officers appointed by the King.

Mahmood, resolving to punish this revolt, and having marched with great expedition towards India, detached some part of his cavalry in front, who, coming unexpectedly upon Séwukpál, defeated him, and brought him in prisoner. The rebel was compelled to pay the sum of 400,000 dirhems†, * and was kept in confinement during the rest of his life.

Mahmood having thus settled his affairs in India, returned, in the autumn, to Ghizny; where he re-

A. H. 399.
A. D. 1008.

mained during the winter. In the spring of the year 399 he determined again to attack Anundpal, Raja of Lahore, for having lent his aid to Dawood, during the late de­fection in Mooltan. Anundpal, hearing of his intentions, sent ambassadors on all sides, inviting the assistance of the other princes of Hindoostan, who now considered the expulsion of the Maho-medans from India as a sacred duty. Accord­ingly the rajas of Oojein, Gualiar, Kalunjur, Kunowj, Dehly, and Ajmeer, entered into a con­federacy, and collecting their forces advanced towards Punjab with the greatest army that had yet taken the field. The Indians and Maho-medans arrived in sight of each other on a plain on the confines of the province of Pishawur, where they remained encamped forty days without coming to action. The troops of the idolaters daily increased in number. The Hindoo females, on this occasion, sold their jewels, and melted down their golden ornaments (which they sent from distant parts), to furnish resources for the war; and the Gukkurs, and other warlike tribes joining the army, surrounded the Mahomedans, who were obliged to entrench their camp.

Mahmood, having thus secured himself, ordered six thousand archers to the front to endeavour to provoke the enemy to attack his entrenchments. The archers were opposed by the Gukkurs, who, in spite of the King's efforts and presence, repulsed his light troops, and followed them so closely, that no less than 30,000 Gukkurs with their heads and feet bare, and armed with various weapons, pe­netrated into the Mahomedan lines, where a dread­ful carnage ensued, and 5000 Mahomedans in a few minutes were slain. The enemy were at length checked, and being cut off as fast as they advanced, the attacks became fainter and fainter, till, on a sudden, the elephant, upon which the prince who commanded the Hindoos rode, becoming unruly from the effects of the naphtha balls, * and the flights of arrows, turned and fled. This circumstance produced a panic among the Hindoos, who, seeing themselves deserted by their general, gave way and fled also. Abdoolla Taee, with six thousand Arabian horse, and Arslan Jazib, with 10,000 Toorks, Afghans, and Khiljies, pursued the enemy day and night, so that 20,000 Hindoos were killed in the retreat. Of the spoil, 30 elephants (be­sides other booty) were brought to the King.

The King, in his zeal to propagate the faith, now marched against the Hindoos of Nagrakote, breaking down their idols and razing their temples. The fort, at that time denominated the Fort of Bheem, was closely invested by the Mahomedans, who had first laid waste the country around it with fire and sword. Bheem was built by a prince of the same name, on the top of a steep mountain, where the Hindoos, on account of its strength, had deposited the wealth consecrated to their idols by all the neighbouring kingdoms; so that in this fort there is supposed to have been a greater quantity of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls, than was ever collected in the royal treasury of any prince on earth. Mahmood invested the place with such expedition, that the Hindoos had no time to throw in troops for its defence. The greater part of the garrison was before in the field, and those within consisted, for the most part, of priests, who, having little inclination to the bloody business of war, made overtures to capitulate; and on the third day Mahmood became master of this strong citadel without opposition or bloodshed.

In Bheem were found 700,000 golden dinars, 700 muns * of gold and silver plate, 200 muns of pure gold in ingots, 2000 muns of silver bullion, and twenty muns of various jewels, including pearls, corals, diamonds, and rubies, which had been

A. H. 400.
A. D. 1009.

collected since the time of Bheem, the details of which would be tedious. With this vast booty Mahmood returned to Ghizny; and in the year 400 prepared a mag­nificent festival, where he displayed to the people his wealth in golden thrones, and in other rich or­naments, on a great plain without the city of Ghizny, conferring on every individual of rank a princely present.

A. H. 401.
A. D. 1010. In the following year Mahmood led his army towards Ghoor. The native prince of that country, Mahomed, of the Afghan tribe of Soor (the same race which gave birth to the dynasty that eventually succeeded in subverting the family of Subooktugeen), oc­cupied an entrenched camp with 10,000 men. Mah-mood was repulsed in repeated assaults which he made from morning till noon. Finding that the troops of Ghoor defended their entrenchments with such obstinacy, he caused his army to retreat in apparent confusion, in order to allure the enemy out of his fortified position. The Ghoorians, de­ceived by the stratagem, pursued the army of Ghizny; when the King, facing about, attacked and defeated them with great slaughter. Ma-homed Soor, being made prisoner, was brought to the King, but having taken poison, which he always kept under his ring, he died in a few hours; his country was annexed to the dominions of Ghizny. The author of the Towareekh Yumny affirms, that neither the sovereigns of Ghoor nor its inhabitants were Mahomedans till after this victory; whilst the author of the Tubkat-Nasiry, and Fukhr-ood-Deen Moobarik Shah Lody, the latter of whom wrote a history of the kings of Ghoor in verse, both affirm, that they were con­verted many years before, even so early as the time of Ally, the son-in-law of the Prophet; and they assert that, during the reigns of the Caliphs of the house of Oomya, the whole race of Islam was induced to revile the venerable Ally, with the exception only of the Ghoorians.

Mahmood, in the same year, was under the necessity of marching to Mooltan, which had revolted; where having cut off a number of the infidel inhabitants and brought Dawood, the son of Nuseer, prisoner to Ghizny, he confined him in the fort of Ghooruk for life.

A. H. 402.
A. D. 1011. In the year 402 Mahmood resolved on the conquest of Tahnesur, * in the kingdom of Hindoostan. It had reached the ears of the King that Tahnesur was held in the same veneration by idolaters, as Mecca by the faithful; that they had there set up a number of idols, the principal of which they called Jugsoma, pretending that it had existed ever since the creation. Mahmood having reached Punjab, re­quired, according to the subsisting treaty with Anundpal, that his army should not be molested on its march through his country. An embassy was accordingly sent to inform the Raja of his in­tentions, and desiring him to send safe-guards into his towns and villages, which he would take care should be protected from the followers of his camp.