Prithviraj Chauhan

Prithviraj Chauhan was born on the twelfth day of Jyeshtha, which is the second month in the
Hindu Calendar which corresponds to May June of the Gregorian calendar. Prithviraj Chauhan's
father's name was Someshvara who was the king of Chahamana and his mother was queen
Karpuradevi, a Kalachuri princess. Prithviraj Vijaya', is a Sanskrit epic poem on the life of
Prithviraj Chauhan and it does not talk about the exact year of his birth but it does talk about
the certain planetary positions at the time of Prithviraj's birth. The description of the described
planetary position helped Indian Indologist, Dasharatha Sharma to estimate the year of
Prithviraj Chauhan's birth which is believed to be 1166 CE

Prithviraj Chauhan and his younger brother were both brought up in Gujarat, where his father
Someshvara was brought up by his maternal relatives. Prithviraj Chauhan was educated well. It
states that he had mastered six languages. Prithviraj Raso went on and claimed that Prithviraj
had learned 14 languages which seems to be an exaggeration. Prithviraj Raso also has claimed
that he had mastered many subjects such as mathematics, Medicine, History, military, defense,
painting, theology, and philosophy too. The text also claims that Prithviraj Chauhan was also
good at archery. Both the text also claims that Prithviraj from a younger age had an interest in
warfare and hence was able to learn the difficult military skills quickly.

After the death of Prithviraj Il, Someshvara the father of Prithviraj Chauhan was crowned as the
king of Chahamana and Prithviraj was only 11 years old when the entire incident happened. In
the year 1177 CE, Someshvara passed away which led 11 years old Prithviraj Chauhan to ascend
the throne in the same year with his mother as the regent. At the early age of his rule as the
king, Prithviraj Chauhan's mother managed the administration which was assisted by the
regency council.

Prithviraj Chauhan took complete control in the year 1180 CE and soon he was challenged by
many Hindu rulers who tried to capture the Chahamana dynasty. The first military achievement
of Prithviraj Chauhan was on his cousin Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna was the son of Prithviraj
Chauhan's uncle Vigraharaja IV who revolted against the coronation of him on the throne.
Prithviraj Chauhan showed his military supremacy by retaking Gudapura which Nagarjuna had
captured. It was among the earliest military achievements of Prithviraj.
After completely defeating his cousin, Prithviraj then went on and then captured the
neighboring kingdom of the Bhadanakas in the year of 1182 CE The Bhadanakas was an
unknown dynasty that controlled the area around Bayana. Bhadanakas always was a threat to
the Chahamana dynasty for capturing the area around Delhi which was under the Chahamana
dynasty. Seeing the rise of the future threat Prithviraj Chauhan decided to destroy the
Bhadanakas completely.

Between the years of 1182-83 CE The Madanpur inscriptions from Prithviraj's reign claimed that
he had defeated the Jejakabhukti which was ruled by Chandela king Paramardi. After the
Chandala king was defeated by the Prithviraj, it caused many rulers to form a hate relationship
with him as a result of which an alliance was formed between Chandelas and Gahadavalas. The
combined Chandelas-Gahadavalas army had attacked the Prithviraj's camp but was soon
defeated. The alliance was broken and both the kings were executed a few days after the war.
The Kharatara-Gachchha-Pattavali has mentioned that a peace treaty was signed in the year
1187 CE between Prithviraj Chauhan and Bhima Il who was the king of Gujarat. A peace treaty
was signed to end the war that both the kingdoms had with each other in the past.

Prithviraj Chauhan fought many battles in his life and was a very famous ruler of his time but
there are some battles that are very famous. In the 12th century, the Muslim dynasties had
done many raids on the northwestern areas of the subcontinent due to which, they were able to
capture most of that part. One such dynasty was the Ghurid dynasty, whose ruler Muhammad
of Ghor crossed the Indus river to capture Multan which was an earlier part of the Chahamana
kingdom. Ghor controlled the western territories which were part of Prithviraj's kingdom.
Muhammad Ghor now wanted to expand his kingdom to the east which was controlled by
Prithviraj Chauhan. This led to many battles between the two. These two, i.e, Prithviraj and
Muhammad of Ghor are said to have fought many battles, but shreds of evidence are for only
two of those, Which were known as the battles of Tarain.