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By 712 A.D., Arab had reached till Mekran, the ancient Gedrosia. To the east of this province lay the kingdom of Sindh ruled by Dahir, son of Brahman Chach. The story begin when the king of Ceylon was sending to Hajjaj, Viceroy of the eastern provinces of the Caliphate, the orphan daughters of Muslim merchants who had died in his dominion. The vessel was attacked and plundered by the pirates at the coast of Sindh. Hajjaj sent a letter through Mohammed Bin Haroon, Governor of Mekran demanding reparation. But Dahir replied that the aggressors were beyond his control. Enraged Hajjaj then obtained from Caliph Walid the permission to send an expedition into Sindh and dispatched Ubaidullah against Debul but he was defeated and slained and Budail who followed met the same fate. Hajjaj deeply affected by these two failures sent his cousin and son-in-law Mohammed bin Qasim. Soon, Debul fell to his armies in 711 A.D. due to a treachery by a Brahman of Debul fort. What followed next was plunder and destruction of temples of Debul. Thousands of men were brutally killed and the women folk were most shamelessly dishonored. Soon the army of Qasim reached Nirun (75 miles north-east of Hyderabad, in modern Pakistan) and captured it in early 712 A.D. In accordance with the orders received from Hajjaj, Qasim proceeded towards Bahmanabad, where Dahir was prepared to oppose his further advance into the country. In June 712 A.D., Qasim crossed the Indus river. Dahir had meanwhile assembled an army consisting of 50,000 horses and marched from Bahmanabad to Rawar to meet the invader. The armies lay opposite to one another during which some skirmishes took place and on June 20, Dahir mounted his elephant and advanced to the attack. The battle was sustained with great valor by the Dahir's men. But an Arab succeeded in planting an arrow, to which a burning cotton was attached, in Dahir's elephant. The terrified beast fled towards the river pursued by the Arabs. But soon, Dahir was back, inflicting heavy casualties on the Arabs. But Dahir fell, after being hit by an arrow. A section of the remaining Dahir's army led by Jai Singh fled towards Bahmanabad while Dahir's wife Rani Bai and her handmaids immolated themselves at Rawar. The remnant of the Hindu army rallied under Jai Singh and gave a great resistance to Qasim's army. But soon Jai Singh was forced to Chitroor. Rani Ladi, another wife of Dahir along with the two daughters of Dahir, Suryadevi and Parmaldevi fell into the hands of Qasim. Qasim married Rani Ladi and sent the daughters to the Caliph. next page >> |
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