"The battles of Tarain and Chandawar laid the foundations of Turkish rule in India". Elaborate.

Answer:

The second battle of Tarain in 1192 and the battle of Chandawar in 1194 destroyed the two greatest Rajput powers of northern India and opened the Gangetic plains to Turkish conquest, so that together they may fairly be called the foundation of Turkish rule.

The battles and their outcome

• At the first battle of Tarain in 1191 Prithviraj Chauhan defeated Muhammad Ghori.
• Ghori returned in 1192 with a disciplined force of mounted archers and won decisively.
• Prithviraj was captured and killed, and the Chahamana kingdom collapsed.
• At Chandawar in 1194 Ghori defeated and killed Jaichandra, the Gahadavala king of Kanauj.

Why they were decisive

• The two strongest north Indian dynasties were eliminated within two years.
• Delhi, Ajmer, Kanauj and Banaras passed under Turkish control.
• The fertile and populous Ganga valley, with its wealth, was thrown open.
• Qutbuddin Aibak was left as governor and consolidated the conquest from Delhi.
• Turkish success rested on cavalry mobility, unified command and superior strategy.

A qualification

• Foundations were laid, but the Sultanate was formally established only in 1206.
• Aibak, Iltutmish and Balban had still to consolidate what conquest had begun.
• Rajput resistance continued in Rajasthan and Bundelkhand for decades.
• The victories nonetheless made the Turkish presence in India permanent.

The two battles were therefore genuinely foundational. As historians note, Tarain broke Rajput resistance in the north-west and Chandawar removed the last great obstacle in the east, so that within a decade the Delhi Sultanate could be established on the ruins of the Rajput kingdoms.