The Ghaznavids

Alaptgin: The Samanid Empire ruler by people of Iranian descent in areas of Transoxiana, Kharasan and Parts of Iran had many Turkish  slaves who acted as governors One such Turkish slave who rose to the position of a Samanid governor was Alaptgin. He in course of time established and idnependet kingdom with its capital as Ghazni. The Samanid kingdom soon ended and the Ghanznavids took over the task of defending the Islamic lands form the Central Asian tribesmen. Alaptgin alos came into conflict with the Hindushahi rulers who ruled in areas of Afghanistan to Punjab with their capital at Walihind (Ohinda).

Mahmud (998 - 1030): Mahmud ws the son of Alaptgin. He oraganized sout defence against the central Asian Turkish tribal invades. He was closely associated with the renaissance of the Iranian spirit. A high point of Iranian renaissance was Firdausi’s shah namah. Firdausi was a court poet of Mahmud of Ghazni. He made 17 raids into India. His task was made easy due to political  uncertainty  in north India following the break-up of the Gurjara-Pratihara empire. Mahmud took the offensive against the Hindushahi Kings. He fought against the combined armies of the Hindushahi ruler jayapala and the muslim rulers of Multan who supported Jayapala. Mahmud defeated them in 1001 AD, Jayapala felt humiliated and killed himself upon which Anandapala, his son succeeded him to the throne.

Masud: The rise of the Seljuk empire, which included Syria Trans-oxiana and Iran following the death of Mahmud  meant that it came in conflict with Masud, the son  of Mahmud for control of Khurasan and in a battle Masud was defeated and he fled to Lahore for refuge. The Ghaznavid empire now shrank to the Punjab. They continued to make plundering raids into the Gangetic valley and Rajputana, but they did not pose a serious military danger to India. Simultaneously, a number of states arose in north India which could counter the Ghaznavid raids.

The Rajput States

With the break-up of Pratihara-Gurjara empire, a number of Rajput states  came into existence in north India among them were.

• The Tomars of Delhi
• The Chauhans of Ajmer
• The Parmaras of Malwa
• The Chandellas of bundelkhand
• The Kalchuris of Jabalpur
• The Gahadavalas of Kannauj
• The Senas of Bengal

The Rajput states wanted to grow at the expense of the neighbouring states which led to rivalries which made it impossible for the rajputs to oust the Ghaznavids from the Punjab. In fact the Ghaznavids felt strong enough to make raids even upto Ujjain.