28 March, 1206 CE: When Indian Forces Won Their First Major Victory Over Invaders

A civilisation that has been at the centre of centuries of civilisational war and conflict, the history of India is a bloodied one.

However, when all hope was seen to be lost, many heroes have stepped up in times of adversity and displayed extraordinary courage to preserve the spirit of dharma and righteousness and ensure the continuation of Bharat.

One such iconic ruler was Pragjyotishadhipati Visvasundara Dev alias Prithu of the Chandravanshi Dynasty who ruled Kamrupa (largely corresponding to present-day Assam) from c.1185 to 1228 CE.

His might was such that no one dared to bring down the Indic flag from the forts of Kamrupa even years after his death.

28 March 2023, the thirteenth day of the month of Chaitra, marks the 817th anniversary of Kamrupa ruler Prithu’s victory against the marauding troops of the fanatic Bakhtiyar Khilji, as mentioned in Kanhai Boroxi Boa Xil inscription in North Guwahati.

This article attempts to trace the history of Prithu, a mammoth task considering the lack of available evidence to construct a concrete narrative.

Born to the Chandravanshi ruler Vallabha Dev of Kamrupa, Prithu ascended to the throne of Kamrupa in 1185 CE after the death of his father.

Upon being thrust on to the throne, he was shouldered the mammoth task to rule a vast empire in the east, at a time when foreign invaders sought to loot and plunder India's wealth.

Prithu secured India's first major victory against Islamic invaders, when he stopped the mighty Bakhtiyar Khilji from plundering Kamrupa. After this great feat, he also defended his people and his kingdom against Ghiyasuddin Iwaj Khilji.

We attempt to trace the origin of the military might of Raja Prithu, starting from the invasion of Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1206 CE.

The Invasion Of Bakhtiyar Khilji

Bakhtiyar Khilji was a fierce Turko-Afghan general who set his eyes on Bharatvarsha. He first stepped foot in India in the camp of Qutub al-din Aibak, wanting to be in his army.

Upon being refused a rank in Aibak's army, he headed towards Awadh in 1193 CE and met the Governor Malik Hizbaruddin. With his help, Khilji settled around two villages in Mirzapur from where he conducted regular raids to eastern territories of Bengal, Cooch Behar and Kalinga.

He destroyed and burnt Hindu and Buddhist universities at Odantapuri and Vikramashila, massacring several hundred monks and scholars. Khilji went to Nalanda University around 1197 CE and ransacked the university in 1200 CE.

A fountainhead of wisdom and knowledge in the world, the ancient university was set on fire. Thousands of monks were slaughtered and burnt alive, and the massive library of the university containing thousands and lakhs of ancient manuscripts and books kept burning for three months.

Khilji went on to capture Nadia in 1204 CE and then marched to Devakot in 1205 CE. Bengal now came under his aegis. His next goal was Tibet and an easier route to the high mountains of the roof of the world was through the Assam Plains and Patkai Hills along the course of the Brahmaputra.

Khilji converted a local Assamese chieftain Ali Mech and decided to march into Kamrupa in 1206 CE with the hope of reaching Tibet by the end of the year.

With the help of Ali Mech, Khilji wrote letters to Raja Prithu of Kamrupa informing him of his plan to invade Tibet through Kamrupa. These letters have been extensively recorded in the Mamluk chronicle Tabaqat-i-Nasiri written by Minhaj Siraj-al-Din.

Prithu wrote back asking Khilji to postpone his plans. However, Khilji did not pay any heed and decided to invade Kamrupa with a massive cavalry of 12,000 armed horsemen. His army marched by the banks of the Barnadi river for 10 days.

The Battle Of Kamrupa

Meanwhile Raja Prithu, sensing the hell that was about to unfold on them through his excellent network of spies, fell back to Pragjyotishpura and cleared all the resources on his way.

He followed scorched earth policy, laying the entire route on fire to deprive the invading platoon of any food and other resources.

Khilji’s army starved throughout the journey and his local advisors advised him against crossing the Brahmaputra river and entering the Assam plains.

Despite the warning, Khilji went against his advisors, including Ali Mech and decided to enter the Assam plains through the Silsaku stone bridge that connected the north bank of the river to the southern part of Pragjyotishpura.

Upon entering the plains of present-day Guwahati, Khilji was greeted by a huge sheaf of flying arrows and bamboo spears. His infantry men and horses started falling one after another.

Prithu had struck them hard. He brought together an umbrella military alliance of diverse local tribes of the region, mostly of Bodo, Koch Rajbongshi and Keot people.

Together, they had mastered the art of guerilla warfare and fighting tough battles in hills and forests of the region. They occupied the hill tops of Pragjyotishpura acquiring a higher land and attacked Khilji from all sides.

From this strategic vantage point, Prithu and his allies pierced into the army of the invading forces. As a huge number of horses and soldiers fell lifeless on the surface of the earth, Khilji sensed defeat.

He immediately decided to retreat with the last remaining cavalry men. When he turned back, the stone bridge at Silsaku, through which he had entered the Assam plains, mysteriously disappeared into thin air.

Khilji and his last surviving men swam across the Brahmaputra river to escape, but Prithu’s army kept chasing them as per Ghulam Salim’s Riyaz-us-Salatin, the first British-era history book on Muslim rule in Bengal.

An exhausted Khilji hid in a temple in North Guwahati, perhaps the Madan Kamdev Mandir as argued by Raktim Patar.

He knew that Prithu could never attack the temple because he was a believing Hindu. Prithu decided to besiege him by throwing a bamboo palisade over his hiding spot.

Khilji somehow powered his way through the palisade and swam across the river and ran for his life. He finally reached Cooch Behar with only a few hundred surviving men.

Disappointed, weakened and fatigued, Khilji lost the zeal to conquer India, never to fight another battle. Of no use to the Sultanate cause anymore, he was assassinated by the general Ali Mardan in the same year in Devkot.

Ali Mardan sought help from Qutb al-Din Aibak to invade Bengal. He dethroned Shiran Khilji, the successor of Bakhtiyar and became the Governor of Bengal.

Building A New Line Of Defence

Sensing that the dangers were not yet over, Prithu embarked on a journey across the Brahmaputra river to Bengal to build fortifications to discourage enemies.

Bengal of the day had been systematically invaded from time to time, and its riches looted by the invading tribesmen.

He reached up to Jalpaiguri where he saw the kingdom ransacked by the invaders where an old Shiva Temple had been demolished and reduced to ruins, perhaps by Ghiyasuddin Iwaj Khilji. The Gos-tol inscription in Nagaon mentions the arrival of Yavanas and their exploits.

The invaders were iconoclasts who loved destroying places of worship that belonged to the infidel.

A devout Shaiva-Shakti follower, Prithu was saddened at the sight; not only were the temple treasures empty but even the garbha griha containing idols and images of god weren’t spared.

He ordered his general Candrakanta to rebuild the temple and restore it to its former divine glory. The Yogini Tantra mentions this king’s name as ‘Jalpesvara’. The temple today is known as Jalpesvara Temple and is a Shaiva centre in that region.

Based on the works of noted British geographer Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, it can be inferred that Prithu built another capital at Jalpaiguri to thwart attacks from nearby Sultanates.

The fort of Bhitargarh was perhaps built by Prithu, and as we shall later see, this would be the place where he would die fighting the Sultanate army.

Sensing invasions from Sultanates stationed in Bengal, Bihar and Odisha particularly that headed by Ghiyasuddin Iwaj Khilji, Prithu built extensive fortifications and embankments at the western frontiers of Kamrupa in Jalpaiguri and Rampur, adjacent to Bangarh or Lakhnawati.

Other Islamic Operations

The Tabaqat-i-Nasiri states that Ghiyasuddin Iwaj Khilji invaded Kamrupa in 1127 CE. He came along the same route as Bakhtiyar Khilji but chose to rally his navy instead, perhaps due to stories about Prithu’s scorched earth tactic.

British historian Edward Gait believes that Khilji rallied his navy to the easternmost end of the Brahmaputra river in Assam, at around Sadiya, without any opposition.

Gait writes that Ghiyasuddin Khilji’s rampant destruction of Hindu shrines and places of worship antagonised the Kamrupa population which was rallied by Prithu. The huge war effort of the Bengal Sultanate failed as Prithu was able to unite the larger Kamrupa populace against the invasion.

Many of his soldiers were captured by Prithu’s army who were later released and settled in Assam; these later came to be known as Gaudiya Muslims.

The Tabaqat-i-Nasiri highlights that Ghiyasuddin Khilji suffered the same fate as his predecessor and was forced to retreat. He was so weakened by the loss of both men and resources that he was unable to hold on to his own territory as Nasiruddin, the son of Iltutmish killed him and took over his kingdom.

The mystic aura of Prithu had now spread like wildfire throughout the Sultanate world. The Tabaqat-i-Nasiri is proof that even the Delhi Sultan was aware of these incidents and wanted to strike back at Kamrupa. The stakes were high and the pride of the Sultanate depended on Delhi.

The End Of Prithu

Nasiruddin Mahmud, the Sultan of Delhi and son of Iltutmush, devised a plan to invade Kamrupa with a massive army to avenge the defeat of the previous Islamic invaders at the hands of the infidels.

The Sultanate world was united to dethrone Prithu, who is mentioned by chronicler Minhaj as the one 'beneath whose sword, about a hundred and twenty thousand Mohammedans had attained martyrdom'.

Delhi had waged war against Prithu with the armies of Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and other vassal states on its side.

Although heavily outnumbered, the brave soldiers of Kamrupa decided to take the challenge head on. The king led his army from the front against the troops of the Sultans.

During the war, Prithu was heavily wounded and was on the verge of defeat. In a final attempt to save his honour from being killed at the hands of 'mlechchas', Prithu jumped into a man-made tank and took his own life.

This tank is still preserved in Bhitargarh and is called Maharajar Dighi. When Buchanan visited Bhitargarh, he saw that a flag had been raised in the spot where Prithu drowned to denote the ground as holy, as the king’s spirit is still believed to roam around the place.

The Sultan’s army entered Bhitargarh in search for Prithu, destroying several temples and buildings in town and wreaking havoc over the local population.

However, they did not find Prithu’s body and were immediately struck with fear and speculation. Historian K L Baruah writes that the Bengal Sultanate, in spite of defeating the Prithu, was so weakened that it could not afford to occupy the Kamrupa Empire.

Although the Pragjyotishadhipati sacrificed his own life, the heavy casualties he inflicted considerably damaged Nasiruddin Mahmud.

Samudrapala, the successor of Prithu, was made a tributary king to the Muslim Governor of Bengal and is allowed to rule over Kamrupa.

Pragjyotishpura never became a Muslim province. The flag of the Indic civilization continued to fly high from the ramparts of Prithu’s capital at the northern end of Pragjyotishpura.

Conclusion

Bharatvarsha today stands as a pinnacle of human civilisation because of the sacrifices made by its various unsung heroes to preserve the spirit of dharma and righteousness.

These heroes not only died in the battlefield in the call of duty, but were also systematically made to die by those historians and intellectuals who sought to wipe their histories for society.

However, many of these heroes live on in folklores that have passed on from generation to generation.

The story of Pragjyotishadhipati Visvasundara Dev survived due to the inscriptions he left behind, along with the work of Sultanate-era chroniclers and British-era gazetteers.

The tales of many other heroes still remain untold. The history of Bharatvarsha owes a lot to such unsung heroes, and the project to write the tales of their valour has only begun.