Consigned to oblivion in Nehruvian India, Sarkar’s monumental works demand to be read by anybody seriously wishing to understand early modern India, its problems and to restore historical writing that refuses to dilute complexity for convenience.#ncert.🔗

RT @ForeignPolicy: The CIA’s “Marshall Plan for the Mind” involved the smuggling of nearly 10 million books into the Eastern Bloc. https://….

Today, Ranthambore is better known for its tigers than its tombstones. The fort is a UNESCO heritage site. But hidden among its broken ramparts and quiet temples is the traitor’s head, a mute reminder of the day valour was undone not by force, but by treachery.

Ranthambhore became template for the subjugation of Rajputana, with Alauddin’s psychological warfare and ruthless statecraft to be repeated in Chittor and Jalore. Hammira’s death, like Prithviraj before him, entered the poetic memory of a people who prized honour above all.

Isami reports that not a single member of Hammira’s family was captured alive. The fort finally fell on July 10, 1301 as recorded by Amir Khusrau. The aftermath was brutal. Ranthambore was sacked. Its great temple of Bahar Deo was razed.

Hammira crowned a successor – Jaja - and led his men in a final, desperate sortie. As the defenders were cut down to a man, only nine fighters remained beside Hammira, with Muhammad Shah and Kehbru fighting loyally alongside their patron until the Chauhan ruler himself fell.

The 'Hammira Mahakavya' by Nayachandra Suri recounts the climactic end in stark detail as famine and betrayal rapidly closed in for the defenders. However, the Rajput spirit burned undimmed as Hammira’s queen, Ranga Devi,led the women in the ritual self-immolation act of jauhar.

What Ala-ud-din could not win by arms, he won with guile. He courted Hammira’s general Ratipala, lavishing him with promises of power. Ratipala returned a traitor, giving Hammira a false picture of the Muslim camp. Another general, Ranmalla also defected to Ala-ud-din's side.

Later, Nusrat Khan perished somewhere near the Navlakhi Gate, struck down by a missile hurled by the Rajput defenders from the fort’s battlements. Ala-ud-din himself came down from Delhi to take charge of the siege. Hunger gnawed at both camps.

The first phase of this war began in 1299, Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan advanced with large contingents, capturing Jhain along the way. However, Hammira’s army, led by the Rajput generals including his brother Virama and his neo-Muslim allies crushed the Delhi forces.

Later, disputes over the booty caused a mutiny to break out within the Imperial camp, with its leaders - Muhammad Shah and Kehbru (who were Mongols converted to Muslims) - fleeing to Ranthambore for asylum with Hammira Dev, who refused to hand over the rebels to the Sultan.

The trigger for the Ranthambore campaign lay in the turbulent aftermath of Ala-ud-din’s Gujarat expedition of 1299, which saw the Khalji generals Nusrat Khan and Ulugh Khan, plundering Anhilwara and indulging in a wholesale massacre of civilians and iconoclasm.

In 1296 when his ambitious nephew, Ala-ud-din Khalji, seized power after murdering Jalal-ud-din. Intoxicated by the conquest of Gujarat, Ala-ud-din set his eyes on Ranthambore.

By the end of the 13th century, the Delhi Sultanate was undergoing a transition. The ousting of the Mamluk line in 1290 brought the Khaljis to power. Jalal-ud-din, the dynasty’s first ruler, had advanced against Hammira early in his reign, only to be thwarted at Ranthambore.

From the time of Mohammad Ghori’s invasion, the Chauhans had played a heroic role in the defence of freedom with two of the greatest Chauhan rulers - Prithviraja III of Ajmer and Hammira of Ranthambhore - ranking high in India’s role of honour.

Diplomat K.M. Panikkar says in his foreword to Dasharatha Sharma’s 'Early Chauhan Dynasties': “the struggle of Hindu Kingdoms during the three centuries of Islam’s fight for political domination of North India remains one of the least known chapters of India’s medieval history.”

From the time of Mohammad Ghori’s invasion in the 1170s, the Chauhans had played a heroic role in the defence of freedom which ends only with the death in battle of Kanhad Deva in 1311, defending his capital Jalore against the might of Ala-ud-din Khalji.

The heroic resistance of the Rajput ruler, Hammirdeva Chauhan to the Delhi Sultanate embodied a Rajput worldview rooted in independence, 'dharma' and disdain for submission. Ranthambore's collapse in a siege marked by treachery was one of medieval India’s decisive turning points.

As with the great fortresses of Chittor, Jalore and Siwana, Ranthambore was not just an iconic military redoubt but a defiant outpost against the advancing tide of Islamic invasions in India and the expanding authority of the Delhi Sultanate.

Nearly 725 years ago, the fall of Ranthambore in July 1301 CE to Ala-ud-din Khalji was an apocalyptic event that marked the end of Chauhan rule in India, and of a dynasty stretching back to a golden epoch of Vigraharaja and Arnoraja. #History #India .🔗

Pune rains.'Hound of the Baskervilles' weather outside. Misty clouds across low hills. No plans to cross Grimpen Mire, but settle with two crackerjack espionage reads - a definitive history of the Cold War's greatest secret, and one for 'Cambridge Five' addicts. #BookTwitter