CORE Tarain To Aibak: Entry Of Turkish Power
The Second Battle of Tarain in 1192 placed the Chahamana ruler Prithviraj Chauhan III of Ajmer-Delhi against Muizz-ud-din Muhammad Ghori near Taraori in the Karnal region. Ghori had been checked in 1191, but in 1192 his mounted archers and reorganised cavalry broke the Rajput line; Prithviraj was captured and the Delhi-Ajmer zone lost its older political balance. For Rajasthan, the battle is not a distant North-Indian event: Ajmer, Sambhar and the Chahamana memory are part of the State's medieval identity, and later Rajasthani chronicles treat Prithviraj as a terminal heroic figure before Turkish ascendancy. After the Ghurid victory, Qutbuddin Aibak (founder of Mamluk dynasty) governed the conquered territories as Ghori's slave-general and then became ruler in 1206 after Ghori's death. His short reign, 1206-1210, began the Delhi Sultanate's Mamluk or Slave dynasty. Aibak's rule was military rather than deeply bureaucratic: Lahore, Delhi and the Ganga-Yamuna doab were held through commanders, forts and tribute. He commissioned the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque within the Qutb complex and began the Qutb Minar, while later rulers expanded the monument. The Rajasthan connection continued because Turkish pressure moved through Ajmer, Ranthambhor and Mewar routes, not only through Delhi. The new regime depended on mounted troops, Persianate record-keeping and garrison towns. Local chiefs were not removed everywhere at once; many paid tribute, supplied guides or negotiated fort surrender. This explains why early Turkish rule looked uneven outside the doab. Delhi's command of Ajmer mattered because Ajmer linked the Sultanate to Gujarat routes, Sambhar salt and the approaches to Mewar. The period also produced a durable social change: military slaves could become rulers, and their households formed a political class distinct from hereditary Rajput lineages.