Military History of India

Battle of Tarain - estimate of forces on both sides in the two battles

2011-08-16T05:35:00.007+01:00

Lets look at the condition of the Chauhan kingdom and their forces after the second battle. South Punjab was a new acquisition that they had made by defeating the Ghaznavid sultanate; hence this area was lost very quickly. However their main base was in Rajasthan which continued to hold out under the leadership of the Chauhans of Ranthambhor for another century. Mohammed Ghori's major blunder was in moving on towards the Gangetic plains and not completing the conquest of the Kingdom of Ajmer.

Generals of Prithviraj

1) Chauhans of Ranthambhor: the founder of this kingdom named Govindraj was banished from Ajmer for some offence and was therefore not present in either of the two battles. Since his kingdom became a major thorn in the side of the Delhi Sultanate it is assumed that he had a substantial army.
2) Govindraj of Delhi: he and his son Chandraraj held Delhi. In the first battle he was mounted on an elephant and had his teeth knocked out by a spear. Govindraj immediately hurled back a lance at Ghori, which caused such bleeding that the sultan fainted on his horse, and was carried off to safety by a Khalji soldier along with the rest of the fleeing Turk cavalry. Govindraj was killed in the second battle while his son Chandraraj defended the fort of Delhi.
3) Bhuvanik Malla: According to the contemporary Hindu text Prithviraj Vijay, the brothers Prithviraj and Hariraj were like Rama and Lakshman, while the general Bhuvanik Malla was the incarnation of Garuda (who saved the princes of Ayodhya from the serpent noose of Meghnad). This general defeated the Bharasiva Nagas of Central India, but his presence at either of the two Tarain battles is not known.
4) Skanda: the descendants of this general wrote the Viruddhavidhi-vidhvamsa in which they assert that he fought at the first battle of Tarain but was absent in another campaign during the second battle. After the death of Prithviraj he helped Hariraja in capturing Ajmer.
5) Udayaraj: This general was from Gauda (Bengal) according to the Prithviraj Vijay. Another text, the Hammir-Mahakavya which was written more than a century later, confirms his existence and asserts that he attacked the city of Delhi in an attempt to rescue the captive Prithviraj. He was absent at the second Battle of Tarain because he could not muster his troops in time to join Prithviraj.
6) Hariraja the brother of Prithviraj: he liberated Ajmer and launched an attack on Delhi. He had friendly relations with the Solankis of Gujarat, but was finally defeated by the Turks in 1194, and killed himself to avoid captivity. Hariraja's rule is confirmed by archaeological evidence in the shape of his inscription dated 1194, and those texts which record his name have a greater value than others.

So we have these twin pieces of evidence to show that Prithviraj had a much smaller army in the Second Battle of Tarain:
1) The absence of his generals Skanda, Udayaraja, and Bhuvanik Malla. Each general had the power to lead separate campaigns and must have commanded substantial forces.
2) The ability of the Chauhans of Ranthambhor to defy the Delhi Sultanate for a full century, the ability of the surviving Chauhan generals to counter-attack the Turks in Delhi, and the ability of Hariraja to liberate Ajmer, all suggest that a large part of the Chauhan force was not present at Tarain.

The conventional method in calculating the cavalry forces in the medieval era, when cavalry was the dominant element of most armies, is to assign 10,000 horsemen to any prince or general named prominently in the records. However in India cavalry-dominant armies only emerged in the 14th century with Mewar, Marwar, and Vijayanagar, and for the forces of Prithviraj the contemporary texts describe a mixed formation of horse cavalry and infantry, sprinkled with some elephants and camels. Infantry was in greater numbers to cavalry, which in turn outnumbered camels, which were more than elephants imported from more fertile regions (In eastern and southern India the proportions were: infantry>>elephants>>cavalry the last of which was imported). For the Turks, who controlled the horse breeding region of Central Asia and West Asia the proportions were cavalry>>>camels>>>>infantry>>>elephants (imported from India).

Estimate of forces in the Second Battle of Tarain - 1192

The Muslim sources only state cavalry forces and barely mention the others, and in the Second Battle of Tarain they state that Ghori divided his army into four units of 10,000 horse keeping the fifth of 12,000 under his own command, giving a total of 52,000 cavalry with the camels, infantry, and elephant numbers unknown for Muhammad Ghori's army. For the Chauhan army the only general named is Govindraj of Delhi and Prithviraj himself, and both Hindu and Muslim accounts state that Prithviraj tried to buy time by negotiating so that at least Udayaraj would come up in time to bolster his army. But assuming that there were other minor chieftains commanding units of a few thousand, with at least 10,000 under Govindraj, and assuming 12,000 under Prithviraj, we can conclude that the Chauhan army numbered 30,000 at the most, with the all-important cavalry at only 10,000. This explains the total rout of this army by the five times larger Turk cavalry.

Estimate of forces in the First Battle of Tarain - 1191

In the First Battle of Tarain both Udayaraj and Skanda were present, boosting the total Rajput army to 50,000 with cavalry at 20,000. Muhammad Ghori who had spent some of his army to garrison the fort of Sarhind, is stated by the Muslim sources to have kept his army in the conventional three wings, commanding the center himself. The Muslim army can be estimated at 35,000 cavalry (+ camels, infantry, elephants numbers unknown) with 10,000 in either wing and a few thousand rearguard. The Rajput army placed the cavalry in the wings and kept the infantry and elephants in the center. Although the wings were evenly matched, the Turks hesitated and the Rajputs struck the first blow, the momentum of their charge breaking up Ghori's wings which eventually gave way in the ensuing sword fight at close quarters. Meanwhile Ghori was holding on in the center as the elephants and infantry of the Rajput center slowly came up to join the battle, and as described above Govindraj mounted on his elephant, seriously wounded Ghori, sending him flying with the rest of the center. After the victory the Hindu army gave chase but were easily outpaced by the Turk cavalry; hence they besieged Sarhind and forced it's surrender after nearly 12 months.

The wikipedia entry on the Battles of Tarain makes some startling claims:

Many Turk soldiers in Ghauri's army had not even seen elephants before

Elephants were being used in warfare in the wider world since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. A previous Turk invader, Mahmud Ghaznavi, captured elephants in India and they formed part of Muslim armies since then.

Ghauri's horse cavalry was unable to hold its own against Prithviraj's elephant cavalry.

There was no elephant cavalry! Prithviraj's kingdom covered the dry regions of Rajasthan, Haryana, and southern Punjab, and elephants had to be imported from eastern or central India which were more densely forested. Only the leading generals sat on elephants in the center, with other elephants and infantry, while cavalry made up the wings. It was the Rajput horse cavalry from the two wings that routed the Muslim cavalry opposite them.

As the battle continued, the Ghauri army, exhausted, shorn of water, and unfamiliar with the scale of its opponent, retreated

Patently false, as even the Muslim accounts admit that the two wings were routed by the Rajputs, broke down, and fled. While the center also fled after the sultan was wounded and fainted on his horse.

Ghauri was himself wounded in the battle and was rescued by his Turkic slave, Qutb-ud-din Aibak

He was actually rescued by a Khalji trooper and not Aibak, who was a prominent general and would have commanded in one of the wings.

the ruler of Kannauj Raja Jaichand who met Ghori and divulged the secrets of Chauhan's planning of war.

The kingdoms of Ajmer and Kannauj did not have a common border, fought no battles. As per inscriptions Jayachandra was fighting against the Sena rulers in the region of Bihar, far in the east.

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2011-05-02T04:33:00.003+01:00

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Bikaner Camel Corps of Maharaja Ganga Singh

2010-09-17T23:55:00.009+01:00

Maharaja Ganga Singh (1880-1943) ruled Bikaner princely state for 56 years, improving its amenities of education and medicine, modernizing its transport and communications network, and cutting the famous Gang Canal through the barren wastes (jangaldesh) in the north. Pictured above in military uniform, the Maharaja was trained in traditional Rajput military skills like riding and shooting, but also received modern military education with an Indian Army regiment at Deoli. The old military forces of Bikaner state were modernized by Ganga Singh, serving with distinction in several overseas military campaigns, and were the Bikaner princely state's contribution to the Indian Army after merger with India.

The order and training of the Bikaner army had not changed by much in 500 years of history; a centrally raised force of cavalry, artillery, infantry, camel cavalry and camel artillery, which was augmented from the quotas contributed by the Rajput chieftains of Bikaner. Under Ganga Singh this force was standardised in rank and pay structure, it's training and equipment was improved, the system of feudal quotas was ended, and each unit was given formal uniforms and designations. In 1933 the Bikaner army included:

The Dungar Lancers, numbering 342 horsemen and including the Maharaja's bodyguard unit. This cavalry force was named after the previous Maharaja Dungar Singh, Ganga Singh's elder brother.
The Ganga Risala, which the British came to call the Bikaner Camel Corps, numbering 466 and named after the Maharaja.
The Sadul Light Infantry of 619 men, named after Ganga Singh's elder son Sadul Singh.
The Bijay Battery, a mounted camel pack with 4 BL 2.75" guns, manned by 236 men and named after the Maharaja's younger son Bijay Singh. There was in addition a second camel battery unit with smaller guns.
Motorised Machine Gun section of 22 Lewis and 8 Hotchkiss guns, manned by 100 men.
State Band.

The men of this new army continued to be recruited from within Bikaner state. For the Ganga Risala, which was formally raised in 1889 as six companies of 500 men marked as Imperial Service Troops, the composition of soldiers was:
1)75% Rajputs of the ruling Rathod clan of Bikaner.
2)25% Rajputs of other clans, and a few Sikhs and Kaimkhani Muslims.

The first major use of this new army was in the Great Famine of 1899 which afflicted a large part of British and Princely India. Organising famine relief is a measure of an efficient administration, and while using the army to transport grain to relief centers, Ganga Singh also launched public works to give employment and income to his people for the successful disbursement of relief material.

The 20-year old Maharaja led the Ganga Risala to China for service in the Boxer Rebellion from September 1900 to May 1901. The Camel Corps saw action as a dismounted unit in that theater. The most shining moment for the Ganga Risala came in the Somaliland expedition where it operated till 1904, and was deemed most useful in that waterless tract. According to Colonel Yeilding "the Indian camel saved the situation." While the local Somali camels could go longer without grain or water, they were found to be more timid and weaker than the Bikaner camels. The training of the Ganga Risala also helped in its utilization for action, while other camels were used primarily as transport.

Ganga Singh was not permitted to join the Somaliland campaign, but he led the camel corps to Egypt during World War I. It was the only camel corps available and was utilized for patrol and reconnaissance along the Suez Canal, which was under attack from the Turks. In one engagement the Maharaja himself fired many rounds at the enemy, and after their defeat led the Ganga Risala in pursuit. The Bikaner Camel Corps, along with the Bijay Battery, was again deployed in the Middle East during the Second World War. Other units like the Dungar Lancers, the machine gun section, and the Sadul Light Infantry were also utilized in different theaters of that global conflict.

Camel Corps of other Indian Kingdoms

The improved administration had increased the revenue of the Bikaner state from 4 lakh to 17 lakh, which kept rising after the construction of the Gang canal, enabling the state to train, equip, and maintain it's 2000 man army till the merger of the state in India. The other desert states like Jaisalmer and Kutch also had traditional camel cavalry. Colonel James Tod, author of the Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, states that Jaisalmer state had a 200 strong camel cavalry, 80 of which belonged to the ruler, while the rest were contributions of the Rajput chieftains. Describing the Jaisalmer camel cavalry in action, Tod writes: "Two men are mounted on each camel, one facing the head, the other the rear, and they are famous in a retreating action; but when compelled to come to close quarters, they make the camel kneel known, tie his legs, and retiring behind, make a breastwork of his body, resting the matchlock over the pack-saddle."

Previously a large state strong on the finances of the old land trade, Jaisalmer state was hit hard by the transformation in global trade by the European domination of the seas. It's low revenues meant that till the end the state troops numbered just 220 of all arms: namely, 39 horse cavalry, 168 infantry, and 13 artillerymen. There was an irregular force of camels, which were also used by the police force (152 men, of whom 72 were mounted, chiefly on camels). During the Sindh war of 1838-39, Rawal Gaj Singh supplied camels to the British for transport, and was rewarded by the restoration to him of Shahgarh, Gkursia, and Gatuda, from Sindh. In the subsequent Anglo-Afghan Wars also both Jaisalmer and Bikaner supplied camels for transport. In 1948 after the creation of Pakistan, irregular camel cavalry was raised in Jaisalmer to patrol the border with that country, and was later merged with the Ganga Risala of Bikaner.

Kutch and Saurashtra (now in Gujarat) also had small camel units in their armies, but low revenues ruled out the creation of formal camel corps in these states. Jodhpur and Mewar were comparatively large and rich states, but while they had organised horse cavalry, infantry and artillery units, the camel cavalry was left as part of their irregular forces. While the other military units of these states were merged into the Indian Army, the irregular camel troops dwindled away into the twilight of history.

Bikaner Camel Corps legacy

A rider of the Bikaner Camel Corps demonstrates a dangerous camel jump at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Maharaja Ganga Singh's reign. The camel is not built for jumping hurdles because its spindly legs are not meant for such exercise; but the centuries of using camels in warfare gave the Bikaner soldiers the ability of training camels to jump. It still remained a dangerous stunt, despite the training, because a badly timed jump can mean certain death for the camel and rider.

The Bikaner Camel Corps, along with the irregular troops of the Jaisalmer Risala, became the 13 Grenadiers of the Indian Army and saw action during the 1965 and 1971 wars. Subsequently this unit was converted into regular infantry while the camels became part of the Border Security Force (BSF). The BSF continues to use camels for patrolling the desert portions of the border with Pakistan.

The BSF camel contingent marching down Rajpath on Republic Day, wearing the same gorgeous uniforms as the old Ganga Risala, with the logos and insignia of the Bikaner state being replaced by those of the BSF. Deputy commandant Amol Singh Rathore says, "When we march, we carry our legacy and tradition with us. It is a mix of heritage and modernity. The dress we wear is royal and has not changed since the camel contingent was raised by then king of Bikaner Ganga Singh before 1900. The same camels are used for transport and war."