The Greatest Melodrama of Indian History : Life and Times of Prithviraj

A brave King, a fiery love story,a tragic albeit heroic end, story of Prithviraj has all elements of melodrama in it. Born at a very crucial moment in Indian History his position is such that even though King of a small realm, he has continued to live the hearts of Indians even after several centuries. The glorious Kings of yore Maurya's, Gupta's, flag bearer of revolt Rana Pratap or the comeback man Shivaji Raje and Sikh Gurus/Ranjit Singh all have their stories and in many ways are more successful than him, yet it is story of his courage and magnanimity , his fall and tragic end that still enchants the India. Personally I read the stories and lives of all the kings mentioned above in books except Prithviraj .I had heard something like this:

चार बाँस, चौबीस गज, अंगुल अष्ट प्रमाण,
ता उपर सुल्तान है, मत चूको चौहान ।।

Yup many might have heard this couplet.So deeply etched is his story in national narrative of India that we borrow idioms from his story. Addressing a traitor as Jaichand is prime example.Recently Kumar Vishwas of AAP termed Kiran Bedi a Jaichand for joining BJP and thus betraying their cause.

Beginnings:

Prithviraj Chauhan was born at Ajaymeru (Ajmer) in 1149 A.D. His father was Someshwar Chauhan and mother Karpuri Devi, a Kalachuri (Chedi) princess, daughter of Achalaraja of Tripuri.
He sat on the throne at the age of 13 in 1165 AD. According to "PrithviRaj Raso" his original kingdom was located at Sambhar in Rajasthan. Soon he extended his kingdom through ceaseless campaigns and it included most of present day Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, East Punjab and parts of Gujrat.

His fast rise made him enemies with the Chalukyas of Gujrat and the powerful King of Kannuj Jaichand Gahadwal. Jaichand had inherited most of whatever was left of Harsha's Emipre(Ganga Basin-modern day UP/Bihar).
Moreover both Prithviraj and JaiChand were related via the Tomar Clan of Delhi, as their mothers were from this clan.

Svayamvara of Sanyogita
Svayamvara of the daughter of Jaichand was organised and all other Kings/Princes were invited but not Prithviraj. It is said that Prithviraj had heard of the beauty of Sanyogita and she too had seen his portrait and heard of his bravery.Both had met at a temple while Prithiviraj was on his way to fight the Chaluyka ruler of Gujrat BhimDev Solanki. Jaichand came to know about this affair and organised a svayamvara  for her daughter without inviting Prithviraj. Moreover to mock Prithviraj he placed his statue at the door as if he were a doorman.
                                                      To the surprise of all those present in court Sanyogita crossed all the Kings/Princes without acknowledging any one of them and garlanded the statue of Prithviraj.
Prithviraj too was hiding behind the doors in disguise and quickly eloped with Sanyogita on his horse. This event occurred in 1175 AD.It caused further enmity between Prithviraj and Jaichand.

First battle of Taraori (1191 AD)

In the winter of 1190–1191, Mohamad of Ghor came to India with the intent of conquering as much of the northern part of the subcontinent as possible. He quickly captured the fortress town of Bhatinda and established a garrison of 1,200 cavalry under the command of one of his best generals, Qazi Ziya-ud-din. As Bhatinda was in Prithviraj's Kingdom, it was not surprising that Prithviraj immediately responded. The site where the two rivals fought was near Panipat, site of so many battles in Indian history. This particular battlefield has been called variously Tarain, Narain, and Taraori, with the third being slightly more widely used (although Tarain seems the most accepted in the latest accounts). Never had Mohamad’s troops faced such a well-trained foe, and in 1191 (no particular date has been recorded) the Rajputs had the upper hand. No numbers have been recorded either, but all accounts say that the Rajputs outnumbered the Moslem army. Using the standard steppe tactics, Mohamad launched his cavalry at the enemy center to harass it with archery fire, but the Rajputs not only stood firm but responded with flanking movements of their own that repeatedly forced the Moslems to retreat. Believing he needed to perform some personal act of bravery to save the day, Mohamad himself led a charge that was met by Prithvaraja’s brother, Govind Rai, the viceroy of Delhi. Mohamad attacked “and shattered his [Govind Rai’s] teeth with his lance,” but, as he was dying, Govind Rai had pierced Mohamad’s arm with his javelin. This wound was serious, and Mohamad was unhorsed and bleeding profusely. He was rescued by one of his soldiers who, riding double in the saddle, escaped with his commander.

Mohamad rejoined his retreating forces and was placed on a litter, and the army retreated to Ghor. The Rajputs, rather than pursuing, laid siege to Bhatinda. It took 13 months before they were finally able to recapture the town.

Second battle of Taraori(1192 AD)

An year later Mohamad of Ghor returned with an army of 120,000 Afghans, Turks, and Persians.The rematch took place on the same battlefield; again, no exact date is recorded. This time, Mohamad was careful not to allow his troops to close with the Rajputs. Strength of Turks was their mobile archers on horseback  and getting closer to Rajputs meant a hand to hand sword fight which was the strength of Rajputs .He choose to attack at pre-dawn hours which was against the code of conduct followed in India where all wartime activities were stopped from dusk till dawn.He divided his force into five divisions. Four of them he sent to attack the Rajput flanks and, if possible, attack their rear. Anytime the Rajputs pressed them, they were to feign panic and retreat. After fighting for most of the day and failing to break the Rajput ranks, Mohamad began withdrawing his entire force. Again, he feigned panic, and this time the Rajputs took the bait. The fifth division of 12,000 cavalry that he had held in reserve under his own command was still fresh, and they attacked headlong into the fatigued Rajputs who were less than coordinated because of their desire to crush what they presumed was a defeated enemy. This attack broke the Rajput pursuit and sent them fleeing; the remainder of the Moslem force turned and rode the Rajputs down. Seeing his army disintegrating, Prithviraj abandoned his elephant and mounted a horse for a quicker escape, but the momentum of the Moslem charge carried his pursuers quickly to him. He was captured a few miles away and then executed; most of his subordinates died in the battle as well.

Impact:
The result of this victory was the annexation of Ajmir, Hansi, Sirsuti and Delhi,  ruthless slaughter and a general destruction of temples and idols followed.
Province of Bihar fell in 1193 AD and Buddhism was wiped out from India.By 1202 parts of Bengal were captured.

Role of Jaichand
Before the second battle of Taraori Prithviraj tried to put up a confederacy of Rajput states to counter Ghauri, but Jaichand never joined it.He was one of the strongest Kings of North India at that time.Instead it is alleged he instigated Ghauri to attack Prithviraj . After the fall of Prithviraj he himself was defeated and killed by Ghauri in 1193 AD in the battle of Chandanwar.

How Chandbardai ends it and How India remembers it
Chand mentions that after 1st Battle of Taraori Ghauri was captured and presented before Chauhan.
The valiant Chauhan treated him with respect and set him free for a nominal fine. But the next time round when the fortunes were turned Prithviraj was shown no such courtesy.
An excerpt from Prithviraj Raso:
सत्रह बार पराजित रण में करके क्षमा किया था |
जीवनदान दुष्ट गौरी को पृथ्वीराज दिया था |
पर कृतघ्न के रक्त में ही था छल और कपट समाया |
पृथ्वीराज को हरा के उसने बंदी आज बनाया |

नेत्रहीन किया पृथ्वी को और उस नृशंस गौरी ने |
मृत्युदंड घोषित कर फिर डाला कालकोठरी में |
हार न माने पृथ्वीराज पर, युक्ति नई रचाई |
शब्दबेधी की प्रतिभा दिखलाने की बात बताई |

मान गया लालायित गौरी चकित कि यह कैसे हो |
बिना नेत्र के भी लक्ष्य का भेदन आखिर कैसे हो |
पृथ्वीराज सामने प्रस्तुत सम्मुख शत्रु गौरी |
चंदबरदाई बोले दोहा, मृत्यु बुलाया गौरी |

ईश्वर का बस ध्यान लगा के बाण चलाया क्षण में |
हर ले गया प्राण गौरी के बाण वही उसी क्षण में |
अत्याचारी कपटी का तो अंत यही होता है |
सत्य का योद्धा पीड़ित हो, परास्त नहीं होता है |

जब जब भारत को पीड़ित करने गौरी आयेंगे |
पृथ्वीराज हमारे उनके शीश काट लायेंगे |
नहीं झुकेगा माँ का मस्तक पुनः, यही अब प्रण है |
भगवे के गौरव की रक्षा को लड़ना हर रण है |
                               
This brings us the famed archery scene , a couplet related to which I mentioned in the beginning of the post.

Chand provides the location of sultan and Prithviraj shoots an arrow killing Ghauri on spot.
After killing Ghauri, Chand and Prithviraj stab each other and thus embrace martyrdom.
Version of Chand is what India believes. It shows the power of poetry/tale in nation building.
Often times in our lives we too hear to what our heart says and not what our head.A certain idea of romantic past is required for any nation. That after 1192 AD India remained in Muslim clutches till 1707 AD(death of Aurangzeb) made this tale more meaningful and necessary for the Hindu morale.
It helped them to stick to the memories of their wronged King, his bravery and magnanimity.
In short it did what poetry generally does,gave hope when there was none.

An open question- End of Prithviraj & Ghauri?
Even today near the grave of Ghauri in Kabul is the tomb of Prithviraj and afghans throw shoes at it.
Their version is also the same as Chand that Prithviraj killed their Sultan during the game of archery.
But according to historical records it was Gakhar Rajputs loyal to Prithviraj who killed Ghauri in an ambush in 1206 in Jhelum district of Punjab(now Pakistan).
As the Voltaire says "History is the lie we all agree upon" and in such cases of distant past its up to ourselves what we want to  believe  and I choose to believe Chand. What about you?

Knowing is Owning even if.....

it is superficial ( Title of post Borrowed from last episode of Sherlock Season -3).
Years ago, 10-12 years ago I had the unfortunate privilege  of going through lot of legal documents,
as well as meeting a lot of people in courts/kutcherys. While going through the documents and looking at the faces of people who wrote them I was surprised. They were folks of enormous frame , wearing starched dhoti and kurta if a munshi and a white trouser with a black jacket if a lawyer.Also known was  state of "law education" in Bihar. Mostly those who could not study sciences during their Intermediate , used to graduate with psychology, Hindi or History and  enrolled themselves in Law at Post Graduate level. Munshi's were even worse, they simply followed their fathers occupation and took employment at prominent lawyers places.

                              But level of English in those documents betrayed all their antecedents. Have a look at the following:
"whether or not beyond all reasonable doubts it has been proved ....."

"X,Y &Z with a common  criminal intent constituted an illegal mob which assaulted so and so leading to his death the  following day."

"assaulted with sharp pointed weapons,blunt heavy weapons causing grievous injuries to so and so"

I was surprised by the sentence formation and appropriate wordings for each event.Crystal clear.
But the surprise was soon over as I skimmed through many more documents. Almost all of them had the same format. There it was the "legal format". They just knew the proper legal terminology and events and based on that they could convert any incident to clear almost flawless legal format/English. The motive behind this story is to convey you the idea that a proper command of the terminologies of your  work/occupation is a must have.

                          From the IT perspective knowledge of the words related to your project/technology and its generous use is highly recommended. Thus what may be a BRD(Business Requirement Document) may become FRS(Functional Requirement Specification) in a new project.Similarly an Enhancement might become a CR(Change Request).But care must be taken and we should express ourselves with whatever terminology is used in the project. Although wording's are superficial and in the end we need to deliver , but this helps with PROJECTION.
                           
                             A lawyer will finally argue on the points in his case not on the language,but his proper usage of legal terminologies projects his abilities beforehand ,and he literally OWNS THE CLIENT. Similarly you will finally code your way out,but proper terminologies and wordings will make you stand out from the rest.

                        To emphasize on this point of projection I will share a small anecdote. Two years ago I attended a town hall with infamous CEO of Infosys S D Shibulal. Most common question was "Why do we have to wear tie and why do we have to swipe 9.15 daily even if we finish earlier?" He narrated an event where he was at client location along with two of his colleagues. To clients all Indians looked the same and they were confused who the Boss was.
Shibulal after few initial embarrassments decided to end this confusion for once and all.
He purchased a jacket and though not very comfortable in wearing it just placed it on the back of his chair. BAM. Problem solved.Client now knew whom to contact.This is the power of Confident Projection. Thus jacket for a  manager , tie for an associate/SE builds the PROJECTION.

And proper terminologies and wordings build/enhance this projection way better than a tie or a jacket. So go ahead know all the terms/terminologies of your occupation use them generously.

How to be in control of your life

I am neither an entrepreneur nor a dating expert. A normal IT guy with 9 to 5 job. But I feel that I should write for the benefit of people who have a similar profile as mine. Some of the points mentioned are a work in progress area for me as well. I am listing below the 5 points:

1.Body

Taking good care of your body is of paramount importance.
Eat less and exercise daily for about 30-40 mins.
Believe in power of gradual improvements. Once you complete the necessary rituals/steps daily don't fret about the result. Gradually over a period of time you will see the results.

2.Mind

Read as much as you can. Anything books ,blogs,articles.
Ideal target should be 2 books a month.
Caution:Set 30 min time for newspapers and FB daily.
News especially when negative can have  a bearing on your mood.Also the situations you read about will make you feel impotent.You will be angry about so many things going wrong in the world and at the same time you will feel helpless that you can't make an impact on any of those items.
FB long been an instrument of stalking is an equally potent mood and time killer.
Insanely scrolling down all the comments/feeds and stalking all the people mentioned/tagged in the post can make you jealous and shift your focus to what you are not and what not you have achieved.

Write almost daily in your journal about what you feel.This will help you in getting a closure over so many issues.Also writing will help you analyze that whatever you thought was a real scenario or just a made up thought.In short it can help you with introspection.

3.Finance

Save a portion of your salary for the rainy day. Simple. As a rule of sorts
a) Always have 8 months of your expenses in cash in your savings account
b) Avail all the tax exemptions with PPF/Insurance investments.
c)If you have money after this invest in real estate,Mutual Funds.
Having enough cash gives you the freedom and helps you to say "Fuck You" to anybody who pisses you off viz:your boss.landlord etc.

4.Communication

Now I believe in communicating very clearly "like a child". Always spell out what you expect and what all you are going to do. Works as a charm.
A word of caution , I have heard that being very obvious is liability when it comes to dating where innuendos and implied communication take precedence. This is a Work In Progress area for me.
Trust your gut and do what you feel doing but for other areas childish,clear communication works every time.


5.Resourcefulness

Now many of us almost daily come across some news item or some person which/who say that "so and so" is the new 16 year old cricketer with a century on debut or 19 year old software developer getting millions of dollar for his first app. Now I assume for readers of this blog (in their late 20's) this kind of  news unsettles them. While every body can't become  a cricketer or a geeky millionaire but the inability of not becoming what they could really become(by their own conservative estimates)  leaves a hollow sinking feeling inside.
Now this feeling will continue to haunt you until you love your present work and create value for others with your work. Once you start loving your work and make your work useful to others.
This will give you the feeling that you chipped in with something that really mattered and that it of such use to the public/client.
Trust me a click event handled by you/ a pop-up of the website which was developed by you,once out in production will give you this feel. The feeling of being useful, of being worthy.
Love your work and create value for your team/client with your work.

Being Productive

Normally whenever we are in good mood with lots of energy we try too many things at one go and in the end accomplish nothing. Any small activity/task requires persistence. Most of the things in life happen gradually. If we are not a prodigy we need proper schooling and some years into our career that we become good at something and create value for others and ourselves.

For being productive all we need is proper prioritization and persistence.

1. Prioritization 
Choose just one activity from these three areas of life.
a) One action-item from your work.
    eg: a new framework,or some session or certification or simply your goalsheet action items.
b) One target to keep your body in good shape.
     eg; Normal gym, proper food etc.
c) One hobby for your creative pursuits.
      eg: Playing cricket on weekends, or blogging or joining a tennis club.

Just pick on from each of the 3 categories and devote yourself to that. Don't pick more than one in any category as you will not be able to do justice to all of them.

2. Persistence
Maintaining a proper state is necessary for you to follow your goals. Most of the time our body/mind fail to obey the commands we give them.We need to be in high energy state for most part of the day to be able to complete our goals. Prerequisites are simple:
a) Proper food.
b) Enough sleep

Thus having a select few goals and consistently focusing on them with our energies is what will make you productive. 

Pursuit of Happiness

Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well being characterized by pleasant emotions.
It is of such fundamental importance to human condition that "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" were deemed unalienable rights by US Declaration Of Independence.

Pursuit of happiness is a universal quest but it becomes doomed the moment we tie our happiness to particular outcome/result/situation. That there is not much difference between one outcome or another (barring a few scenarios) is comfortably ignored and it has been a cause of misery/agony.

As "Father of Economics" Adam Smith puts it:

“The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Avarice over-rates the difference between poverty and riches: ambition, that between a private and a public station: vain-glory, that between obscurity and extensive reputation. The person under the influence of any of those extravagant passions, is not only miserable in his actual situation, but is often disposed to disturb the peace of society, in order to arrive at that which he so foolishly admires. The slightest observation, however, might satisfy him, that, in all the ordinary situations of human life, a well-disposed mind may be equally calm, equally cheerful, and equally contented. Some of those situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others: but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice; or to corrupt the future tranquillity of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice.”

All this coming from one of  the greatest advocates of  capitalism. My own experiences have been the same.We can be happy in any situation/outcome , its just the conditioning of brain that prevents us.
Fixation with a particular outcome not only robs us of our present happiness and God forbid,if the result is different, the future happiness as well.

Other thing which reduces our happiness is the constant deliberations about the choices we made or gonna make and the actions we have taken. "What if I had chosen/acted differently" has robbed the humanity of all the peace and happiness that was already there at the moment. Anxiety about choices/actions to be taken and Regret about choices made/actions taken have done no person any good. There is a "Divine Joy" in taking a decision and sticking to it ,come hell or high water.

Thus following these points will guarantee that you never have to pursue happiness.
These points will ensure that you will be happy instead of pursuing it.

1.   Our present happiness is not tied to any particular goal/outcome/situation.

2.   There is joy in being stuck with a decision.