1192
Second Battle of Tarain
The setting
Tarain (Taraori), near Thanesar in modern Haryana
The same open plain as the first battle a year earlier - and as Panipat, 334 years later. A corridor army after army was funnelled into.
Reveal the outcome
Recorded sideChahamana (Chauhan) confederacy under Prithviraj III
Recorded resultdestroyed; Prithviraj captured and killed
Ghurid victory. Prithviraj was taken and executed, and Delhi fell within months.
How the atlas explains it
Mu'izz al-Din had lost on the same ground the previous year and changed method rather than scale. Light mounted archers in mobile divisions harassed the Rajput line without closing, refusing the decisive shock action the heavier Indian army was built to deliver, and drew it out of formation before a held reserve struck. The Rajput coalition, assembled from many contingents, could not sustain a long engagement it could not force to a decision.
What followed
The hinge of North Indian history: it opened the way to the Delhi Sultanate and roughly six centuries of Muslim rule in northern India. And it is a Volume III case of the first order - Prithviraj is one of the most written-about defeated commanders in South Asia, but almost everything popularly 'known' about him comes from a poem composed long after his death.