Samrat Prithviraj, a biopic of ruler Prithviraj Chauhan has been declared tax-free in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
There is controversy around ‘Prithviraj’, with both the Gujjar and Rajput communities of Rajasthan laying claim over the 12th century king.
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To a vocal section of the Hindu right, Prithviraj Chauhan appears as “the last Hindu emperor” of India who made a valiant attempt to stop the Islamic invaders who would go on to rule over much of the country until the arrival of the Europeans.
The image of Prithviraj as a fearless and skilled warrior that is now etched in the folk imagination can be traced back to his depiction in ‘Prithviraj Raso’, a poem in Brajbhasha attributed to Chand Bardai, which is thought to have been composed in the 16th century.
In the finale of the poem, after losing the Second Battle of Tarain (1192 AD) against Muhammad of Ghor, Prithviraj is captured and taken to Ghazni in modern-day Afghanistan, where is blinded and imprisoned. Here, the Ghurid king challenges Prithviraj to demonstrate his proficiency in archery by piercing seven metal gongs with an arrow. But the blinded king instead aims the arrow at Muhammad, placing his location by using his voice, and kills him before dying himself.
Most other historical sources indicate that the victorious Muhammad executed Prithviraj at the end of the Second Battle of Tarain.
Prithviraj belonged to the Chauhan or Chahamana dynasty of Ajmer which emerged after the decline of the Pratihara empire in the 11th century AD.
He ascended the throne in 1177 or 1178, and very quickly expanded his kingdom, defeating many of the smaller Rajput states. However, he struggled against the Chalukyas of Gujarat, and was forced to look towards the Ganga valley instead.
While Prithviraj’s army was able to decisively defeat the invading Ghurids in the First Battle of Tarain (present-day Haryana) in 1191, he was defeated in the Second Battle of Tarain in the following year.
The battle marked a watershed moment in the history of medieval India, paving the way for the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate and the beginning of Muslim rule.
The ‘Prithviraja Vijaya’ (1191/1192), the earliest Sanskrit ‘mahakavya’, and the Persian ‘Taj al- Ma’asir’ (1217) see Prithviraj Chauhan and Muhammad of Ghor as rivals who could never come to terms with one another.
The ‘Prithviraja Vijaya’ describes the Ghurid king as a wicked eater of cows, and his ambassador as an extremely ugly character. The Muslims are labelled “turuska” (Turk) and “Yavana” (westerner), but also “raksasa” (ogre) and “asura” (demon).
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