Govindaraja

Who he is

Name

Govindaraja (Govindaraja IV in Wikipedia's Shakambhari list)

Title

Chahamana raja holding Ranthambore of the Ghurid sultan

Since

1192 (installed at Ajmer by Muizz al-Din); at Ranthambore from after Hariraja's rising, date not given

Born

not pinned: he was young in 1192

Family

Son of Prithviraja III; Hariraja was his father's brother. His son Balhana-deva is recorded as a vassal of Iltutmish in 1215 and then independent (Wikipedia, Ranastambhapura); Balhana is the second ruler on the Ranthambore list, so Govindaraja is probably dead by then.

Confidence

medium

Wikipedia's Shakambhari page: Muizz al-Din appointed Govindaraja a Ghurid vassal in 1192; Hariraja dethroned him and took part of the kingdom; the Ghurids beat Hariraja in 1194; they granted Govindaraja the fief of Ranthambore (undated, 'better source needed'). The Ranastambhapura page says Govindaraja gave Hari asylum after the Muslim conquest of Ajmer, which sits uneasily with Hariraja's self-immolation in 1194 on the other page. He is alive in 1200 so far as any source says.

Overlord

Muizz al-Din Muhammad ibn Sam, through Aibak: Ranthambore is a Ghurid fief, which is what 'pledged' means here

What it holds

• Ranthambore (Ranastambhapura) and the ascent, tanks and granaries on the plateau
• Jhain (Chhan), the administrative town of the plain
• Khandar fort on the scarp to the east
• Toda (Takshakagarh) on the Banas, by inference only

How it was acquired

Ghurid grant after Tarain and Hariraja's end (Wikipedia: undated, flagged for a better source).

Allies and rivals

Tenant of the sultan and bound to pay. The Hammira-mahakavya (Nayachandra) is the family's own late chronicle. His neighbours are the Mina hill clans, the Jadon remnant at Tahangarh and Karauli, Tughril at Bayana, and the Hada Chahamanas of Bundi who are not yet there (they come in 1241).

How things stand that morning

He is the head of the senior Chahamana line, in the one fortress left to it, paying the Ghurids what they ask. His standing among the Chahamana kin of Nadol and Jalor is not recorded; they are separate lines.

Wealth

Rents of the plain and of Jhain; the rock tanks and granaries; no revenue figure.

Military

A garrison on the hill; the later record of the place is sieges that fail on time and starvation, never on battery (board, on the ascent).

Threats

• Aibak, who can recall the fief
• Tughril at Bayana
• The Mina clans

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1215Balhana-deva is recorded as a vassal of Iltutmish, then declares independence (Wikipedia, Ranastambhapura)Depends on: The Ghurid conquests passing intact to Iltutmish at Delhi Stopped by: Iltutmish's defeat or a settlement
2. 1226Iltutmish captures the fort (Wikipedia, Ranastambhapura)Depends on: A ruler at Delhi willing to sit under the hill for months Stopped by: A relief force or a negotiated surrender

Places of note

• Jhain (Chhan): The walled town in the plain below the fort
• Khandar: Second hill fort on the scarp east of Ranthambore
• The Ranthambore ascent: The one road up, a switchback through a defile
• The tanks and granaries: Rock-cut reservoirs on the summit plateau

Where the sources disagree

• The brief puts Ranthambore under 'the Ghurid tenant'; the campaign board puts it with 'the Chahamana survivors'. We carry the lord under realm ghurids with status 'pledged', and say in the text that the house is Chahamana. See the Chahamana realm record.
• The campaign board entry ranthambore says Muhammad of Ghor gave the fief after Tarain; Wikipedia's Shakambhari page flags this grant as needing a better source.

Evidence: Two Wikipedia pages that agree on the outline and differ on Hariraja's end; the late Hammira-mahakavya is mentioned but not read.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Drawn round the fort and its plain; the Chambal ravines to the east produce nothing.

Primary sources for Ghurids

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Chronography of Bar Hebraeus, Gregory Bar Hebraeus (Abu'l-Faraj) (about 1275 to 1286). A later compilation that for 1200 relies on Michael the Syrian and Ibn al-Athir, but adds the Jacobite church's own memory of the Jazira, Mosul, Melitene and the Artuqid and Zangid courts, and carries Michael's story past 1195: the Seljuk brothers' war in Rum, the Khwarazmian and Ghurid wars in the east, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah, and the caliph al-Nasir. Read online
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• The History of the World Conqueror, Ata-Malik Juvayni (1252 to 1260). Written for the Mongols but with a long retrospective on the powers they destroyed. Read online
• The Life of Sultan Jalal al-Din Mankubirti, Shihab al-Din Muhammad al-Nasawi (about 1241, at Aleppo). A Khwarazmian secretary's life of the last Khwarazmshah. Read online
• The Nasirid Generations: a General History of the Muslim Dynasties, Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (1259 to 1260, at Delhi). The Ghurid court's own history, by a man born in 1193 whose family served the sultans of Ghur and Ghazna. Read online
• The Crown of Glorious Deeds, Hasan Nizami (Sadr al-Din Muhammad ibn Hasan Nizami of Nishapur) (begun about 1205 at Delhi, carried on to about 1217). The earliest history written in Muslim India and the only contemporary account of Qutb al-Din Aibak's campaigns. Read online
• The Nasirean Generations (a general history of the Muslim dynasties), Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (completed 1260 at Delhi). The fullest narrative of the Ghurid conquest of northern India. Read online
• The Tree of Genealogies, and the Manners of War and Bravery, Fakhr-i Mudabbir (Fakhr al-Din Muhammad ibn Mansur Mubarakshah) (the Shajara about 1206, dedicated to Qutb al-Din Aibak; the Adab al-harb in the 1220s for Iltutmish). The prose introduction to the Shajara, written within six years of 1200, praises Aibak and tells of his rise under Mu'izz al-Din of Ghur, his consecration at Lahore in 1206 and the Ghurid campaigns in Hindustan, with some notice of the Turkish peoples.

3 more in the sources library for Persia and the Eastern Islamic World.