Hariraja's end and the Ajmer kin

Who he is

Name

Hariraja (Hari-raja), Prithviraja III's brother

Title

Last Chahamana ruler of Shakambhari and Ajmer (dead 1194)

Since

1193 (Wikipedia's list: 1193 to 1194)

Born

not pinned

Family

Brother of Prithviraja III; the Chahamana main line passes to Govindaraja at Ranthambore.

Confidence

medium

Wikipedia (Shakambhari): Hariraja dethroned Govindaraja and regained part of the ancestral kingdom; the Ghurids beat him in 1194; he and members of his family died by jauhar, which ended the Chahamanas of Shakambhari. The Ranastambhapura page differs: Govindaraja gave him asylum. In 1200 he is dead; this record stands for the surviving Chahamana kin, grantees and officers in the country round Ajmer.

What it holds

• Nothing as a lordship: grants, villages and the memory of Shakambhari (Sambhar) and Ajmer

How it was acquired

Lost to the Ghurids, 1192 to 1194.

Allies and rivals

Kin of Govindaraja at Ranthambore and of the Nadol and Jalor houses; enemies of the Ghurid garrison. The Guhilas and Chaulukyas are neighbours who profited from Prithviraja's fall.

How things stand that morning

A conquered dynasty. The Sambhar and Didwana revenue goes to whoever can collect it; the campaign board says no one's holding there is recoverable.

Wealth

Sambhar and Didwana salt (taxed at the pan and at every toll on the road); the Pushkar pilgrim dues.

Threats

• Absorption into the Ghurid garrison system

Places of note

• Harshnath: Shaiva temple with the Harsha inscription of 973

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry ajmer-hinterland says a 'client of the house is tolerated' under the garrison; we found no source for that, only the general statement that the Ghurids left chiefs standing in the hills. We treat it as board colour.
• Hariraja's end: Shakambhari page says jauhar in 1194; Ranastambhapura page says Govindaraja gave him asylum. Unreconciled.

Evidence: Wikipedia pages on the Chahamanas; the campaign board.

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

On the map: This part is a hatched memory of lost ground, not a holding.

Primary sources for Chahamana houses

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 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.
• 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
• Epigraphia Indica: inscriptions of the Chandelas, Paramaras, Gahadavalas, Chaulukyas, Senas and Eastern Gangas, Various (edited for the Archaeological Survey of India by J. Burgess, E. Hultzsch, F. Kielhorn, Sten Konow, F. W. Thomas and successors) (inscriptions of the 1180s to 1210s; the series ran from 1892). The main record series for the Hindu kingdoms of northern India around 1200. Read online
• Historical Inscriptions of Gujarat, Various (the Chaulukya and Vaghela chanceries), edited by G. V. Acharya (inscriptions of the 10th to 14th centuries; edited 1933 to 1942). The standard corpus of Gujarat's inscriptions. Read online
• The Victory of Prithviraja, Jayanaka (a Kashmiri poet at the Chahamana court) (about 1191 to 1192, left unfinished). A court epic written at Ajmer in the months between Prithviraja III's victory at Tarain in 1191 and his defeat and death in 1192. Read online
• The History of India as Told by its Own Historians: the Muhammadan Period, vol. 2, Various (Ibn al-Athir, Hasan Nizami, Awfi, Juzjani and others), edited by H. M. Elliot and John Dowson (the sources date from the 1190s to the 14th century; the collection was published in 1869). A one-volume anthology of the Arabic and Persian accounts of the Ghurid conquest. Read online

1 more in the sources library for Northern India.