Raja Dahir : The untold history lost due glorification of the Islamic invaders. Often we have been taught about the glorified history of Islamic rulers like, Shahjahan, Akbar, Tipu sultan etc, but ever heard about Hindu Raja Dahir? It is really unfortunate that this real hero of Bharat hardly or do not have any identity in our history. His patriotism and bravery is washed away from history of India.
The Indus valley civilization in Sindh was one of the world’s most ancient and civilized city which had seen many rise and fall. Raja Dahir was the last ruler the Chach dynasty, also known as Brahman dynasty, in Sindh. He was born in 663 AD. Raja dahir was the first man to comfront the Arab invaders in Bharat. He was the Hindu king who had given refugee to the family of imam Hussain, who were been attacked brutally by the Arabs. These people found refugee in Indian kingdom with the Brahman king Raja Dahir. Raja dahir refused to handover the exiled family of Imam Hussain to Al-hajjaj, governor-general of Umayat khalifa who later sent a powerful army led by his nephew Muhammad bin qasim to take revenge. It was also the conspiracy of khalifa to gain control over makran, balochistan and sindh regions as he was jealous of Dahir’s power in his Kingdom and hence waged a war. In 711, bin qasim attacked Debal and then moved on to Nerum for supplies. He defeated Dahir and captured his Eastern territories for khalifa by the support of various local tribes. Even after this Raja Dahir did not gave up as he wanted to save his Hindu Kingdom. Raja dahirs Central forces led by his son Jaisian marched towards the eastern banks at Jitor to prevent Quasim cross the Indus river. However he couldn’t succeed. In 712AD Raja dahir was killed by Qasiml at battle of Aror. His head was cut off and send to umayyad khalifa.
The story of the bravery does not end here. After Raja Dahir’s death his wife Queen Ladi, with other women’s committed Jauhar rather than getting captured alive by the Islamic invaders. Unfortunately Raja Dahir daughter’s Premila Devi and Surya Devi were captured by the Invaders and were sent as a gift to the khalifa for his harem. However both sisters convinced the khalifa that Bin Quasim had molested them and had intimated with them before presenting them as a gift to Khalifa. Outraged by the betrayal of Bin Qasim, khalifa ordered to wrap and stitch him in oxen hides and send him to syria which resulted in his death due to suffocation. The sisters later admitted to khalifa that they lied all this to take the revenge of their father’s death. Khalifa was filled with repentance and order the sisters to be buried alive in the wall.
Raja dahir is portrayed as a villain in Pakistani history books. Indian history is having done anything to order his contribution. It’s the time to bring back the lost glory of such heroes from our history.
Reference – Chach nama
Good share, should definitely cover this up on my website too! Such information needs to be shared and made aware of.
We heard about Dahir sen in our childhood.. Nice to know about it in-depth.. It was also said that he was called as “dahir” because he had defended his kingdom Ten times from those Islamic rulers..