Bakhtiyar Khilji

Also called: Ikhtiyar-ud-din Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji · Topic: Turkic Invasions and the Delhi Sultanate · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 4 "Turning Tides: The 11th and 12th Centuries"; Class 7, Ch 5 "India, a Home to Many"

Meaning

Bakhtiyar Khilji (Ikhtiyar al-Din Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji) was an army commander under Qutb-ud-din Aibak [5]. From the end of the 12th century he conquered Bihar and Bengal for the new Turkic rulers. He destroyed Nalanda and Vikramashila, drove the Sena king out of Nadiya (c. 1203–04), failed in a march towards Tibet (1205), and was killed in 1206.

He matters for two reasons. He carried Turkic rule from Delhi to the eastern edge of the Gangetic plain. His attack on Nalanda is treated as a key trigger for the decline of Buddhism in India.

Explanation

Background: who he was and why he went east

• The bigger picture. After the Second Battle of Tarain (1192), Muhammad Ghuri went back to Ghazni. He left his generals in India to hold the new lands and push them further.
• In the west and centre, Qutb-ud-din Aibak held Delhi.

• In the east, Bakhtiyar Khilji, Aibak's army commander, led the advance [5].

• What makes him different from a raider. Mahmud of Ghazni took treasure and went home. Bakhtiyar's campaigns were part of Ghurid permanent conquest. He took land, and Muslim rulers kept it after he died.

The sequence of his campaigns

• End of the 12th century: he campaigns eastward and conquers Bihar.
• Destruction of the monastic universities: he destroys Nalanda and Vikramashila and kills the monks.
• c. 1203–04 (NCERT): he makes a surprise attack on Nadiya, the seat of the Sena king Lakshmanasena. Britannica dates the conquest of Nadia to 1202 [5].
• 1205: he leads an expedition to Tibet through Kamarupa (the Assam region). It ends in disaster.
• 1206: he is assassinated, apparently by his own men. Muhammad Ghuri is also killed in the same year.

Nalanda and Vikramashila: what was lost

• Nalanda was a mahavihara: a huge Buddhist monastery where monks lived, studied and taught.
• Its library stood in three buildings and held lakhs of manuscripts. It is said to have burned for months.
• The Chinese pilgrims Xuanzang and Yijing had studied there.
• UNESCO calls Nalanda the most ancient university of the Indian subcontinent. It says teaching went on there without a break for 800 years [3].
• About three decades later, the Tibetan monk Dharmasvamin found the site half-ruined. The 90-year-old Rahula Shribhadra was still teaching a last class of about 70 students.

Results

• Bengal changed hands. Lakshmanasena was driven out of Nadiya and died about three years later. Sena kings held on in eastern Bengal for some decades, but the main power in Bengal passed to the new Muslim rulers [5].
• Buddhism lost its centres. Historians of Buddhism agree the destruction precipitated (set off) the decline of Buddhism in India. They also count other causes.
• The limits of conquest showed in 1205. In Kamarupa:
• local forces fought him;
• people used scorched earth (they destroyed or carried away food and supplies so the invaders would starve);

• his army starved, and he escaped with only a handful of men.

• The conquest did not fall apart. Bakhtiyar and Ghuri both died in 1206, but north India stayed in the hands of Ghuri's generals.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: end of the 12th century to 1206. These are the Ghurid conquest years, just before the Delhi Sultanate was formally founded.
• Overlords: Muhammad Ghuri (Muizz al-Din Muhammad ibn Sam) [2] and his general Qutb-ud-din Aibak [5].
• Region and sites:
• Bihar: Nalanda and Vikramashila.
• Bengal: Nadiya, the Sena capital.

• Kamarupa (Assam region), on the route towards Tibet.

• Key people:

• Lakshmanasena, Sena king (c. 1178–1205). Poets Jayadeva and Dhoyi wrote at his court at Nadiya [5].
• Dharmasvamin, the Tibetan monk who later visited the ruined Nalanda.

• Rahula Shribhadra, the old teacher Dharmasvamin met there.

• How we know:

• Text: the chronicler Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani, in the Tabakat-i-Nasiri, says the shaven-headed "Brahmans" (in fact Buddhist monks) were all killed. He writes: "the whole of that fortress and city was a college… they call a college bihar."
• Traveller's account: Dharmasvamin's report of the half-ruined site.

• Archaeology: Nalanda's remains run from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. They include stupas, shrines, viharas and art in stucco, stone and metal [3]. The ruins lay buried for over seven centuries. They were excavated in the early 20th century and are conserved by the ASI [3].

• Heritage status: Excavated Remains of Nalanda Mahavihara, Bihar was put on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 15 July 2016 [3].

Don't confuse with

• Alauddin Khalji. He was a Delhi Sultan of the later Khalji dynasty. Bakhtiyar Khilji was only a commander under Aibak [5] and was dead by 1206, before the Sultanate was formally set up. The shared name "Khalji" is a common trap.
• Muhammad Ghuri. He won at Tarain (1192) and took Delhi. Bakhtiyar conquered Bihar and Bengal in the east. Both died in 1206: Ghuri was killed, and Bakhtiyar was assassinated, apparently by his own men.
• Qutb-ud-din Aibak. Aibak was Bakhtiyar's superior. He founded the Delhi Sultanate and built the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque (1198) and the first storey of the Qutb Minar (1199) [4]. Bakhtiyar was the field commander in the east.
• Dharmasvamin vs Xuanzang/Yijing. Xuanzang and Yijing studied at Nalanda while it flourished. Dharmasvamin came about three decades after Bakhtiyar's attack and saw it half-ruined.

Prelims Hooks

• Bakhtiyar Khilji was Aibak's army commander who conquered Bihar and Bengal [5].
• Main source on Nalanda's destruction: Tabakat-i-Nasiri by Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani. In it, bihar = college or monastery.
• The Sena king driven out of Nadiya was Lakshmanasena. Jayadeva and Dhoyi were his court poets [5]. NCERT date: c. 1203–04. Britannica: 1202 [5].
• Order of events: Tarain II (1192) → conquest of Bihar and Nalanda → Nadiya (c. 1203–04) → Tibet–Kamarupa disaster (1205) → deaths of Ghuri and Bakhtiyar (1206).
• Nalanda Mahavihara (Bihar) became a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 15 July 2016. It is conserved by the ASI [3].
• Trap: Bakhtiyar Khilji was not a ruler of the Khalji dynasty of Delhi. He served under Aibak.

Mains Points

• Nalanda and the decline of Buddhism. Buddhism in India depended on large monasteries that patrons paid for.
• Kill the monks and burn the libraries, and the line of teaching breaks.
• An 800-year tradition of unbroken teaching came to an end [3].

• Historians see this as a trigger, not the only cause. Loss of royal patronage, land grants going elsewhere and the Brahmanical revival also count.

• Conquest, not raid. Bakhtiyar's campaign shows the 1192 turning point at work. Bengal passed to Muslim rulers for good, and the conquest survived even the deaths of Ghuri and Bakhtiyar in 1206. Mahmud's raids left no such lasting rule.

• Where Turkic power stopped. The 1205 Kamarupa failure shows the limits of cavalry.
• Hills and forests slowed the army.
• There were no supply lines.
• Local people used scorched earth.
• So the Sultanate spread fast across open plains but slowly into hill and forest zones. This is useful for any question on why the Turks succeeded or where they failed.

Related concepts

• Ghurids
• Muhammad Ghori
• First Battle of Tarain
• Prithviraj Chauhan
• Second Battle of Tarain
• Qutbuddin Aibak
• Tabaqat-i-Nasiri

Read more

• The Ghurid turning point: Tarain and the conquest of the north