India in the Persianate Age: 1000-1765

by Richard M. Eaton

The silence of contemporary Hindu sources regarding Mahmud’s raid suggests that in Somnath itself it was either forgotten altogether or viewed as just another unfortunate attack by an outsider, and hence unremarkable. In fact, the demonization of Mahmud and the portrayal of his raid on Somnath as an assault on Indian religion by Muslim invaders dates only from the early 1840s.

I think the silence of contemporary Hindu sources may also be due to the strict control of Kings' court on the contemporary historians and writers. Just like in modern times of NaMo government when people are fearful of writing about the Chinese invasion in broad daylights, as if nothing had happened, it is highly probable that royal court deliberately expunged the mention of Mohammad Ghauri's attack on Somnath Temple.