a determined army of infidels led by a mere boy, the (eventual) Gujarat Chalukya king, Mularaja II. His mother, Queen Nayakadevi15 pitched the boy in this battle against the reviled Turushkas, leading from the front. At Gadaraghatta16, the armies of the ‘Mahomedans were defeated with great slaughter’17 and Muhammad himself managed to escape after ‘suffer[ing] many hardships in their retreat to Ghazni’.18 It was a mortal blow to Muhammad’s confidence when he surveyed the battered ruins of his surviving army. For the next twelve years, he did not lead a single expedition against any Hindu ruler.
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