The Battle of Kasahrada, also known as Battle of Kayadara or Battle of Gadararaghatta, was fought in 1178 at modern Kasahrada in Sirohi district near Mount Abu in present-day Rajasthan. It was fought between the Chaulukya dynasty led by Mularaja II and the invading Ghurid forces led by Muhammad of Ghor, during which the Ghurid forces were signally defeated.
Endeavoring for Ghurid expansion east of Indus during the last quarter of twelfth century, Muhammad of Ghor, marched down the Gumal Pass and seized Multan and Uch ejecting the Carmathians from there before he attempted to penetrate into mainland India, approaching it through the territory of Chaulukyas situated in the present-day Gujarat. The Ghurid army marching by the way of Multan and Uch reached Kasahrada, at foot of Mount Abu after a march through the Thar Desert, where they confronted the forces of Chaulukya king Mularaja. In the decisive battle, the Ghurid army was routed and wounded Muhammad of Ghor, retreated back to his capital Ghazna, through the desert with considerable difficulty.
Background
During the last quarter of twelfth century, the Ghurid Sultanate was ruled in a dyarchy by Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad and Muhammad of Ghor, with Ghiyath al-Din overseeing the westward expansion of the Sultanate from Firuzkuh, his younger partner Muhammad of Ghor endeavoured for eastward expansion towards the plains of India. Muhammad captured Ghazna and eastern Afghanistan ejecting the Oghuz Turkmens by 1173. Subsequently after taking over Ghazna, Muhammad utilized the city as a spring-board for carrying attacks down to the Indus Valley and further ahead.
In 1175, Muhammad of Ghor crossed the Indus River through the Gumal Pass instead of Khyber Pass, capturing Multan and Uch from the Carmathian rulers in the same year. During the course of these incursions, Muhammad avoided a direct confrontation with the Ghaznawids in Punjab and instead focused on lands bordering the middle and lower course of the Indus Valley. Hence, to bypass the Ghaznawids, Muhammad turned south towards coastal plains of Gujarat in order to open an alternative route to the Gangetic Plain through the wealthy kingdom of the Chaulukyas.
Meanwhile, the Chaulukyas led by their stripling monarch Mularaja II along with their feudatories from Naddula, Jalor and Abu, mustered a powerful army to confront the advancing Ghurid army. Chudasama king Rah Jayasingh of Junagadh an ally of Bhimdeo II participated in this battle.
Battle
Muhammad of Ghor persisting with the Gumal Pass, marched by the way of lower Sindh to penetrate into northern territory of the Chaulukyas through westernmost Rajasthan. Before reaching the site of battle in Mount Abu, Muhammad sacked Nadol, desecrating the idol of Shiva in Kiradu.
The 12th century Kashmiri-historian Jayanka in his Prithviraja Vijaya mentioned that by time the Turks reached the Chahamana kingdom, they were so parched by marching through the desert that they had to drink the blood of their own horses. After crossing the Thar Desert southwards to Marwar, Muhammad's exhausted army eventually reached at foothills of Mount Abu.
At the foot of Mount Abu, the Ghurid army confronted the combined army of Chaulukya feudatories — Paramara ruler Dharavarsha of Abu, Chahamana ruler Kelhana of Nadol and his brother Kirtipala from Jalor. According to Prabandha Kosha — Dharavarsha let Ghurid army into the pass and closed the enemy retreat behind them. In front of Ghurids, facing them was the main Chaulukya army along with Chauhans of Nadol and Jalore. After a sanguinary battle, Ghurid army was signally defeated with great slaughter. Muhammad who got wounded in action, fled from the battlefield; after much trouble in the flight he finally reached Ghazna.
Aftermath
The Catastrophe did not dampen Muhammad's aspirations, who thenceforth opted for northern routes into mainland India through the Khyber Pass. Therefore, Muhammad of Ghor attacked the truncated Ghaznawid principality in Panjab and finally seized Lahore in 1186, deposing them from their last bastion, which heralded a series of lucrative forays into the fertile plains of India. After a series of gains and reverses, Muhammad and his lieutenants, swiftly swept down the Gangetic Plain and eventually extended the Ghurid power as far as the Bengal Delta in east.
In the Battle of Kasahrada (1197), Muhammad's elite slave commander Qutb al-Din Aibak defeated the Chaulukya ruler Bhima II near Mount Abu, after which he raided and sacked the Chaulukya capital, thereby avenging Muhammad of Ghor's defeat at the Battle of Kasahrada (1178) twenty years earlier.