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DOI: https://doi.org/10.63345/ijrhs.net.v13.i11.6
Dr. Mamta Rani
Assistant Professor of History
Shaheed Udham Singh Govt College
Matak Majri, Indri, Karnal
Abstract
The invasion of India in 1398 by Timur Lang is one of the most merciless military campaigns of the Middle Ages. Traditional accounts of the invasion portray Timur’s victory over Delhi as swift and almost effortless; thus, these versions dismiss all the hard resistance he found at Meerut, Haridwar, and Garhwal through local chieftains such as Rampyari Gurjari, Jograj Singh Gurjar, and Harbir Singh Gulia, who are remembered in oral traditions to have delayed his march and caused substantial losses to him.
Drawing on a wide variety of sources, from Persian chronicles to Arab accounts, regional folklore, and decolonial historiography, this paper reassesses the invasion of 1398 in order to explain why resistance figures are not a feature of mainstream textbooks. The findings show that these silences reflect long-standing biases in court histories, colonial scholarship, and post-colonial practices of knowledge production. The study argues that figures such as Rampyari Gurjari have a place in grassroots resistance and challenge the notion of medieval invincibility.
References
- Sharaf al-Dīn ‘Alī Yazdī.
Zafarnama (Book of Victory).
Edited and translated versions available through multiple academic presses.
A key primary source documenting Timur’s campaigns, including the India invasion.
- Ibn Arabshah, Ahmad.
Aja’ib al-Maqdur fi Akhbar Timur (The Wonders of Destiny).
(English translation: Tamerlane – or Timur the Great Amir by J.H. Sanders, 1936).
An Arab contemporary account, includes critical commentary on Timur’s brutality.
- Timur’s Own Memoirs (authorship debated).
Malfuzat-i-Timuri (Autobiographical Writings of Timur).
English translation by Henry Elliot (1871).
Contains Timur’s justification for the invasion of India.
- René Grousset.
The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia.
Rutgers University Press, 1970.
A globally respected work on Mongol/Turco-Mongol conquests.
- Beatrice Forbes Manz.
The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane.
Cambridge University Press, 1989.
A rigorous academic study of Timur’s career.
- Edward Gibbon.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 6.
Public domain.
Contains commentary on Tamerlane’s campaigns.
- John F. Richards.
The Mughal Empire.
Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Provides historical context for Delhi before and after Timur.
- Satish Chandra.
Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals (1200–1526).
Har-Anand Publications, New Delhi.
A standard Indian academic reference for Tughlaq period.
- Peter Jackson.
The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History.
Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Explains Tughlaq weakness that made Delhi vulnerable.
- K.A. Nizami.
History of the Delhi Sultanate.
Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delhi.
A classical Indian historian’s interpretation
- Ajay S. Rawat.
Garhwal Himalaya: A Study in Historical Perspective.
Indus Publishing, 2002.
- O.C. Handa.
History of Uttaranchal.
Indus Publishing, 2002.
Provides context for hill-based resistance and tribal warfare tactics.
- Radhika Singha.
A Despotism of Law: Crime and Justice in Early Colonial India.
Oxford University Press, 1998.
Important for understanding Gurjars being labeled a “Criminal Tribe.”
- Mark Brown.
Ethnology and Colonial Administration in Nineteenth-Century India.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2003.
Covers how colonial ethnography erased community histories.
- Meena Radhakrishna.
Dishonoured by History: ‘Criminal Tribes’ and British Colonial Policy.
Orient Blackswan, 2001.
Shows how tribe identities (including Gurjars) were distorted and records destroyed.
- Jan Vansina.
Oral Tradition as History.
James Currey Publishers, 1985.
Gold-standard academic text validating oral narratives.
- Paul Thompson.
The Voice of the Past: Oral History.
Oxford University Press, 2000.
A widely used handbook for converting folk memory into credible research.
- Romila Thapar (for methodological contrast).
The Past Before Us: Historical Traditions of Early North India.
Harvard University Press, 2013.
Explains how Indian history evolved through mixed oral-written traditions.
- Jadunath Sarkar.
Shivaji and His Times.
Orient Longman, multiple editions.
A model of resistance historiography.
- R.C. Majumdar (Editor).
The History and Culture of the Indian People, Vol. VI.
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
Comprehensive Indian perspective; critiques foreign invader narratives.