Romila Thapar has made an effort to bring together accounts from numerous sources — `the many voices of history` — to view an important event in perspective. She explores why a particular perspective was projected through the two centuries from sources like, Turko-Persian narratives, Sanskrit inscriptions, biographies, chronicles, colonial interpretations, nationalist reactions and others.

To place the invasion in a historical context a detailed survey of Mahmud`s of Ghazni`s ambitions and the part played by his raids on India are specified. The purposes of the raid were several, of which iconoclasm was undeniably a motivation. But other intentions were equally important.

Narratives originating from Muslim sources that retell the event have been read as the encounter of Islam with Hindu idolatry. Queries have arisen from a wide range of sources, subjecting the information to necessary forms of historical analyses. Mahmud`s activities in the subcontinent, in Afghanistan and Central Asia were to a large extent interconnected.

The book emphasises the need for examining how historians present events, both in writings about the past and in the understanding of past events in present times. Al Biruni, a contemporary of Mahmud, mentions that the raids caused economic devastation and the Turks were hated by the suffering people. Yet the speed with which these areas returned to an effervescent economy is striking. Despite their antagonism, the locals were prepared to fight in Mahmud`s army not merely as mercenary soldiers but also as commanders. Clearly these interactions were far more multi-faceted than has been assumed and beyond the agitation of religious discrimination.

There are some other versions reflecting the more widespread perception of Mahmud. Inscriptions in Sanskrit from Somanath and its surrounding areas are one of the primary sources of the history of the period. They contain details of the proceedings in and around Somanatha in the period after Mahmud`s raid. The record is valuable as it provides a perspective from sources that were earlier disregarded by the historians as legends and this denied them a place as credible sources in investigating the past.

The viewpoint apparent from the inscriptions is different from from that derived from other sources. The Sanskrit inscriptions record the official version of dynastic history and other matters thought to be significant. The purpose of these was to circulate the official version of events from the local perspective and they are in contrast to the Turko-Persian accounts.

The epic of the conquest of Somnatha (1026 CE) is evident in the glorification of Mahmud as a conqueror and iconoclast. This image is projected primarily in the Turko-Persian sources which have been treated as consistent, but some scholars have shown that in fact they are not so.

The above mentioned narratives often contradict each other. These in turn often contradict the narrative from a third major source, the Jaina text. Chronicles by Jaina scholars recount events in the history of Gujarat from the 11th to the 15th centuries. Whatever the emotions connected with the pilgrimage, it did not prevent the king from building a mosque in Khambat for the use of Arab traders who visited and traded in the region.

As in the case of the Turko-Persian chronicles, battle and plunder were the trademark of a heroic king in the literature of courts. The narratives of Ferishta, for example, were taken as reliable history. Yet it came to be argued in the19th century that the attack on Somnath by Mahmud had brought about suffering and distress among the Hindus and an ingrained hatred for the Muslims. This notion gradually entered the mainstream reading of history of those times.

The book displays how recollections play on the certainty of facts. It consists of impartial and well-researched information. Moreover, it is able to annihilate the numerous myths written and promoted by Muslim, Hindu and British writers `On each occasion one should honour the sect of the other, for by doing so one increases the influence of one`s own sect and benefits that of the other; while by doing otherwise one diminishes the influence of one`s own sect and harms the other.`

Somanatha

By Romila Thapar

Penguin Books, India

ISBN 978-0-14-306468-8

260pp. Rs572