'About this time the King learned that the inhabitants of two hilly tracts, denominated Kuriat and Nardein, continued the worship of idols and had no… - Mohammed Qacim Ferichta

“This answer was communicated to the Raja of Dehli, who, resolving to oppose the invaders, sent messengers throughout Hindustan to acquaint the other Rajas that Mahmud, without provocation, was marching with a vast army to destroy Thanesar, now under his immediate protection. He observed that if a barrier was not expeditiously raised against this roaring torrent, the country Hindustan would be soon overhelmed, and every state, small and great, would be entirely subverted. It, therefore, behoved them to unite their forces at Thanesar, to avert the impending calamity.

Mahomed Ghoory, in the mean time returning from Ghizny, marched towards Kunowj, and engaged Jye-chund Ray, the Prince of Kunowj and Benares' This prince led his forces into the field, between Chundwar and Etawa, where he sustained a signal defeat from the vanguard of the Ghiznevide army, led by Kootbood-Deen Eibuk, and lost the whole of his baggage and elephants' He marched from thence to Benares, where, having broken the idols in above 1000 temples, he purified and consecrated the latter to the worship of the true God...'Mahomed Ghoory, following with the body of the army into the city of Benares, took possession of the country as far as the boundaries of Bengal, without opposition, and having destroyed all the idols, loaded four thousand camels with spoils.'

These infidels believe that souls, after death, went before Sumnat [Somnath], who transferred them into other bodies or animals, according to their merits in their former state. The Sultan was also informed that the priests of this God, gave out, that the sins of the people of Delhi and Kinnoge [Kanauj] had incensed him so much, that he abandoned them to the vengeance of the Mussulmen, otherwise that in the twinkling of an eye, he [the God Somnath] could have blasted the whole army of Mahmood [sic]. The Sultan, no ways intimidated by this report, was determined to put the power of the God to a trial, by personally treating him ill. He therefore marched from Ghizni with a numerous army …