When the late king, Ibrahim Kootb Shah, had settled the countries of the Hindoos on his southern frontier, and despatched his commander, Ameer Shah M… - Mohammed Qacim Ferichta

Mahmud having thus settled his affairs in India, returned in the autumn to Ghazny, where he remained during the winter. In the spring of the year A.H. 399 (A.D. 1008) he determined again to attack Anundpal, Raja of Lahore, for having lent his aid to Dawood, during the late defection in Multan. Anundpal, hearing of his intentions, sent ambassadors on all sides, inviting the assistance of the other princes of Hindustan, who now considered the expulsion of the Mahomedans from India as a sacred duty. Accordingly, the Rajas of Ujein, Gwaliar, Kalunjar, Kanauj, Delhi, and Ajmir, entered into a confederacy, and collecting their forces, advanced towards the Panjab with the greatest army that had yet taken the field. The Indians and Mahomedans arrived in sight of each other on a plain, on the confines of the province of P’eshawur, where they remained encamped forty days without coming to action. The troops of the idolaters daily increased in number. The Hindu females, on this occasion, sold their jewels, and melted down their golden ornaments (which they sent from distant parts), to furnish resources for the [p. 61] war; and the Gukkurs, and other warlike tribes joining the army, surrounded the Mahomedans, who were obliged to entrench their camp.

The sudden swelling of the rivers, and the absence of the King with his army, gave Venkutputty leisure to muster the whole of his forces, which amounted to one hundred thousand men. The leaders were Yeltumraj, Goolrung Setty, and Munoopraj, who marched to recover Gundicota from the hands of Sunjur Khan. Here the enemy were daily opposed by sallies from the garrison, but they perservered in the siege; when they heard that Moortuza Khan, with the main army of the Mahomedans, had pentrated as far as the city of Krupa, the most famous city of that country, wherein was a large temple. This edifice the Mahomedans destroyed as far as practicable, broke the idol, and sacked the city…

In 1018 CE Mahmud attacked the holy town of Mathura, the land of Lord Krishna, considered one of the richest in the northern belt, after the abject surrender of the Gurjara Pratihara ruler Rajyapala. Just to give an idea of the amount of loot that Mahmud managed to ship back to Ghazni during each of his plunders of India, this is the account of his campaign in Mathura by Ferishta:
It is said that the Sultan found in Muttra [Mathura] five great idols of pure gold, with eyes of rubies, each of which eyes was worth fifty thousand dinars. Upon another idol, he found a sapphire, weighing four hundred miskal; and the image being melted down, produced ninety eight thousand three hundred miskal of pure gold. Besides these, there were above a hundred idols of silver, which loaded a hundred camels with bullion. The Sultan having tarried here twenty days, in which time the city suffered greatly from fire, besides what it suffered from the hand of ravage and desolation, he marched against the other fortified places in these districts …