Ishtpal, the founder of the Haras, obtained Asir in S. 1081[10.1.68] (or A.D. 1025); and as Mahmud’s last destructive visit to India, by Multan through the desert to Ajmer, was in A.H. 714, or A.D. 1022, we have every right to conclude that his father Anuraj lost his life and Asi to the king of Ghazni; at the same time that Ajmer was sacked, and the country laid waste by this conqueror, whom the Hindu bard might well style “the demon from Kujliban.”[10.1.69] The Muhammadan historians give us no hint even of any portion of Mahmud’s army penetrating into the peninsula, though that grasping ambition, which considered the shores of Saurashtra but an intermediate step from Ghazni to the conquest of Ceylon and Pegu, may have pushed an army during his long halt at Anhilwara, and have driven Randhir from Golkonda.[10.1.70] But it is idle to speculate upon such slender materials; let them suffice to illustrate one new fact, namely, that these kingdoms of the south as well as the north were held by Rajput sovereigns, whose offspring, blending with the original population, produced that mixed race of Mahrattas, inheriting with the names the warlike propensities of their ancestors, but who assume the name of their abodes as titles, as the Nimbalkars, the Phalkias, the Patankars, instead of their tribes of Jadon, Tuar, Puar, etc. etc. Ishtpal had a son called Chandkaran; his son, Lokpal, had Hamir and Gambhir, names well known in the wars of Prithiraj. The brothers were enrolled amongst his [456] one hundred and eight great vassals, from which we may infer that, though Asir was not considered absolutely as a fief, its chief paid homage to Ajmer, as the principal seat of the Chauhans. In the Kanauj Samaya, that book of the poems of Chand devoted to the famous war in which the Chauhan prince carries off the princess of Kanauj, honourable mention is made of the Hara princes in the third day’s fight, when they covered the retreat of Prithiraj: “Then did the Hara Rao Hamir, with his brother Gambhir, mounted on Lakhi steeds,[10.1.71] approach their lord, as thus they spoke: ‘Think of thy safety, Jangales,[10.1.72] while we make offerings to the array of Jaichand. Our horses’ hoofs shall plough the field of fight, like the ship of the ocean.’” The brothers encountered the contingent of the prince of Kasi (Benares), one of the great feudatories of Kanauj. As they joined, “the shout raised by Hamir reached Durga on her rock-bound throne.” Both brothers fell in these wars, though one of the few survivors of the last battle fought with Shihabu-d-din for Rajput independence, was a Hara— Hamir had Kalkaran, who had Mahamagd: his son was Rao Bacha; his, Rao Chand.