The victory of Tarain battle gained by Prithviraj fuelled the fires of jealousy and enmity in the heart of Raja Jaichanda. He could not digest the success of Delhi ruler. It was now more important for him to do something to insult or belittle his enemy Prithviraj to find some solace.
His daughter, Princess Samyogita was now fit for marriage. He had failed to locate a suitable groom for her. It was not easy to find a match for her as she was a girl of exceptional beauty and intelligence who deserved the best man. Jaichanda was afraid of choosing of wrong one and then get blamed for it. So, he decided to hold a swayamwara for Samyogita to let her choose her own groom. That way if the groom turned out to be undeserving Jaichanda won’t have to take the blame. It would be her own responsibility.
Raja Jaichanda had no inkling his own daughter Samyogita had chosen his arch enemy Prithviraj Chauhan to be lord of her heart. She had already made a choice and there was no need to hold her swayamwara. Had he known that fact he would have preferred to chop her to pieces with his own sword and feed the street dogs. Such was the intensity of his hatred for the Delhi ruler. But Jaichanda was thinking of ways to humiliate Prithviraj turning the swayamwara into an opportunity for that.
Jaichanda thought of a idea which according to his own estimation bring his enemy to disrepute and belittle him in a contemptuous way. He sent invitations to all the royals of the land for the swayamwara of Samyogita. The only omission was Prithviraj, the Delhi ruler who logically was the most suitable and desirable royal. In that act Raja Jaichanda felt a great satisfaction as if he had lend a blow to his enemy.
It did cause some damage to the standing of the Delhi ruler. At least other royals would think so. Jaichanda did not stop at that. He had one more weired idea to heap insult on Prithviraj Chauhan. He got a stone statue of Pritiviraj sculpted in a gatekeeper posture with a spear in its left hand. That statue he got installed at gate of the veune of the swayamwara for all the guest royals to see and chuckle.
In his own lowly way warped up Jaichanda was trying to delcare that in his view Delhi ruler was only fit to be his gatekeeper. In contratst the venue was grandly and royally decorated for all the other royals there were very befitting seating arrangements.
Prithviraj Chauhan had not recieved the invitation to the Samyogita swayamwara and that gave hints to that it was a deliberate slight. On his own Delhi ruler had gathered information on the swayamwara preparation. He had also learnt about the installation of his statue at the gate as a symbolic gatekeeper. Prithviraj did not mind being not invited to the event beacuse it was the prerogative of Jaichanda but the deliberate attempts to degrade him to a gatekeeper statues was beyond all limits of common decency.
Prithviraj Chauhan decided to teach a lesson to demanted Raja Jaichanda. He made necessary preparations and with a handpicked band of daredevil soldiers set out for Kannauj in disguise. They raced their horses to avoid attracting attention of others. They faced no problem in Kannauj capital because there were already a number of bands of bodyguards and protection groups of hundreds of royals who had come to take part in swayamwara.
The absense of Prithviraj came as a big relief for aspirant kings and princes because the biggest challenge had not come. They were freely bragging about their great battle feats and incredible deeds. In whispers they also talked about the absense of Prithviraj. Was he not invited? Why? Or did he give the swayamwara a miss? Why did he do that? Princess Samyogita was the most tantalising prize! They were speculating about the reasons.
Then there was the mystery of that stone statue at the gate. It was unmistakable that of the Delhi ruler. Why was it installed there as the gatekeeper of the event. What was its importance? But whatever the reason majority of the royal thought it was not in good taste. Raja Jaichanda in that act had betrayed his own mean character. Many thought that Raja of Delhi would not take it lying down and in near future Jaichanda was going to pay a heavy price for his bad joke.
In this way once the murmurs started on this issue it would not die easily. There were some animated arguments also going on. There were question galore but there were no authentic answers or explanations. No one wanted to ask Raja Jaichanda about it since he himself had preferred to keep mum.
Meanwhile, Princess Samyogita had no idea about the misdeed of her father. She was taking it for granted that her idol would be there at the venue waiting for her arrival with the victory garland.
Then, murmurs died down suddenly as Princess Samyogita decked up in bridal attire and glittering jewellery made her entrance with bride maids on the stage. She looked stunning and stunned stood the royal assemblage. Samyogita cast a sweeping glance at the assembly of royals hoping to catch the sight of the Delhi ruler on whose portrait she had gazed endless hours in the past months. She failed to catch the glance of Prithviraj Chauhan. A bit confused she was.
Gradually Samyogita began to amble around with pounding heart examing every royal face. She wondered had Prithviraj cut off his magnificent moustache? How should he look without moustache? At last she completed a round without finding her love. Had she missed him? But how was that possible? She was by now familiar with every fine detail of the Prithviraj face, she could not miss him. She took one more round again scrutinising every face. Finely dressed kings and princes were trying their best to catch her attention. But Samyogita was not interested in any face but that of Prithviraj. At the end of the second round Samyogita felt a chill go down her spine. She had to admit that her love was not there. But why?
Raja Jaichanda was watching puzzled wondering why hadn’t she made her choice? What was she looking for. Did no royal interest her? He looked worried. If she failed to make her choice it would be a tragedy. The invited royal would feel cheated or insulted. Lines of worry appeared on the face of Jaichanda.
Now Princess Samoyogita looked utterly confused and shocked. She did not know what to do! Her face had lost colour. She stood near the door contemplating over her next move. As she was taking a turn she saw the statue of Prithviraj Chauhan in doorman’s posture. She had no time to think what and why it was there. Only thing she knew was that it was her lover indeed, although in stone. She walked towards the statue with measured steps. She was no more confused. In front of the statue she gazed longingly at the stony Prithviraj face and to the shock of the maid Samyogita put her garland in the neck of the statue.
Voices of protest, shock, exclamation and sarcastic remarks rose to become a loud rumble. A voice said Samyogita had chosen the statue of a king who was not even invited. Someone said it was insult to all invited royals which needed to the avenged.
Raja Jaichanda was frozed in shock. He could not believe his daughter could put him to such a shame. Instinctively his hand went to his sword handle.
On the other side a man had materialised near the statue and he grabbed the hand of confused Samyaogita. In surprise and shock she looked at the face of the man. If was none other than Prithviraj Chauhan in disguise.
“You?” Samyogita squealed.
“Yes, it is. I Prithviraj Chauhan, my love. I could not let you down. Could I?” he said. “What is going on? I do not understand,” Samyogita admitted.
“I was not invited by your father, Samyogita. This statue was meant to insult me. But your love have force me to do something about it.”
As confusion prevailed the soldiers of the Delhi ruler materialised there mysteriously with a horse. Prithviraj lifted up Samyogita and put her on the horse back. Then he jumped on to the horse back behind her. A soldier handed him the reins and the horse galloped away. The soldiers gathered their own horses tethered to the trees outside and raced off to be behind their king.
It all happened so quickly and suddenly that Kannauj soldiers and officials could not react properly. No one could understand what was going on.
Raja Jaichanda was ranting like a mad man. He was cursing Prithviraj and asking his soldiers to bring his severed head. He was shouting at his commander to kill the invaders from Delhi. The commanders ran away in confusion to workout proper reaction. But there was little they could do. The Delhi raiders had by then sped miles away and out of reach.
Raja Jaichanda announced to the swayamwara guests, “You have seen the dastardly act of the Delhi ruler, Prithviraj. Now you know how valiant he is. He had abducted my daughter. We must make him pay for this. He will pay, I promise you.”
“So that was Prithviraj!?” someone asked.
“Yes! A theif he is, not a conqueror by any means. He has shamed the fair name of our land. We must declare him a Pariah, an outcaste. Unite we must against that too bit criminal king…” Jaichanda continued to rant as growing number of royals stopped paying any attention to him. They were planning to return to their lands. Some of them thought Prithviraj was not to be blamed. After all Samyogita had garlanded the statue of Prithviraj and in trying to insult Prithviraj Jaichanda himself had provoked Delhi ruler to pull some stunt act.
Meanwhile, Kannauj soldiers returned empty handed as the Delhi brigade had made its escape out of the borders of their kingdom.
