Ghurid Sultan Muhammad raids Bengal

1201

The Ghurid general Bakhtiyar Khalji launched a cavalry raid into Bengal and reportedly captured Nadia with only eighteen horsemen by disguising himself as a trader. The monasteries of Nalanda and Vikramashila were burned during his campaign, ending India's great Buddhist learning centers. Palm-leaf manuscripts accumulated over seven centuries of scholarship were consumed in fires that smoldered for months.