series of engagements that opened all of North India to Muslim control. The battles were fought between Muʿizz-ud-Dīn Muḥammad of Ghūr (Muʿizz-ud-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Sām) and Pṛthvīrāja III, the Cauhān (Cāhamāna), Rājput ruler of Ajmer and Delhi. The battlefield lay between Karnāl, 70 miles north of Delhi, and Thānesar, in the Karnāl district of the modern state of Haryana in India.

Muḥammad had taken Lahore from the last of the Ghaznavids in 1186 and now wished to invade Hindu India. In 1191 he was defeated by a confederate Rājput host, led by Pṛthvīrāja and supported by Jai Chand of Kanauj and Banāras (Vārānasi). In 1192 he returned and defeated and killed Pṛthvīrāja, then unsupported by Jai Chand, on the same field. The Ghūrid cavalry tactics baffled the Rājputs until Muḥammad was able to crush the centre with his main force. This battle was decisive. Delhi was occupied in 1192–93, and the whole of North India fell into Muslim hands within 20 years.