He was also known as “But-Shikan” (destroyer of the image) because of seventeen plundering expeditions between 1000 AD & 1027 AD in India.
Annexing Punjab as his eastern province, he claimed to have come here with twin objectives of spreading Islam in India, & enriching himself by taking away wealth from India.
In 1025, he attacked & raided the most celebrated Hindu temple of Somnath, Gujarat.
Beruni who wrote Kitab-ul Hind, & Firdausi, who wrote Shah Namah, were the court Historians of Mahmud Ghazni & give a good account of the polity & society on the eve of Mahmood’s invasion. From 1010 to 1026, the invasions were thus directed toward the temple towns of Thaneswar, Mathura, Kannauj & finally Somnath.
