During the first half of the 8th century, a series of battles took place in the Indian subcontinent between the Umayyad Caliphate and Indian kingdoms situated to the east of the Indus River, subsequent to the Arab conquest of Sindh (present day Pakistan) during 711–713.
The Rashidun Caliphate (632–661) launched a few raids in India, but no larger campaign took place. The second wave of military expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate lasted from 692 to 718. The reign of Al-Walid I (705–715) saw the most dramatic Marwanid Umayyad conquests in a period of barely ten years; North Africa, Iberia, Transoxiana, and Sindh were subdued and conquered by the Arabs. Sindh, ruled by King Dahir of the Brahmin dynasty, was captured by the Umayyad general Muhammad bin Qasim, which became a second-level province of the Caliphate (iqlim) and a suitable base for excursions into India, but, after bin Qasim's departure in 715 most of his captured territories were recaptured by Indian kings.