The Rashtrakutas and their Times c9.s2.9

c9.s2.9

After punishing his southern neighbours for siding with his elder brother, Dhruva turned his attention to Northern India. As Dharmapāla of Bengal is known to have married a Rāṣṭrakūṭa princess, Raṇṇādevī, daughter of king Parabala, ¹⁹ it was once believed that Dhruva had undertaken the northern expedition as an ally of Dharmapāla against their common enemy Vatsarāja, the Gurjara-Pratīhāra ruler. This view is, however, no longer tenable as the v. 14 ²⁰ of the Sanjan plates of Amoghavarṣa I, recently published, distinctly says that Dhruva fought also against the Gauda ruler in his northern expedition. The real motive of the northern campaign of Dhruva seems to have been to teach a lesson to Vatsarāja, ²¹ who had tried to espouse the cause of Govinda II.