The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c6.s5.20

c6.s5.20

Left alone in the field, the Gahdvalas steadily widened their dominion. Grants found in Gorakhpur, Allahabad, and Patna outline the eastward expansion of Govindachandra’s kingdom². These conquests were mostly at the cost of the Pala possessions. The expansionist policy was continued by Vijayachandra (c. 1155-1170) in whose reign the district of Shahabad appears under Gahdvala sway³. His son and successor, Jaichand of the Muslim writers, was the last of the imperial Gahdvalas. Among his grants, which range in date from 1170 to 1189, those issued from Benares and Gaya testify to his continued hold on Bihar⁴. We shall have occasion to describe the hostilities that must have been occasioned by these conquests with the Pala and Sena rulers. Towards the northeast corner of the Gahdvala kingdom a line of Rashtrakuta princes held sway over Budaon from the time of Chandradeva⁵, presumably as feudatories.