The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c18.301

v1.c18.301

The 16 inscriptions noticed above range over a period of 29 years (A.D. 1170-89). The Tārācaṇḍī rock-inscriptions (A. D. 1169) of his father and his own Benares (A. D. 1175) and the Bodhgayā (A.D. 118?) inscriptions show that the Gāhaḍavālas maintained their hold on Shahabad, Patna, and Gaya districts of Bihar during the period *c.* 1150-80 A. D. It was in this area that they probably came into conflict with the Senas, who since the days of Vijayasena (*c.* 1097-1159 A. D.) were trying to extend their influence along the Ganges towards the west. The statement in the Sena records that Lakṣmaṇasena (*c.* 1184-1206 A. D.) defeated an unnamed *Kāśirāja* and raised pillars of victory at Benares and Allahabad⁵ certainly refers to his conflict with the Gāhaḍavālas of the Ganges valley. According to the *Pṛthvīrāj Rāso*, 'Jayacandra' is said to have maintained friendly relations with the Candellas and helped the Candella king Paramardī (*c.* 1167-1202) in his wars against the Cāhamāna Pṛthvīrāja II (*c.* 1177-1192 A. D.).⁶ The same epic contains the story of the hostility between Pṛthvīrāja II and 'Jayacandra' and the romantic episode of the love and marriage of Pṛthvīrāja and Jayaccandra's daughter Saṁyogitā. It is difficult to believe in the details of the *Rāso* in view of the demonstrated unreliability of the poem in its present form.⁷ But it may well be that its stories of the struggles between the Cāhamānas, Gāhaḍavālas and Candellas have a substantial basis of truth. Lulled into a false sense of security by the temporary cessation of vigorous attacks from the weak successors of Maḥmūd, they carried on their petty feuds and failed to notice the formidable storm-cloud that was slowly gathering strength in the hills of Ghūr. It must remain an interesting historical speculation, whether a common front presented by the later Yamīnīs, Cāhamānas, Gāhaḍavālas, and Candellas could have stemmed the advancing tide. But there is no evidence that they realised their danger or that they showed any tendency to combine their forces. By the year 1186 A. D., the last of the Yāmīnīs had been swept away from Lahore, leaving the Eastern Punjab and the Ganges-Jumna valley open to the attacks of another horde of Turks, not less bigoted or ferocious than the Yamīnīs, but led by chiefs who were certainly superior to the Ghaznavids in the practical gifts of empire-building. Within five years the Cāhamānas were fighting a life-and-death struggle in the field of Taraori,¹ near Karnal. There is no evidence to show that Jayaccandra, even from an intelligent perception of his own self-interest, co-operated in any way with the Cāhamānas. Before the death-agonies of the Cāhamāna kingdom in the second battle of Taraori (A. D. 1192) had died away, Muḥammad Ghūrī, in 590 H. (A. D. 1193) advancing "towards Kinnauj and Banāras," overthrew Jayaccandra in the vicinity of Chandwar.² The *Tajul-Ma'āthir* the almost contemporary work³ of Ḥasan Nizāmī, gives the following account of the Muslim campaign against the Gāhaḍavālas.