The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c18.68

v1.c18.68

The inscriptions noticed above are dated from A. D. 1104 to 1109. The reign of Madanapāla must have terminated some time before 1114 A. D., the first known date of his successor.³ It is rather curious that amongst the records so far discovered of Madanapāla's reign no inscription has been found recording a grant by the king himself. If we add to this the fact that in the grants of his successors he is always given only vague praise,⁴ we may perhaps conclude that his reign was dominated by the masterful personality of his son Govindacandra, who was probably already a powerful influence in the administration when his grandfather died, *c.* 1100 A. D. Not only were 3 out of the four grants practically issued by him, but the credit for all victorie sduring his father's reign, which have the appearance of facts, is given to this prince. Thus in Madanapāla's Rahan grant the victories over the Gauḍa elephants and Hammīra are said to have been achieved by the valour of his son Govindacandra.⁵ "The arrays of irresistible mighty large elephants from Gauḍa," whose frontal globes were split (or cloven) by him, probably belonged to Rāmapāla, the last great Pāla king¹ (*c.* 1084-1126 A. D.). The Muslim king who is reported to have laid aside his enmity on seeing the display of the prince's matchless fighting, certainly belonged to the Yamīnī dynasty of Ghazni and Lahore. These rulers from time to time tried to emulate the victories of Maḥmūd by occasionally invading the Ganges-Jumna valley. We have elsewhere noticed one such invasion in 1034 A. D. by Aḥmad Niyāl-tigīn in the reign of Mas'ūd I (*c.* 1030-40 A. D.) which penetrated as far east as Benares. The *Ṭabaqāt-i-Nāṣirī* mentions another such expedition in the reign of Mas'ūd III (*c.* 1099-1115 A. D.). We are told that the “Ḥājib Ṭughā-tigīn crossed the river Gang, in order to carry on a holy war in Hindustan, and penetrated to a place where except Sulṭān Maḥmūd, no one had reached so far with an army before.”² Some of the details of this campaign are perhaps recorded in a poem of Mas'ūd ibn Sa'd ibn Salmān, who lived in the court of Mas'ūd III. Salmān describes Kanauj as ‘the capital of India, the Ka'aba of the Shamans and the Kibla of the Kāfirs.’ We are told that ‘all the treasures of India go to this city as the small streams pour into a large river. It has armies, wealth, elephants, and weapons.’ Its king Malhī (ملھی) or Malhīrā (ملهیرا) was a powerful ruler, and as furious ‘as a hyena.’ But in spite of all his wealth and bravery, he was defeated by Mas'ūd III and compelled to ransom his person by a large sum of money.⁴ There seems little doubt that it was in these conflicts with the Turkish king and his generals that prince Govindacandra distinguished himself. It is however extremely difficult to identify the reigning prince of Kanauj whom Salmān designates as Malhī or Malhīrā.¹ It seems possible that the text is here corrupt. The name intended may have been that of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa Madanapāla, the local ruler of Kanauj, of whom a Budaun inscription tells us that ‘in consequence of whose distinguished prowess there never was any talk of Hamvīra’s coming to the bank of the river of the gods.’²