The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c20.22.4

v1.c20.22.4

Such an assumption of internal dissensions in the family and enmity between Mahīpāla on the one hand and Bhoja and Vināyakapāla on the other, would furnish satisfactory reasons for the omission of Mahīpāla’s name from the records of Vināyakapāla and also explain some of the causes that may have operated to bring about the decline of the Gurjara Pratīhāras, so soon after the death of Mahendrapāla. But as this theory does not satisfactorily explain the absence of the name of Kṣitipāla from the inscription of Vināyakapāla, I would tentatively adhere to the arrangement of Kielhorn and Bhandarkar. According to this theory Mahendrapāla was succeeded some time after A.D. 907-08 by his son Bhoja II. Nothing is known about this prince excepting that he had a short reign and that he must have ceased to rule some time before 914 A.D., the first known date of Mahīpāla. There is reason to think that Mahīpāla during the first part of his reign succeeded in preserving the mighty empire that was handed down to him by his predecessors. Thus Rājaśekhara in the introduction of his *Bālabhārata* or *Pracaṇḍapāṇḍava* describes the victories of Mahīpāla in the following terms: "In that (lineage of Raghu), there was born the glorious Mahīpāladeva, who has bowed down the locks of hair on the tops of the head of the Muralas, who has caused the Mekalas to suppurate; who has driven the Kaliṅgas before him in war; who has spoilt the pastime of (the king who is) the moon of the Keralas;