The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c20.31.6

v1.c20.31.6

One of the Candella fragmentary stone inscriptions of Khajuraho claims that either Harṣa or his son Yaśovarman placed Kṣitipāla on the throne.¹ The Guhila prince Bhaṭṭa, who appears to have been a contemporary of Mahīpāla, is credited in V. 26 of the Chatsu inscription of Bālāditya with having defeated the armies of the kings of the south at the behest of his overlord.² It is not unlikely, as has been suggested, that "the kings of the south were no other than the chiefs of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa army by defeating whom king Mahīpāla regained his territories."³ There is therefore some incontestable evidence that Mahīpāla succeeded in recovering a portion of his dominions with the assistance of his feudatories. There is nothing to shew what the limits of his revived empire were. But there is every reason to believe that the blow inflicted by the Rāṣṭrakūṭas helped to bring about a new relationship between the imperial government and its vassals which in the end proved fatal to it. Thus, though many of the subordinate kings still acknowledged the supremacy of the imperial power in their official documents, they resisted by physical force every attempt of the sovereign to exert any real authority over them. The best example of this state of things is found in the records of the Candellas. Though Dhaṅga retains the name of Vināyakapāla, apparently a Gurjara king, in his inscription even as late as A.D.