The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c29.s2.76

v2.c29.s2.76

These descriptions of Lakṣmaṇarāja’s victories are of course not free from the usual suspicion attaching to all royal *praśastis*; but certain statements in them seem to contain some truth. His claim to have advanced as far as Somnath (Patan), in the Kathiawar peninsula, seems to be based on an historical fact. During the second half of the 10th century A.D., which probably saw the reigns of both Lakṣmaṇarāja and his father Yuvaraja I, great confusion prevailed in the Gurjara and Lāṭa countries. During the first half of the 10th century Southern Gujarat (Lāṭa) was held by the Silāhāra feudatories of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas of Mānyakheṭaka, while Northern Gujarat was possessed by the Gurjara-Pratīhāras of Kanauj. With the decline of the Pratīhāra and Rāṣṭrakūṭa powers in the 2nd half of the 10th century, their hold on those distant provinces also grew weak, and during the last quarter of this century we find the Caulukya Mūlarāja (*c.* 974-95 A.D.) fighting with Bārappa, the general of the Cāḷukya Taila II (*c.* 973-97 A.D.), for the possession of Gujarat.¹ In this period of uncertainty, therefore, it was not very difficult for a daring king to penetrate into Gujarat and Kathiawar with a mobile force. It is interesting to remember in this connection the claim of Yuvarāja I to have 'sported with Lāṭa women.'' By penetrating to Somnath (Patan), therefore, Lakṣmaṇarāja merely carried forward a step further the policy initiated by his illustrious predecessor. The references to the ornamented effigy of the serpent *Kāliya* seem to indicate that his claim to victory over the lord of Kosala was also genuine. It is however difficult to identify this *Kosala-nātha* or the *Oḍra-nṛpati* from whom Yuvarāja obtained the bejewelled *Kāliya*. The former may have been one of the earlier members of the Somavaṁśī rulers of Orissa who regularly assumed the title of *Kosalendra*.² There is again no inherent impossibility in the claim that Lakṣmaṇarāja defeated the king of the Vaṅgālas. For the second half of the 10th century marked a dark patch in the history of the Pālas, which appears to have culminated in the Kamboja rebellion. The references in the records of the Pālas and the Varmans, as well as the Paikor (Birbhum dist., Bengal) pillar inscription of Lakṣmī-Karṇa, conclusively prove that the Kalacuris in the first half of the 11th century were in intimate contact with the Bengal rulers.³