The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c30.s3.36

Language: English

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pursued them across the ‘unfathomable Yamunā’ and ‘completely uprooted’ their imperial city. In this unceasing struggle both the Northern and the Deccani powers realised the strategic importance of Gujarat and Malwa. These two areas, together with portions of Rajputana, had been the chief strongholds of the Gurjara-Pratīhāra power from the 6th and 7th centuries A.D. The three principalities of Mandor, Broach and Ujjayinī had withstood the vicissitudes of war and peace for a long time, till at last the rulers of the last seized the imperial crown of Northern India. But this success and the subsequent transference of their capital to Kanauj did not make the Gurjara-Pratīhāras forgetful of the importance of Gujarat and Malwa. The Haddala grants of Mahīpāla and the Partabgarh inscription of Mahendrapāla II seem to show that they tried to maintain their hold over the provinces till about the first half of the 10th century.¹ I have tried to demonstrate elsewhere,² that the Deccani powers from the time of the Sātavāhanas onwards always realised the strategic importance of Gujarat. As soon as Dantidurga (A.D. 754) overthrew the Cālukyas of Badami, he seems to have invaded Southern and Central Gujarat and established Kakkarāja (747 A.D.), possibly his paternal cousin’s son, in the Surat region as his feudatory.

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It would seem from the proximity of the dates of the last Broach Gurjara and Kakka that Lāṭa, roughly the region between the Mahi and the Narbada, was conquered by the Rāṣṭrakūṭas from Jayabhaṭa III (*c.* 706-36 A.D.).³ But the Hansot plates of the Cāhamāna Bhartṛvaḍḍha II, dated in V. S. 813 (*c.* 756 A.D.), shows that the Gurjara Jayabhaṭa III must have been followed at Broach by this Cāhamāna feudatory of Gurjara-Pratīhāra Nāgabhata I.⁴ It was probably from Bhartṛvaḍḍha II or one of his successors that the Rāṣṭrakūṭas conquered Lāṭa. In the time of Nirupama-Dhruva Lāṭa appears to have been placed in charge of his distinguished son Govinda III. The latter after his accession to the throne made extensive raids into the Pratīhāra dominions in Northern India, and then appointed his younger brother Indra-rāja as his viceroy in the Lāṭeśvara-*maṇḍala*. The grants of Indra's successors show that they not only held the territory between the Tapti and Mahi, but that their power also sometimes extended from the river Ambika to the Sabarmati. Many of their grants were made from places in the modern Kaira district. The unfortunate attempt of Dhruva I (*c.* 835-67), the grandson of Indra, to shake off the yoke of Malkhed, which involved the two branches in civil war, appears to have served as a check on the further expansion of Rāṣṭrakūṭa power on this frontier for more than half a century.

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In the reign of Akālavarṣa Kṛṣṇa II (*c.* 888-912 A.D.) the main line of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas seems to have re-established their control over Southern Gujarat. The Karda grant of Amoghavarṣa Kakka II informs us that Kṛṣṇa II's enemies, frightened by his exploits, abandoned Kheṭaka (mod. Kaira) ‘with its *maṇḍala* and its forepart,’ *i.e.*, the surrounding territory.¹ The identity of one of the chief enemies to which the Karda grant refers seems to be established by the Navsari plates of Indra III, ‘which mention his grandfather Kṛṣṇa fighting with the roaring Gurjara’ (*garjad-Gūrjara*). It is likely that this Gurjara power is to be identified not with the Lāṭa Rāṣṭrakūṭas, as Bhagwanlal Indraji suggests, but with the mighty Gurjara-Pratīhāra empire, which now extended from the Kathiawar peninsula to Northern Bengal. It is also possible that the attempt of the Lāṭa Rāṣṭrakūṭas to throw off the yoke of their kinsmen at Malkhed may have been undertaken with the active support of the northern Empire. But unfortunately for the Pratīhāras, the death of Mahendrapāla almost synchronised with the accession of Indra III, one of the most successful military leaders amongst the Rāṣṭrakūṭa kings. Soon after his accession, about 915 A.D., the Rāṣṭrakūṭa monarch undertook his famous expedition against Kanauj.

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I have shown elsewhere that in this northern campaign Indra appears to have passed through Ujjain in Malwa¹ and it is not unlikely that he may have followed the reverse of the route pursued by the Muslims, which passed along the Betwa Valley through Chanderi and Bhilsa. The success of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas thus initiated by Indra’s brilliant victories seems to have continued for some time. The Cambay plates of Govinda IV, as I have already suggested, may indicate that the Rāṣṭrakūṭas retained some hold over the Ganges-Jumna valley till *c.* 930 A.D.² Though the Partabgarh inscription of Mahendrapāla II (A.D. 845-46) shows that the Pratīhāras had recovered possession of Malwa, including Mandu and Ujjain, yet there is evidence to show that they could not effectively checkmate the northern campaigns of their southern rivals. The claim of the Karhad plates of Kṛṣṇa III (*c.* 940-56 A.D.) that during his father Amoghavarṣa-Vaddiga’s reign, his angry glance caused the hopes about Kālañjara and Citrakūṭa to vanish from the heart of the Gurjara, has been confirmed by the recent discovery of his inscriptions in the Ahmedabad district of Gujarat and the Maihar State in Baghelkhand Agency (C.I.).³