The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c30.s3.36.3

v2.c30.s3.36.3

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.