The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c30.s4.246

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The inscriptions noticed above give us the dates V. S. 1191 to 1199 (*c.* 1134-42 A.D.) for the reign of Yaśovarman. The Paramāra records say nothing about any incidents of the reign of these two princes. The reason for their silence is probably to be found in the statements of the Caulukya records. The *Kumārapāla-carita* tells us that Jayasiṁha destroyed Dhārā and killed Naravarman.⁵ According to the *Prabandha-cintāmaṇi*, the Mālava king Yaśovarman once invaded and overran Gujarat, while Jayasiṁha was absent from his capital. It was with great difficulty and humiliation that the Gujarat minister, after washing the Mālava king's feet and throwing 'into the hollow of his hand a handful of water, as a sign of the transference of merit' gained by his master by his pilgrimages, succeeded in persuading Yaśovarman to turn back. The chronicler then proceeds to state that as a result of this a war of 12 years' duration took place between the two kingdoms, at the end of which Jayasiṁha stormed Dhārā, captured Yaśovarman, and led him in triumph to Anahillapura.¹ The *Dvyāśraya*² and the *Vasantavilāsa*³ substantially corroborate the statement of Merutuṅga. I have shown elsewhere that the statements of the chroniclers are supported by epigraphic evidence.⁴ Jayasiṁha's assumption of the title of *Avantīnātha*, which first appears in his Gala grant⁵ shows that the Caulukya king must have achieved substantial success in his protracted campaign before V. S. 1193 (A.D. 1137).

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His Ujjain inscription shows that one of the capitals of the Paramāras was already in the hands of Jayasiṁha before V. S. 1195 (A.D. 1139). The Jhalrapatan fragmentary inscription of Yaśovarman possibly indicated that the Paramāra king had been forced to withdraw down the valley of Kali Sindhu, but succeeded in maintaining a precarious existence in the lower valley of that river up to V.S. 1199 (A. D. 1142). The Dohad and Udayapur inscriptions of Jayasiṁha unquestionably prove Caulukya occupation of the whole territory from the Panch Mahals to the Betwa. These repeated disasters to the fortunes of the Paramāras must have shaken the foundations of their power in Malwa. There is reason to believe that the Paramāras never fully recovered from the blow which destroyed Bhoja and his empire. This is shown by the *Ingnoda stone-inscription of Vijayapāla* This was found ‘engraved on a slab of stone…… which is now let into the wall of a newly built temple at Ingnoda, in the territory of the junior Rāja of Dewas.’¹ It contains 15 lines, opening with *Om̐ namaḥ*, after which follows the date (V.) *Saṁvat* 1190 (*c.* 1133 A.D.). It then records that (here) in Iṁganapaṭa,¹ *M.-P.-Pṛthvīpāla-pādānudhyāta-Pb.-M.-P.-Tuhinapāladeva-pādānudhyāta-M.-P.-Vijayapāladeva*, after worshipping *Bhavānī-pati* (Siva), granted the village of Agāsiyaka to the god Gohādeśvara.

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It was written by the *Vālabhānvaya-Kāyastha* Kelhaṇa, and engraved by the *Sūtradhāra* Sājaṇa.² This inscription reveals the presence of a kingdom within about 50 miles North-east of Ujjain, the princes of which, to judge from their titles, seem to have claimed an independent position. As the record supplies the date, V. S. 1190 for Vijayapāla, it may be concluded that his grand-father carved out this principality on the lower course of the Sipra not long after V. S. 1111-12 (*c.* 1054-55 A.D.), when Bhoja apparently met his doom at the hands of Karṇa and his allies. The presence of this independent kingdom shows the limitations of the jurisdiction of Udayāditya and his successors, and explains the reason why Jayasiṁha, apparently unaided by any powerful ally, was able single-handed to deal such heavy blows against his western neighbours. Jayasiṁha’s victories had so paralysed the energies of the Paramāras that even when death relaxed the grip of the Caulukya king on Mālava, they apparently did not succeed in recovering their ancestral possessions in Avanti. On the evidence of the Dohad inscription of the *Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara* Vāpanadeva, I have suggested elsewhere¹ that some time between 1140 and 1146 the Caulukyas may have lost their hold on the Panch Mahals, which commanded one of the important strategic routes to Malwa.

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The intrigue and dissensions which became rampant in the Caulukya court towards the later years of Jayasiṁha (*c.* 1094-1144 A.D.) and the difficulties which at first beset the path of his successor Kumārapāla (*c.* 1144-73 A.D.) may have produced a ‘troubled state’ in the distant provinces ‘apt to rouse the ambitions of a conqueror or a usurper.’ The significant omission of the name of Dhārā in the Ujjain grant of Lakṣmīvarman, dated V. S. 1200 (A. D. 1244),² as his place of residence, while in the same grant it is mentioned as the place of residence of his father Yaśovarman in V. S. 1191 (*c.* 1134 A.D.), seems to indicate that the city, which had been lost some time before V. S. 1193 (A.D. 1137), had not yet been recovered by the Paramāras in V.S. 1200. The occurrence of the name of one Ballāla as ruler of Avanti Mālava, and Dhārā during this period in Jain chronicles and Caulukya inscriptions therefore shows, as Lüders long ago supposed,³ that these territories had been conquered by this usurper of unknown lineage. I have shown elsewhere⁴ how this Ballāla formed an alliance with the Śākambharī Cāhamāna Arṇorāja to attack Kumārapāla. But unfortunately for the enemies of the Caulukyas, the scheme failed. Arṇorāja was defeated, and Ballāla himself lost his life in the struggle that followed the submission of the Cāhamāna prince.

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An Abu inscription tells us that the Paramāra Yaśodhavala of Candrāvatī ‘quickly killed Ballāla, the lord of Mālava, when he had learned that he had become hostile to the Caulukya king Kumārapāla.’⁵ The evident identity of this ‘lord of Mālava’ whose head, we are informed by the Vadnagar *praśasti* (V. S. 1208),¹ Kumārapāla suspended at his gate, with Ballāla shows that the latter must have lost his life between *c.* 1144 and 1151 A.D. The Udayapur inscriptions of Kumārapāla,² dated in V.S. 1220 and 1222, proves that sometime before *c.* 1163-66 A.D., Kumārapāla, like his predecessor, had re-established his grip on Malwa up to the banks of the Betwa in the west. There is no reason to suspect that this grip was relaxed before the end of his reign (*c.* 1173 A.D.)