The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c30.s4.390

v2.c30.s4.390

The three inscriptions noticed above show that Jayavarman II ruled at Dhārā at least from V.S. 1312 to 1315 (*c.* 1256-60). If the name 'Jayasimha' is accepted as a variation of his name⁶ then he appears to have come into conflict with the Cāhamānas of Ranastambhapura.⁷ In the Balvan plates of Hammīra, Vāgbhaṭa, a descendant of Govindarāja is said to have harassed Jayasiṁha of Maṇḍapa (mod. Mandu).¹ How long Jayavarman II continued to wield power in Mālava, it is difficult at present to say. But a reconsideration of the inscriptions which hitherto have been referred to a separate prince named Jayasiṁha may suggest that some of them perhaps belong to the immediate successor of Jaitugi. One such is the *Pathari inscription*, dated in *V.S.* 1326 (A.D. 1269), which Kielhorn referred to his reign.² The date is so close to the last known date (V.S. 1317) of Jayavarman II that one is naturally tempted to think that there may have been some mistake in reading the name or that they are both the names of the same prince. Some scholars however take him to be a separate prince who succeeded Jayavarman II as Jayasiṁha III.³ But that there was a separate prince bearing the name Jayasiṁha who ruled in Malwa in *V. S.* 1366 (*c.* 1310 A.D.) is clearly shown by a stone inscription incised on the inside of the eastern entrance of the great temple of Udayapur (Gwalior State, C.I.).⁴ The date of this record is so far removed from the last known date of Jayavarman II that he must in all likelihood be accepted as a separate person.⁵ Whether his rule extended over Dhārā, as Kielhorn suggested, is however uncertain. But before this Jayasiṁha we must place two more princes. Rai Bahadur Ojha has pointed out that an inscription engraved on a slab in the temple of Kavālji (Kapālīśvara) in the Balvan estate of Kotah, dated in V.S. 1345, the Cāhamāna Hammīra of Ranathambhor (c. 1283-1301 A.D.) claims to have taken away the fortune of Mālava by defeating Arjuna. Ojha accepts this Mālava prince as Arjunavarman II in the Paramāra line of Malwa.¹ Another ruler of Mālava who may possibly have been the successor of Arjuna II was Bhoja II. The *Hammīra Mahākāvya* of Nayacandra tells that the Cāhamāna prince Hammīra (*c.* 1283-1301 A.D.) in the course of his *dig-vijaya* defeated Bhoja of Dhārā, encamped in Ujjayinī and worshipped at the temple of Mahākāla.² From the similarity of this name with that of some of the Paramāras of Malwa and from the locality over which he reigned it will probably be safe to consider him as a successor of Arjuna(varman II ?). But the exact relationship of this prince with Bhoja II (?) and of both with their predecessors or with their possible successors is at present unknown. Some scholars accept Jayasiṁha of the Udaipur inscription (V.S. 1366), as the successor of Bhoja II and as the last prince of the line of the Paramāras of Malwa.³ But this must remain at present a guess, unsupported by any conclusive evidence.