The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c30.s7.1

v2.c30.s7.1

This branch is known from a stone-inscription which is reported to be incised on the pillar of a temple of Śiva at Kiradu (Kirāṭakūpa), in the Jodhpur State. The inscription is damaged, and has not yet been properly edited, though a transcript of the inscription was published as early as 1918.² Recently a summary of the contents of this inscription has been published by Prof. Bhandarkar.³ Rai Bahadur Ojha⁴ and Dr. Ganguly⁵ have also discussed the contents of this inscription. I have already noticed that there seem to be differences in the readings of the various scholars.⁶ The inscription refers to the origin of the Paramāras from the sacrificial pit on Mount Abu (*Arbuda bhudhara*) and then mentions the name of Mahārāja Sindhurāja of *Marumaṇḍala*. Ganguly suggests his identification with Sindhurāja (*c.* 995-1010 A.D.) of the main line. The next name is given by Bhandarkar as Usala (Utpala) and by Ganguly as Dūsala. According to the former the next two names are lost. The same scholar refers the next name as Dharaṇīvarāha. 'From him Devarāja Dhandhuka¹ who became ruler of *Marumaṇḍala* after propitiating Durlabharāja' who may have been either the Caulukya (*c.* 1010-22 A.D.) or the Cāhamāna prince (*c.* 999 A.D.) of the same name. Next came Kṛṣṇarāja,² Socharāja, Udayarāja, and Someśvara. G. S. Ojha thinks that the Socharāja was the son of the Abu Paramāra Kṛṣṇa II (*c.* 1060-67 A.D.). This is not impossible but in that case there must have been some mistake in reading and interpreting the names before Dharaṇīvarāha. The next prince, Udayarāja, whose might is said to have spread in Coḍa, Gauḍa, Karṇāṭa, and Mālava. His son Someśvara appears to have been the feudatory of both the Caulukya princes Jayasiṁha Siddharāja (*c.* 1094-1144 A.D.) and Kumārapāla (*c.* 1144-73 A.D.). According to Prof. Bhandarkar's reading Someśvara is said to have regained his lost throne in V.S. 1193 (? *c.* 1141 A.D.) through the assistance of the first of these two Caulukya princes. It is not unlikely that Someśvara was ousted from his paternal possessions by an invasion of the Cāhamānas under Arṇorāja (*c.* 1139 A.D.). The inscription next mentions that in V.S. 1205 (*c.* 1148 A.D.) in the time of Kumārapāla Someśvara consecrated a temple. In V.S. 1218 (*c.* 1161 A.D.) he claims to have taken 1,700 horses and the forts of Tanukoṭṭa³ and Navasara⁴ from the Sindhurāja Jajjaka, and made him a vassal of Kumārapāla. We have a Kiradu stone-inscription of the Nadol Cāhamāna Ālhaṇadeva, a feudatory of Kumārapāla, dated in V.S. 1209 (*c.* 1153 A.D.).⁵ This shows that some time after V.S. 1205 he was temporarily ousted from the Kiradu region and was again restored some time before V.S. 1218. Nothing is known about the subsequent career of Someśvara or any of his possible successors.