The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c31.242

v2.c31.242

These inscriptions range from *c.* 1127 to 1143 A.D. According to the *Prabandha-cintāmaṇi* of Merutuṅga Jayasiṁha's reign extended over a period of 49 years, V.S. 1150-1199 (*c.* 1094-1143 A.D.).² This agrees with the period assigned in the *Therāvalī* of the same author.³ The *Ā'īn-i-Akbarī* and the *Mirāt-i-Aḥmadī* allot him a period of 50 years.⁴ The Bali stone-inscription, dated in V.S. 1200, seems to support the Muslim tradition. According to the *Prabandha-cintāmaṇi*, he ascended the throne when he was still very young, and the power in the state appears to have fallen into the hands of his mother, the dowager queen Mayaṇalladevī.⁵ It is not therefore unlikely, as Bhagvanlal has suggested, that the circumstances that led to the coronation of Jayasiṁha were attended with violence and court intrigue.⁶ The unusual sorrow of Devaprasāda which led him to burn himself alive to follow Karṇa⁷ and the violent death of Madanapāla, the brother of queen Udayamatī, Karṇa's mother,⁸ may be connected with intrigues and struggles for the succession. Merutuṅga seems to indicate that one of the most important acts of the queen-mother Mayaṇalladevī was the abolition of the tax at Bāhuloḍa,⁹ on the pilgrims going to Somnath. According to him the tax yielded seventy-two lakhs to the royal treasury.¹