The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c31.633

v2.c31.633

Another important foreign invasion that seriously troubled Gujarat during this period appears to have come from the south. The inscriptions of the Yādava king Siṅghaṇa (*c.* 1210-47 A.D.) claims repeated victories over the Gurjaras.⁸ One of Siṅghaṇa’s earlier expeditions was apparently led by his Brāhman general Kholeśvara.⁹ Fleet has suggested that this expedition took place in the time of Lavaṇaprasāda,¹⁰ who, as we have seen, was the chief minister of Bhīma II. The Yāvada claims to victory over the Gujarat kings seems to be confirmed by two pieces of literary evidence. Someśvara in his *Kīrti-kaumudī* tells us that during the time of Lavaṇaprasāda and his son Vīradhavala, Siṅghaṇa with a mighty army crossed the Tapti and overran the country about Broach. The capital of the Gurjaras trembled with fear, and the terror-stricken villagers fled *en masse* from their route, guiding their movements by the columns of smoke from the burnt villages that marked the advance of the Yādava army. Lavaṇaprasāda when he heard this, though he had but a small army advanced to the Mahī and ‘did not consider them unconquerable.’ In the meantime however four kings of Mārwāḍ rose against Lavaṇaprasāda, and were joined by the chiefs of Godhrā and Lāṭa. “In these circumstances Lavaṇaprasāda suddenly stopped his march and turned backwards.” The Yādava army, however, did not, according to Someśvara, advance further; but he gives no reason whatever for this, observing only that “deer do not follow a lion's path even when he has left it.”¹ But as Sir R. G. Bhandarkar has remarked “if the invasion spread such terror over the country, as Someśvara himself represents, and the army of Siṅghaṇa was so large, it is impossible to conceive how it could have ceased to advance when the Gurjara prince retreated unless he had agreed to pay tribute, or satisfied the Yādava commander in some other way.”² His guess is confirmed by the *Lekha-paddhati*,³ also known as *Lekha-pañcāśikā*, of an unknown author, which gives us the following draft of a treaty (*Yamala-patra*) between Siṁhaṇa (Siṅghaṇa) and Lāvaṇyaprasāda, dated in (V.) *Saṁvat* 1288.