The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c32.s4.23

v2.c32.s4.23

According to the *Pṛthvīrāja-vijaya*, the next prince was Govindarāja's son Candrarāja II. This agrees with the Harṣa inscription; but the Bijolia epigraph gives the variant Śaśinṛpa.¹ His son was Gūvaka II.² According to the *Pṛthvīrāja-vijaya*, his sister Kalāvatī chose for her husband the king of Kanauj.³ Gūvaka's son was Candanarāja. According to the Harṣa inscription, he defeated and slew in battle a Tomara prince (*Tomareśa*) named Rudrena,⁴ who has not yet been identified. There is reason to believe that the Tomaras were settled in the region round modern Delhi in the 9th century A. D.⁵ The north of the present Jaipur State is reported to be divided into two divisions viz., Taṁvrāvāṭī and Sekhāvāṭī. The former name is said to be derived from the Rajput tribe Taṁvar, who are the same as the Tomaras of the inscriptions. As Taṁvrāvāṭī is not very far from the Sambhar region, Rudrena may have been a prince of this locality.⁶ This conflict and the death of Rudrena may then be regarded as the opening act of that grim struggle which in the middle of the 12th century was to extend the arms of the Cāhamānas to the foot-hills of the Himalayas. According to the *Pṛthvīrāja-vijaya*, Candana's queen Rudrāṇī, also called Ātmaprabhā, set up 1,000 *liṅgas* on the banks of Puṣkara, 'which shone like lights in darkness.'⁷ Candana's son by this queen was Vākpatirāja, called Vappayarāja and Vindhyanṛpati (?) in the Bijolia inscription. The Harṣa inscription gives him the epithet *Mahārāja*, and states that he put to flight one Tantrapāla, who was ‘coming haughtily towards the Ananta country’ to deliver a message of his overlord.¹ The identity of the defeated prince is unknown; but it may be assumed that the kingdom of the Cāhamānas was called *Ananta-gocara*, after the name of its second prince. According to the *Pṛthvīrāja-vijaya*, Vākpati I was a great warrior and won 188 victories. He was also a devotee of Śiva, and built at Puṣkar a temple (*prāsāda*) for Vyomakeśa (Śiva), ‘which looked like Kailāsa.’² He was succeeded by his son Siṁharāja. The Harṣa inscription gives him the epithet *Mahārājādhirāja*, and states that he subdued the Tomara chief (*nāyaka*) Salavaṇa³ and put to flight and captured the hosts that had gathered under his command. The princes who were captured in this struggle were kept in prison till his overlord, who belonged to the ‘family of Raghu,’ came in person to his house to liberate them.⁴ The *Raghu-kula-cakravartin*⁵ referred to in this passage is most probably one of the successors of the Pratīhāra monarch Nāgabhaṭa II, to whom, as we have seen, Gūvaka I owed allegiance. It is difficult to identify the Pratīhāra prince; but as we have the date 973 A.D. for the successor of Siṁharāja, he must be either Mahendrapāla II (A.D. 946) or one of his weak successors. The fact that the overlord had to come personally to the house of his feudatory to effect the release of prisoners is sufficient evidence of the increasing importance of the Cāhamānas of Śākambharī and of the decline of the imperial power of Kanauj.