The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c32.s6.98

v2.c32.s6.98

The identification of this Rāyapāla with the Rāyapāla of Nadol shows that he was probably the immediate successor of his father Ratnapāla. The efforts of Aśvarāja (*c.* 1110-43 A.D.) to recover Nadol therefore appear to have been futile. But the *Sevadi stone-inscription* of his son Kaṭudeva³ dated in (Siṁha) *Saṁvat* 31 (*c.* 1143 A.D.) shows that the latter succeeded in capturing the ancestral seat, at least for some time between *c.* 1141 and 1143 A.D. This inscription was found incised on a piece of stone surmounted by the figure of a cow and her calf at Sevadi; near a house in front of the Jaina temple of Mahāvīra. It contains 11 lines. The record is mutilated, but gives the date (Siṁha) *Saṁvat* 31, when *M.* Kaṭudeva was reigning at Naḍūla and while Ṣamīpāṭī was being enjoyed by (his son) the *Yuvarāja* Jayatasīha.⁴ The use of the Siṁha era seems to indicate that Kaṭudeva was, like his father, under the influence of the Caulukyas. But the fact that he omits the name of his sovereign lord Jayasiṁha (*c.* 1094-1144 A.D.) may indicate a tendency to assert his independence. If this was so, it met with immediate punishment; during the period V. S. 1203 to 1218 (*c.* 1146-61) not a single inscription of the Cāhamānas has been discovered in Godwar, and instead of them we find the records of one Vāijalladeva¹ (V.S. 1210-1216), the *Daṇḍanāyaka* of the Caulukya Kumārapāla (1144-73 A.D.) ruling at Nadūla (Nadol).² It has been suggested that the Cāhamānas were supplanted for their partiality towards the Śākambharī prince Arṇorāja (*c.* 1139 A.D.), with whom Kumārapāla was on hostile terms.³ In any case, the inscriptions of the Caulukya sovereign⁴ and those of his officer clearly testify that the power of the Nadol Cāhamānas was for some time in abeyance, if not suppressed. But by the year A.D. 1161 they again appear in possession of their ancestral capital. The course of events seems to be indicated by the following inscriptions of Ālhaṇadeva, also known as Ālaṇadeva, and Āhlādana, the son of the Naddūla Cāhamāna Āśārāja (1110-43 A.D.):