The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c29.200

c29.200

The territory of Valabhī (Walā) in Eastern Kāthiāwār, which intervened between Mo-la-p'o and Surāshtra, had a king of its own, Dhruvabhata by name (Dhruvasena Bālāditya of inscriptions), who was the son-in-law of Harsha (Sīlāditya), paramount sovereign of Northern India. Some years before the pilgrim's visit, Dhruvabhata had been defeated by Harsha, and the matrimonial alliance seems to have been one of the arrangements made when peace was declared. In 643, when Harsha held the solemn assemblies at Kanauj and Prayāga (Allahābād), in which Hiuen Tsang took part, the Rāja of Valabhī attended as a vassal prince in the train of his father-in-law. The pilgrim does not say a word about the nature of the government of Mo-la-p'o and its three dependencies, Ānandapura, Surāshtra, and (?) Cutch, the reason apparently being that all these countries were administered on behalf of Harsha, whose father had fought the king of Mālava, perhaps Mo-la-p'o, at the close of the sixth century. The fact that Dhruvabhata is named as the Rāja or king of the Valabhī territory interposed between Mo-la-p o and its dependency, Surāshtra, can be explained by assuming that Harsha (Śīlāditya) purposely allowed his son-in-law to occupy a semi-independent position, governing not only Valabhī, but also Mo-la-p'o and its dependencies.