The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c31.s6.7

c31.s6.7

The Chandēls, who appear to have been Hinduized Gonds, closely connected with another autochthonous tribe, the Bhars, first acquired a petty principality near Chhatarpur, and gradually advanced northwards until the Jumna became the frontier between their dominions and those of Kanauj. The earlier Rājas may have been subject to the suzerainty of Bhoja and Mahendrapāla, the powerful kings of Panchāla, but in the first half of the tenth century the Chandēls certainly had become independent. Harsha Chandēl, aided perhaps by other allies, helped Mahīpāla to recover the throne of Kanauj from which he had been driven by Indra III Rāshtrakūta in A. D. 916. Harsha's son and successor, Yasovarman, whose power had been greatly enhanced by the occupation of the fortress of Kālanjar, was strong enough to compel Mahīpāla's successor, Devapāla, to surrender a valuable image of Vishnu, which the Chandēl king wanted for a temple built by him at Khajurāho.