History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c16.s1.2

c16.s1.2

The exact circumstances which led Nāgabhaṭa II to attack Kanauj are more or less shrouded in mystery, but it seems the elevation of Cakrāyudha under the patronage of Dharmapāla was followed by troublous times. The Rāṣṭrakūṭas, who had now begun to intervene in the affairs of the north, as is evident from the raids of Dhruva (circa 779-794 A. D.),¹ could not long tolerate the Bengal king's assumption of supreme status in Northern India, and a trial of strength between the two rising powers became inevitable.² Govinda III (circa 794-814 A. D.), the son and successor of Dhruva, threw out a challenge to Dharmapāla's imperial pretensions, and the result of this conflict is preserved in the Sanjan plates of Amoghavarṣa I : "The water of the springs of the Himālaya mountains was drunk by Govinda III's horses and plunged into by his elephants, the thunder was redoubled in (its) caverns by the tūrya musical instruments of (his) ablutions, (and) to whom, the great one, those (kings) Dharma and Cakrāyudha surrendered of themselves. He thus bore resemblance to the fame of Himālaya, and was consequently Kīrti-Nārāyaṇa.”¹ Dharma and Cakrāyudha in this passage undoubtedly refer to the king of Kanauj and his liege-lord, whose combined strength even could not successfully resist the northward triumphant march of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa army. We may, therefore, be sure that this foreign invasion, coming close on the heels of other depredations in the Doab, must have considerably harassed the populace and introduced anarchy and misrule. Such an unsettled state of affairs was bound to invite aggressions from ambitious quarters, and the Gwalior inscription of Bhoja thus informs us how Nāgabhaṭa II availed himself of this opportunity: “Who, desirous of the great growth of virtuous acts enjoined in the Vedas, performed a series of religious ceremonies according to the custom of Kṣatriya families; and after having defeated Cakrāyudha, whose lowly demeanour was manifest from his dependence on others, he became eminent, although he was humble through modesty.”² After achieving this victory there are indications that Nāgabhaṭa boldly annexed Kanauj, but before taking up the thread of the history of the Pratihāras, we must make a slight digression to trace their origin and briefly survey their antecedent position.