History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c16.s1.t2.28

c16.s1.t2.28

But the most noteworthy tribute to his achievements is paid by the inscriptions of his victorious rivals, the Rāṣṭrakūṭas themselves. We are, for example, told in the Wani-Dindori⁵ and Radhanpur grants⁶ that Vatsarāja had become “intoxicated with the goddess of the sovereignty (of the country of) Gauḍa that he had acquired with ease,” and that his fame “had reached to the extremities of the regions.” Again, the Baroda plates of 812 A. D. inform us that the lord of Gurjaras became “evilly inflamed by conquering the lord of Gauḍa and the lord of Vanga.”¹ It is, however, not necessary to suppose that Vatsarāja’s armies overran Bengal, for he may have come into conflict with the Gauḍa monarch, identified with Dharmapāla, far away during the latter’s foreign expeditions. Perhaps after this trial of strength their relations became more happy. This would be evident if we remember that the Khalimpur plates depose that the ruler of Avanti approved of the installation of Cakrāyudha at Kanauj under the ægis of Dharmapāla. Presumably Vatsarāja made this diplomatic gesture on account of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa danger then looming large on the political horizon. But nothing availed him, and the storm soon burst in all its destructive fury. For, the Wani and Radhanpur grants attest that Dhruva caused Vatsarāja “to enter upon the path of misfortune in the centre of (the deserts of) Maru,” which expression probably means that the Rāṣṭrakūṭa monarch met his rival in a successful encounter and compelled him to take shelter in the inhospitable tracts of Rajputana, where, as shown above, the Pratīhāras of Ujjain had already established their supremacy.