History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c16.s1.t3.18

c16.s1.t3.18

Verse eleven in the same record, however, makes more specific mention of his victories, which comprised the “forcible seizure” (hathāpahāraḥ) of the hill-forts of Ānartta or northern Kāṭhiāwāḍ; Mālava or Central India; the Matsyas or eastern Rajputana; the Kirātas, who were perhaps the wild tribes of the Himālayan region;¹ the Turuṣkas, probably designating the earliest Moslem settlements in Western India; and the Vatsas in the territory of Kausambi (Kosam). It is difficult to see how far they represent actual annexations, but making due allowance for any exaggeration we may roughly define the kingdom of Kanauj under Nāgabhaṭa as comprising parts of Rajputana, a large portion of the modern United Provinces and Central India, perhaps northern Kāṭhiāwāḍ, with Kosambi and adjacent territories for its south-eastern limit. That Nāgabhaṭa was a powerful king exercising sway over a number of petty chiefs is also clear from the Harṣa stone inscription of Vigraharāja, dated the Vikrama year 1030 or 973 A. D.,² wherein one of his predecessors, the Cāhamāna Gūvaka I, is described as having obtained honour at the court of Nāgavaloka, which evidently seems a polite way of expressing a feudatory rank. The relevant passage runs as follows: