History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c16.s1.t6.18

c16.s1.t6.18

But the glory of Mahendrapāla's reign is partially dimmed by the diminution that his kingdom suffered in the north-west, for the verse of the Rājatarangiṇī quoted above informs us that the territories which were seized by the superior lord Bhoja were afterwards restored to the Thakkiya family during the course of Saṃkaravarman's expeditions abroad. This transaction has sometimes been assigned to the reign of Bhoja himself, but without adequate reason, as the context of the passage indicates that the Kashmiri monarch could not have "put forth great efforts to conquer the world" till long after his accession in *c.* 883 A. D. In the beginning he had to face a civil war "during which the kingdom was as if placed in a swing," and his position was so weakened that his commands were "disregarded in the purlieus of his own capital." If we, therefore, assume that he took some years—say about four years—to quell these disturbances, which, we are told, he did "with difficulty," and to make his throne secure, the date of his foreign undertakings would fall about 887-88 A. D. This would bring us very near the date of Mahendrapāla’s campaigns in the eastern regions—the earliest known date of the Pratihāra occupation of Magadha being the regnal year 2(?) and that of Northern Bengal the year 5 or *circa* 590 A. D. according to the Paharpur inscription¹—and we may not even be wrong in supposing that it was his rival’s preoccupation in the east which gave the opportunity to Śaṁkaravarman to carry out the transfer of the territories annexed earlier by Bhoja.