History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c17.s2.21.4

c17.s2.21.4

As it is unlikely that a minor prince like Bhāmāna would by himself lead an expedition from Gorakhpur District, where this Kalacuri family was settled, to distant Ujjain, we may reasonably suppose that he accompanied his suzerain Mahīpāla in his southern campaigns and helped him in his victories. Another chief who rendered him similar assistance was perhaps his Guhila contemporary, Bhaṭṭa, who is represented in the Cātsū inscription as having defeated the armies of the kings of the south at the behest of his overlord.¹ Presumably the progress of Mahīpāla’s arms was facilitated by the then moribund condition of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa monarchy, for we are told in the Karhad plates that Indra III’s successor, Govinda IV, instead of looking to the affairs of the state, had taken to “vicious courses” and had thus “with his intelligence caught in the noose of the eyes of women displeased all beings.”² The weakness of Govinda IV’s rule is also apparent from the fact that according to the *Vikramārjunavijaya* of the Kanarese poet Pampa he was defeated by one of his feudatories, Arikeśarin II of Puligere.³ This event must have occurred soon after Śaka 851 or 930 A. D., the date of the Kalas inscription, which bestows conventional praises on Govinda IV.⁴