History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c17.s3.1

c17.s3.1

The name of this shadowy monarch was brought to light a few years ago by the discovery of a long inscription at Partabgarh, the capital of a state of the same name in southern Rajputana.¹ He is therein described as the son of Vināyakapāla (Mahīpāla) by queen Prasādhanādevī of the Devathāddhi family, and must have come to the throne shortly before the year 1003 or 946 A. D., when this inscription was issued from Mahodaya. It says that at the request of one Dhanasūra Mahendrapāla II bestowed the village of Kharpara-padraka, in the holding of Talavargika Hariṣaḍa, and situated in the vicinity of Ghoṇtā-varṣikā in the western pathaka of Dasapura (Mandasor), upon the goddess Vaṭa-Yakṣiṇī Devī, whose shrine was connected with the *maṭha* of Hari Riśīśvara. The chief point to be noticed is that even during Mahendrapāla II’s reign the kingdom of Kanauj extended so far south as Ujjain, where Mādhava, son of Dāmodara, was acting as the “great feudatory, great governor, and *charge d’affaires* (Tantra-pāla, Mahāsāmanta, Mahādaṇḍanāyaka), and his Commander-in-chief (Balādhikrita), Śrī-Śarman, was carrying on the affairs of state at Maṇḍapikā or Māṇḍū. The record adds that on the *Mīna Saṃkrānti* day Mādhava, having bathed and paid devotions at the sanctuary of Mahākāla, granted at the request of the Cāhamāna feudatory, Mahāsāmanta Indrarāja, the village of Dhārā-padraka for the worship of the idol, and repairs of the temple, of Taruṇāditya-deva. In my opinion this important document alone is sufficient to shatter the current theories that date the downfall of the Pratīhāra empire from the time of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa Indra III’s invasion of Kanauj.² And luckily we have got epigraphic evidence to prove the continued inclusion of the intervening regions of Gwalior also, for the Rakhetra stone inscription,¹ discovered in the village of that name, near Canderi in Gwalior, says that Vināyakapāla constructed certain water-works there at an immense cost in the year (Vikrama) 999-1000 or 942-43 A. D. i.e., just one or two years before Mahendrapāla II ascended the throne.