History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c17.s4.1

c17.s4.1

Mahendrapāla II's reign must have terminated sometime before the (Vikrama) year 1005 or 948 A. D., when according to the Siyadoni inscription another son of Kṣitipāla alias Mahīpāla named Devapāla was ruling in Kanauj². This record describes him as the immediate successor of his father, and we may therefore explain the omission of Mahendrapāla II's name by the extreme shortness of his reign, or by the assumption that their relations were unfriendly. The reign of Devapāla appears to have been marked by the rise of the Candellas to virtual independent power, for we are told in a Khajurāho inscription that Yaśovarman Candella was "a scorching fire to the Gurjaras," and that he "easily conquered the fort of Kālañjara"³, which, as we have seen above from the Barah copper plate, was subject to the authority of Kanauj. But if we admit that it was taken by Kṛṣṇa III from the Pratīhāras before the Deoli plates were issued in 940 A. D.⁴, then evidently Yaśovarman must have reconquered Kālañjara from the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, although it is significant they are not mentioned in the Khajurāho inscription among the peoples defeated by the Candella ruler. Whatever be the fact regarding the capture of this important stronghold, it was probably because of his growing strength and independence that Yaśovarman compelled Devapāla to surrender to him a celebrated image of Vaikuṇṭha, which was subsequently set up in a temple built by the former himself. It is interesting to note that Devapāla had obtained this image for a force of elephants and horses from Sāhī, the king of Kira,¹ who in his turn had received it as a token of friendship from the lord of Bhoṭa,² and the latter again is said to have acquired it in the Kailāśa mountains.³ Such a transaction by a quondam feudatory was doubtless a great blow to the prestige of the Pratihāras, and from this time onward the decline sets in, and the empire reared by the genius of Bhoja I and Mahendrapāla I begins to crumble to pieces.