History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c17.s6.15

c17.s6.15

This pusillanimous submission of Rājyapāla, however, enraged the native chiefs and soon after the invader's departure Ganda, the Candella chief,⁵ formed a confederacy with the neighbouring princes to punish the cowardly ruler of Kanauj. The command was entrusted to the Candella crown-prince named Vidyādhara¹, and a fierce battle ensued in which, as we are told in the Dubkuṇḍ inscription of the Kacchapaghāta Vikramasiṃha, Arjuna “being anxious to serve the illustrious Vidyādharadeva”, slew Rājyapāla “with many showers of arrows that pierced his neckbone”². The same event is probably referred to in the Mahoba inscription, which represents Vidyādhara as having “caused the destruction of the king of Kanyākubja”.³ In the *Kamil-ut-Tawārīkh* Ibn-ul-Asir also deposes that Bīdā⁴ the accursed, who was the greatest of the rulers of India in territory and had the largest armies, and whose kingdom was called Kajurāha, sent messengers to the Ray of Kanauj named Rājyapāl rebuking him for his flight and the surrender of his dominions to the Musulmans. Hostilities then broke out between them with the result that Rājyapāl was killed in the fight and most of his soldiers also perished”.⁵ When Mahmud received