History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c18.s1.t3.1

c18.s1.t3.1

Madanapāla was succeeded by his son Govindacandra¹ at some date between the years V. E. 1166= 1109 A.D., when the former is known to have been alive,² and 1114 A. D., when the latter first issued a charter in his own name as the ruling sovereign.³ His mother’s name was probably Rālhadevi or Rālhaṇadevī, who gave her consent to a grant made by him in 1105 A. D. during his father’s lifetime.⁴ Besides executing deeds, Govindacandra seems to have wielded substantial power in the state while he was only a “yuvarāja” or crown-prince. He defeated the invading bands of Moslems sometime before 1109 A. D., for the Rahan plate records that he “again and again by the play of his matchless fighting” compelled the Hammīra (i.e., Amir) to “lay aside his enmity.”⁵ The immunity from the Moslem danger that Govindacandra thus secured for the kingdom was apparently so effective that according to the Sarnath inscription of his queen Kumāradevī he gained fame as the incarnation of Hari “who had been commissioned by Hara in order to protect Bārāṇasī from the wicked Turuṣka warrior, as the only one who was able to protect the earth.”¹