History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c9.s1.t10.1

c9.s1.t10.1

Iśānavarman was succeeded by his son, Sarvavarman, whose mother was the Bhaṭṭārikā and Mahādevī Lakṣmivatī. The Haraha inscription discloses to us that Iśānavarman had another son named Sūryavarman, who during the lifetime of his father caused a dilapidated temple of Andhakārī, Siva, to be "raised at his wish and made an ornament of the earth." He is not mentioned in any other record, which probably shows that either he predeceased his father, or there was a struggle for succession, and Sūryavarman being worsted in the fight was ousted or put to death. Dr. H. C. Raychaudhuri, on the other hand, tries to identify the Maukhari Sūryavarman with the ruler of the same name mentioned in the Sirpur stone inscription of Mahāśivagupta.¹ He is there described as "born in the unblemished family of the Varmans, great on account of their supremacy (ādhipatya)." But there seems little reason to uphold this identification, since according to the learned editor of this undated inscription its characters "belong to the 8th or 9th century A. D.," which indicates that Sūryavarman "must have flourished about the 8th century A. D."²