History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c21.s2: (3) Ujjain or Central Malwa.

v1.c21.s2.1

Ujjain was the capital of central Malwa and when Huen Tsang visited it in 641 A. D. it was under a Brahmin king. Who he was and what became of his family after Harsha we cannot say. In fact as stated above until we come to the Paramāra rule there is no history of Malwa to be detailed. We may however make the following observations. Malwa has always been under foreign rule. The climate of Malwa is not fecund and is distinctly enervating. Foreign races and tribes have consequently always come into Malwa and ruled there. Malwa was thus directly under the Mauryas and their heir-apparents ruled here as viceroys. Aśoka was one of such viceroys. After the Mauryas the Sungas similarly held Malwa and Agnimitra was a similar viceroy who resided at Vidiśā. After the Sungas the family of Vikrama ruled in Malwa and they too were by tradition foreigners belonging to the Pāndava clan. After Vikrama's line, Malwa fell to the Western Śakas who ruled in Ujjain from 78 A. D. to 400 A. D. When Malwa was conquered by the Guptas about 400 A. D., Gupta viceroys resided at Ujjain for a hundred years. When the Gupta empire was dismembered about 500 A. D. central Malwa or Ujjain must have remained with a Gupta branch. Of this branch was Devagupta, the foe of Grahavarman and Rājyavardhana and when in 606 A. D. he was killed Malwa was entirely held under subjection by Harsha. The Brahmin king seen by Hiuen Tsang according to our view was a viceroy appointed by Harsha. After Harsha Ujjain remained subject to Kanauj and we know Yaśovarman in about 700 A. D. was master of it. We have also seen that Mālwa or Mālava was a subject province or country of Kanauj when Chakrāyudha was placed on the throne of Kanauj by Dharmapāla about 800 A.D. with the consent of many dependent kings detailed. Between Yaśovarman and Chakrāyudha i. e. from 700 to 800 A. D., Malwa appears to have been for a time under the Rashtrakūtas of Malkhed also. We indeed find a prince of Mālava mentioned but he was usually subject either to the emperor of the north at Kanauj or the emperor of the south at Malkhed. In a grant of Govind III dated Śaka 728 or 730 (806 A. D.) his father Dhruva is said to have conquered a Mālava king who indeed himself offered submission (Ind. Ant. Vol. XI). Then again in a grant of the Rāshṭrakūṭa Gujarat branch king Karka we are told that he held his arm as a bar against the encroachments of the (northern) Gurjara king to protect Mālava for his master (Ind. Ant. XIII p. 160). This does not make it clear if Malwa was under a subject king or was entirely a subject province of the southern Rāshṭrakūṭa king. It is, however, curious to notice how history repeats itself. The Marathas in 800 A.D. were the masters of Mālava and warded off the northern emperor of Kanauj much in the same way as they in 1800 A. D. a thousand years later held Malwa against the Emperors of Delhi. Some time after this the Maratha Rāshṭrakūṭa empire declined and Malwa was conquered and raised into an independent kingdom by the Paramāras who too hailed not from Malwa but from outside as we shall relate in our second volume.