History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c29.s1.46

v2.c29.s1.46

be in the east. The proper translation should be king Avanti, Avanti being the name of a king). It follows that Indrāyudha though defeated in 780 A.D. by Vatsarāja was still on the throne of Kanauj. This is not at all strange; for we find from the histories of all countries and of Indian empires in particular that the last kings of a tottering dynasty are allowed to reign under control, nay new puppet emperors are raised for a time, in deference to popular sentiment, before the line is finally uprooted. This is what happened at Delhi under the Marathas and even under the English. Nay the parallel goes still further. When an imperial line is tottering there rises a rivalry between powerful contending kings as to who should become the protector or guardian of the emperor. Such rivalry arose in India in the 18th century between the English, the Marathas and the Afghans. The English were powerful in the east, the Marathas in the south and the Rohillas in the west. The same thing happened about a thousand years before. And Vatsarāja from the west eventually became the master of India. Gopāla (Avanti) king of Bengal opposed him from the east and the Marathas of the 8th century viz., the Rāshṭrakūṭas from the south; for inscriptions of the Pālas and the Rāshṭrakūṭas show to us the contentions that took place about this time. Gopāla of Bengal was defeated by Vatsarāja and *two royal umbrellas* were taken by him, probably the royal emblems of Gauda and Vanga or western and eastern Bengal. But Vatsarāja was in his turn defeated by the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Dhrūva who carried away these two trophies and who "confined Vatsarāja to his own country viz., the desert Gurjaratrā."