History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c34.5

Language: English

v3.c34.5.1

The first king Durlabha is said in the Harsha stone inscription to be a brother of the preceding king Vigraharāja who certainly was a great king. If we identify him with the Dhundā Dānava Visala of the Prithvīrāja Rāsā wherein the absurd legend is given of his becoming a demon and devastating Ajmer, we shall not be far wrong. But as said before, it is not possible to take the Rāsā for history, at least for the ancestors of Prithvīrāja III; and we have to abandon the task of identifying Rāsā kings with kings mentioned in inscriptions. For, further, we find that this demon is said to have lived for 300 years before Prithvīrāja and yet his son is said to be Sārangadeva a name not to be found in the inscription genealogies and his son was Arnorāja. But Arnorāja from inscriptions appears to be a great-grandson of the next Visāla or Vigraha III whose probable date of accession is 1063 A. D. and who thus preceded Prithvīrāja III by about a hundred years only. Giving up the Rāsā, therefore, we may note that Vākpati was the king of Sāmbhar from A. D. 1003 and hence a contemporary of Mahmud of Ghazni.* But the Chāhamānas do not appear to have had any conflict with the Turks of Ghazni during Mahmud's time as Mahmud did not come to Ajmer. And Ajmer was not the capital of the Chāhamānas in 1000 A. D.

v3.c34.5.2

When Firishta mentions Ajmer kings taking part in the confederacy of Rajput kings against Sabuktagin or Mahmud, he merely makes a surmise by ante-dating Ajmer owing to its fame in the days of Shihabuddin Ghori. Goving further on, we find that instead of Śrichandra of the Bijolia inscription, R. B. Gaurishankar gives the name Chāmuṇḍa and mentions that he built a Vishnu temple (as stated in Hammira-Kāvya) in a town in Marwar; while Kielhorn gives Simhata and Dūsala as separate kings (See Ep. In. VIII Appendix). Prithvīrāja I is said to have given a golden kalaśa (pinnacle-pot) usually covered with gold to a Jain temple in Ranathambhor. His son Ajayadeva is said to have built the fort of Ajmer and founded the modern town, towards the end of the 11th century A. D. and to have removed his capital from Sām-bhar to Ajmer. He must have been a powerful king as coins struck in his name and in the name of his queen Somalādevī have been found (Ind. Ant. 1912). His son Arṇorāja or Ānā was a more powerful king. He built the Ānā-sāgar tank and bund and "thus purified the place defiled as it had been by the invasion of Mahomedans". (This is perhaps a poetic fancy of the Prithvīrāja-Vijaya poem). His reign is assigned by Mr. Harbilas Sarda to 1125 to 1150 A. D.* which does not much differ from the computed date given in our genealogy. Pandit Gaurishankar mentions that Kumārapāla of Gujarat invaded Ajmer in the time of Arṇorāja in St. 1207 or 1150 A. D. and Mr.

v3.c34.5.3

Harbilas Sarda has in a paper in Ind. Ant. 1912 shown that Ānā twice warred with Kumārapāla of Gujarat, first in St. 1202 and again in St. 1207 when the latter invaded Ajmer to avenge an insult offered to his sister who was married to him. Arṇo's second son Visaladeva or Vigraharāja IV ascended the throne of Ajmer, setting aside his elder brother Jagadeva who had murdered Ānā and who probably did not at all rule. Visaladeva was a greater monarch than Ānā himself. He has recorded an inscription on the Iron pillar of Delhi in which his exploits are extolled to the highest. "From Vindhya to the Himalayas, he, moving for pilgrimage, conquered all those kings who opposed him and favoured those who bent their necks to him and he made Āryāvarta again a real Āryāvarta or abode of Aryas by slaughters inflicted on Mahomedans". And he exhorts his descendants in this way. "We have made the portion of the earth between the Vindhya and the Himalayas tributary to us. May your minds be not devoid of exertion for the conquest of the rest."† This indeed shows the vigorous character of his rule and his high ambition. We have already shown that after their conquest and annexation of the Punjab the Mahomedans had sent several expeditions into mid-India and made settlements in many places. Visaladeva drove these Mahomedans back into the Panjab and clearing Āryāvarta made it so in reality.

v3.c34.5.4

This further would confirm the statement in the Bijolia inscription that he conquered Delhi, a fact on which doubt has been expressed. The verse "प्रतोल्यां च वलभ्यां च येन विश्रामितं यशः । ढिल्लिकाग्रहणश्रान्तमाशिकालाभलम्भितम् ॥" of the Bijolia inscription is difficult to understand. The words Pratoli and Valabhi are indeed double-meaning as also Dhillikā and Māsikā (which indicate probably towns of these names as also parts of a house). But it clearly indicates that he had to make great efforts to conquer Delhi. The Bijolia inscription as well as the inscription on the iron pillar at Dehli are given in an Appendix for the curious reader.