History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c34.s1.32

v3.c34.s1.32

His political greatness is not, however, equally well-known and has not as yet been ascertained with exactitude. He came to the throne about 1010 A. D. (Col. Luard and Mr. Lele think that he may have come to the throne even earlier) and he ruled for about forty years at least. Sir Vincent Smith places his death in about 1060 A. D. while Pandit Gauri-shankar places it sometime before 1055 A. D. (St 1112). He had fights with many Indian kings, notably with the king of Chedi Indranātha, Joggala I and Bhīma of Gujarat and with kings of Karnāta and Lāta, and Gurjaras and Turushkas, as stated in the Udepur inscription (Ep. II p. 222). We will first speak of his fight with the Turks. As this inscription states immediately before that Munja had conquered a Hūna king, it seems clear that the record distinguishes between Hūnas and Turks and does not confound them. The Hūna king, therefore, must have been a Hindu king as there were no Huns in India at that time and as Hūna is the name of a Rajput clan also. Munja, therefore, does not seem to have taken part in the Rajput confederacy against Amir Sabuktagin, as one is likely to think from the period of his reign viz. 997 to 1010 A. D. In what campaign of Mahmud of Ghazni Bhoja fought against the Turks it is difficult to determine. He certainly was not one of those who fought with Mahmud at Somnath for he is here said to have defeated the Turks. Perhaps as suggested by Col. Luard and Mr. Lele on the srength of a statement in Tabkat-i-Akabari, that Mahmud after conquering the Hindus at Somnath went with his plunder through the western part of the desert of Multan as he learnt "that Paramāradeva one of the greatest kings of Hindustan was preparing to intercept him", this may be construed into a defeat of the Turks by Bhoja. Of course the Paramāradeva described as one of the great kings of Hindustan by Tabakat-i-Akabari must refer to Bhoja and none else. And inscription-writers are usually panegyrists and Mahmud's avoiding Bhoja may well be construed by them into a defeat. It is further likely that this event is referred to by the Udepur Praśasti as Bhoja is said therein to have also built the temple of Somnath. Probably Mahmud had not only broken the image but also demolished the temple of Somnath and it is certainly to the credit of Bhoja's greatness as a warrior and a devotee of Śiva that he should prepare to intercept the defiler of the temple which probably had just been built by him (See p. 91).