History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c34.s6.59

v3.c34.s6.59

Harapāla ruled from 1145 to 1155. The dates for Harapāla are found in stone records which are not now available to us for inspection but they are referred to in the history of Konkan given in Bombay Gazetteer Vol. I part I which first gives the available information about the Śilāhāras in a connected form. This account mentions that there were many civil strifes in the country in the reign of Anantapāla which harassed gods and Brahmins. It is difficult to understand what these disputes were and whether they proceeded from Mahomedans who were apparently settled in large numbers in this part of the country, the Rāshtrakūtas being friendly to the Arabs and not at all intolerant like the northern kings (see Vol. II. 166). There were Arab settlements in almost every sea-coast town from Somnath-Patan and Kambāya down to Cheul (Saimur) and they had even built mosques in each town. We have indeed mention of a dispute between fire-worshippers viz. Parsis and Moslems whose prayer time was loudly announced from a mosque at Cambay. The dispute was taken to king Jayasinha in Anhilwad and he is said to have personally gone to Cambay to inspect the demolished mosque and to have built it at his own expense (E. II p. 163). This dispute, however, appears to have been between the king and some of his relatives as appears from the inscriptions (I. A.IX p. 17) and Mahomedans allying themselves with the latter must have oppressed gods and Brahmins as they were then doing in the north. But the king Anantapāla was successful and suppressed the rebellion, sternly punishing his opposing relatives and the oppressors of gods and Brahmins. Konkan remained Hindu for two centuries more.