Page:The Pālas of Bengal.djvu/22

52 The defeat inflicted upon the Gurjaras by the Rāṣṭrakūṭa Emperor had a very lasting effect. Govinda III made his nephew, the Mahāsāmantādhipati Karkarāja II of the Gujarat Branch of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa family, a door-bar for the country of the Gurjaras, which we learn from the verse of the Baroda grant of Karkarāja quoted above. Besides the unpublished grant of Amoghavarṣa I, we have further evidence of the defeat of a Gurjara king by Govinda III. In the Radhanpur grant of Govinda III it is stated that the Gurjara king fled on hearing of the approach of Govinda III, as the rainy season flies away on the approach of autumn;—

Saṁdhāy = āśu śilīmukhāṁ sva-samayāṁ va(ba)nāsanasy = opari prāptaṁ varddhita-vaṁ(baṁ)dhujīva-vibhavaṁ padm-ābhivṛddhy-anvitaṁ. Sannakṣatram = udīkṣya yaṁ śarad-ṛtuṁ parjanyavad = Gurjaro naṣṭah kv = āpi bhayāt = tathā na samaraṁ svapne = pi paśyed = yathā. — verse 15.

The dream of having a capital at Kanauj, which had impelled more than one Gurjara King to invade Northern India, was over. The Mahāsāmanta became such an efficient door-bar that the Gurjaras were confined to the desert tracts of Rajputana for more than two generations. Dharmmapāla and Cakrāyudha were left in undisputed possession of their territories. Further mention of this triangular struggle between the Pālas, Gurjaras and the Rāṣṭrakūṭas is to be found in two inscriptions of Mahendrapāla, edited by the late Dr. Kielhorn just before his death. In these grants it is stated that Vāhukadhavala, a feudatory of the Gurjara Emperor Mahendrapāla, but a Cālukya by descent, defeated a king named Dharmma. Now as Vāhukadhavala was the third in ascent from Balavarman, the contemporary of Mahendrapāla, it is probable that he was a contemporary of Nāgabhaṭa II, who, as we have seen above, was the contemporary of Dharmmapāla of Bengal. So it now appears to be certain that the king Dharmma defeated by Vāhukadhavala was no other than Dharmmapāla of Bengal, who was fighting for his lost prestige in Northern India. In his article on the Una grant of Mahendrapāla, Dr. Kielhorn says that as Balavarman was a contemporary of Mahendrapāla and lived in 893 A.D., so his grandfather Vāhukadhavala must be the contemporary of Bhoja I. But this is hardly possible as king Dharmmapāla must have preceded Bhoja I to some extent at any rate. As Balavarman, as well as his son, Avanivarman II, were the contemporaries of Mahendrapāla so it becomes certain that Balavarman was advanced in age when Mahendrapāla came to the throne. So Balavarman himself must be taken to be the contemporary of the Emperor Bhoja I. Consequently Avanivarman I becomes the contemporary of Rāmabhadra and Vāhukadhavala of Nāgabhaṭa II. This statement is amply supported by the fact that Nāgabhaṭa II had a long war with Dharmmapāla of Bengal. Vāhukadhavala is also said in Mahendrapāla's grants to have defeated the Karṇṇāṭa Army. As Dr. Kielhorn has suggested, the Karṇṇāṭas mentioned are really Rāṣṭrakūṭas. Most probably Vāhukadhavala defeated some portion of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa forces during the Northern Indian campaign of Govinda III.

We know from the Nilgund inscription of Amoghavarṣa I, that some time during