Pratihara dynasty

"Pratihar" redirects here. For other uses, see Parihar.

Gurjara-Pratihara
mid-7th century CE–1036 CE
Capital	Kannauj
Common languages	Sanskrit, Prakrit
Government	Monarchy
Historical era	Medieval India
• Established	mid-7th century CE
• Battle of Rajasthan	738 CE
• Conquest of Kannauj by Mahmud of Ghazni	1008 CE
• Disestablished	1036 CE
Preceded by Succeeded by Harsha Gupta Empire Rathore Paramara Kalachuri Chavda dynasty

The Gurjara-Pratihara, also known as the Pratihara Empire or Gujjar Emrpire, was an imperial dynasty that ruled much of Northern India from the mid-7th to the 11th century. It began to decline in the early 10th century when it faced several invasions by the south Indian Rashtrakuta dynasty.

Kannauj became the capital of the imperial Gurjara-Pratiharas,i.e. Gujjars who in the tenth century were titled as Maharajadhiraja of Āryāvarta ("Great King over Kings of the abode of the Aryans". i.e. Lords of Northern India).

Etymology

Pratihara means "doorkeeper". In the period sometimes referred to as the Gujjar era, which extended from the mid-7th century CE to the 12th century, the dominant political force in north and western India were Gujjar clans who acted as a bulwark against the continuous threat of Muslim invasion. Doing so successfully until being overwhelmed by Turks, these people protected the more southerly regions, giving time and space for other ruling groups, such as the Chola dynasty, to operate both in those areas and abroad.

The community members claimed that they were called Pratihara as their ancestor Lakshamana served as a door-keeper to his elder brother Rama. Several scholars, including Baij Nath Puri, often prepend Gurjara when referring to the Pratiharas.

Ashirbadi Lal Srivastava notes that some people believe that a Gurjara chief served the Rashtrakuta ruler as a pratihara (door-keeper) at a sacrifice at Ujjain about the middle of the eighth century CE.

Origin

According to a legend given in later manuscripts of Prithviraj Raso, the Pratiharas were one of the Agnikula clans of Gujjars, deriving their origin from a sacrificial fire-pit (agnikunda) at Mount Abu. This mythical story of Agnikula does not appear in the original version of Prithviraj Raso.

The Pratihara dynasty is referred to as Gurjara Pratiharanvayah, i.e., Pratihara clan of the Gurjaras, in line 4 of the Rajor inscription (Alwar). The historian Ramashankar Tripathi says that the inscription confirms the Gurjara origin of the Pratiharas. In line 12 of this inscription, occur words which have been translated as "together with all the neighbouring fields cultivated by the Gurjaras". Here, the cultivators themselves are clearly called Gurjaras and therefore it is reasonable to presume that, in line four too, the term bears a racial signification. The Rashtrakuta dynasty records, as well as the Arab writers like Abu Zaid and Al-Masudi (who allude their fights with the Juzr or Gurjara of the north), indicate the Gurjara origin of the Pratiharas. The Kanarese poet Pampa expressly calls Mahipala Ghurjararaja. This epithet could hardly be applied to him, if the term Ghurjararaja bore a geographical sense denoting what after all was only a small portion of Mahipala's vast territories. Tripathi believes that all these evidences point to the Gurjara ancestry of the Pratiharas.

Dasrath Sharma believed that Gurjara was applied for territory and conceded that although some sections of the Pratiharas (e.g. the one to which Mathanadeva belonged) were Gurjars by caste, the imperial Pratiharas of Kannauj were not Gurjars. However, in the earliest epigraphical records of the Gurjars of Broach, which corresponds to the area of modern Bharuch in south Gujarat, Dadda is described as belonging to the Gurjara-nrpati-vamsa which, as Calukva-vamsa or Raghuvamsa, refers not to the country, but to the family or the people; i.e., it stands for the Gurjar family and not the country. Gurjaratra, Gurjara-bhumi or Gurjara-mandala would thus only mean land or Mandala of Gurjars.

Rulers

Early rulers

Harichandra is said to have laid the foundation of this dynasty in the 6th century. He created a small kingdom at Bhinmal around 550 A.D. after the fall of the Gupta Empire. The Harichandra line of Gurjara-Pratiharas established the state of Marwar, based at Mandore near modern Jodhpur, which grew to dominate Rajasthan. The Pratihara rulers of Marwar also built the temple-city of Osian.

Expansion

Nagabhata I (730–756) extended his control east and south from Mandor, conquering Malwa as far as Gwalior and the port of Bharuch in Gujarat. He established his capital at Avanti in Malwa, and checked the expansion of the Arabs, who had established themselves in Sind. In this Battle of Rajasthan (738 CE) Nagabhata led a confedracy of Gurjara-Pratiharas to defeat the Muslim Arabs who had till then been pressing on victorious through West Asia and Iran. Nagabhata I was followed by two weak successors, who were in turn succeeded by Vatsraja (775–805).

Varaha (the boar-headed Vishnu avatar), on a Pratihara coin. 850–900 CE. British Museum.

Conquest of Kannauj and further expansion

The metropolis of Kannauj had suffered a power vacuum following the death of Harsha without an heir. This space was eventually filled by Yashovarman around a century later but his position was dependent upon an alliance with Lalitaditya Muktapida. When Muktapida undermined Yashovarman, a tri-partite struggle for control of the city developed, involving the Pratiharas, whose territory was at that time to the west and north, the Palas of Bengal in the east and the Rashtrakutas, whose base lay at the south in the Deccan. Vatsraja successfully challenged and defeated the Pala ruler Dharmapala and Dantidurga, the Rashtrakuta king, for control of Kannauj.

Around 786, the Rashtrakuta ruler Dhruva (c. 780–793) crossed the Narmada River into Malwa, and from there tried to capture Kannauj. Vatsraja was defeated by the Dhruva Dharavarsha of the Rashtrakuta dynasty around 800. Vatsraja was succeeded by Nagabhata II (805–833), who was initially defeated by the Rashtrakuta ruler Govinda III (793–814), but later recovered Malwa from the Rashtrakutas, conquered Kannauj and the Indo-Gangetic Plain as far as Bihar from the Palas, and again checked the Muslims in the west. He rebuilt the great Shiva temple at Somnath in Gujarat, which had been demolished in an Arab raid from Sindh. Kannauj became the center of the Gurjara-Pratihara state, which covered much of northern India during the peak of their power, c. 836–910.

Rambhadra (833-c. 836) briefly succeeded Nagabhata II. Mihira Bhoja I (c. 836–886) expanded the Pratihara dominions west to the border of Sind, east to Bengal, and south to the Narmada. His son, Mahenderpal I (890–910), expanded further eastwards in Magadha, Bengal, and Assam.

Decline

Bhoj II (910–912) was overthrown by Mahipala I (912–914). Several feudatories of the empire took advantage of the temporary weakness of the Gurjara-Pratiharas to declare their independence, notably the Paramaras of Malwa, the Chandelas of Bundelkhand, and the Kalachuris of Mahakoshal. The south Indian Emperor Indra III (c.914–928) of the Rashtrakuta dynasty briefly captured Kannauj in 916, and although the Pratiharas regained the city, their position continued to weaken in the 10th century, partly as a result of the drain of simultaneously fighting off Turkic attacks from the west, the attacks from the Rashtrakuta dynasty from the south and the Pala advances in the east. The Gurjara-Pratiharas lost control of Rajasthan to their feudatories, and the Chandelas captured the strategic fortress of Gwalior in central India, c. 950. By the end of the tenth century the Gurjara-Pratihara domains had dwindled to a small state centered on Kannauj. Mahmud of Ghazni sacked Kannauj in 1018, and the Pratihara ruler Rajapala fled. The Chandela ruler Gauda captured and killed Rajapala, placing Rajapala's son Trilochanpala on the throne as a proxy. Jasapala, the last Gurjara-Pratihara ruler of Kannauj, died in 1036.

Gurjara-Pratihara art

The Gurjara-Pratihara rulers were great patrons of arts, architecture and literature. Notable sculptures of this period, include Viswaroopa form of Vishnu and Marriage of Siva and Parvati from Kannauj. Beautifully carved panels are also seen on the walls of temples standing at Osian, Abhaneri and Kotah. The female figure named as Sursundari exhibited in Gwalior Museum is one of the most charming sculptures of the Gurjara-Pratihara art.

The image of standing Laksmi Narayana (Plate 42) from Agroha, now preserved in the Chandigarh museum, is also a fine piece of art of the Gurjara-Pratihara period. They are known for their open pavilion temples. The greatest development of Gurjara-Pratihara style of temple building took place at Khajuraho. Gurjara-Pratihara rulers also built many Jain temples.

Battle of Rajasthan

Main article: Battle of Rajasthan

Kanauj triangle

Junaid, the successor of Qasim, finally subdued the Hindu resistance within Sindh. Taking advantage of the conditions in Western India, which at that time was covered with several small states, Junaid led a large army into the region in early 738 CE. Dividing this force into two he plundered several cities in southern Rajasthan, western Malwa, and Gujarat.

Indian inscriptions confirm this invasion but record the Arab success only against the smaller states in Gujarat. They also record the defeat of the Arabs at two places. The southern army moving south into Gujarat was repulsed at Navsari by the south Indian Emperor Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty and Rashtrakutas. The army that went east, after sacking several places, reached Avanti whose ruler Nagabhata (Gurjara-Pratihara) trounced the invaders and forced them to flee. After his victory Nagabhata took advantage of the disturbed conditions to acquire control over the numerous small states up to the border of Sindh.

Junaid probably died from the wounds inflicted in the battle with the Gurjara-Pratihara. His successor Tamin organized a fresh army and attempted to avenge Junaid’s defeat towards the close of the year 738 CE. But this time Nagabhata], with his Chauhan and Guhilot feudatories, met the Muslim army before it could leave the borders of Sindh. The battle resulted in the complete rout of the Arabs who fled broken into Sindh with the Gurjara-Pratihara close behind them.

The Arabs crossed over to the other side of the Indus River, abandoning all their lands to the victorious Hindus. The local chieftains took advantage of these conditions to re-establish their independence. Subsequently the Arabs constructed the city of Mansurah on the other side of the wide and deep Indus, which was safe from attack. This became their new capital in Sindh. Thus began the reign of the imperial Gurjara-Pratiharas.

In the Gwalior inscription, it is recorded that Gurjara-Pratihara emperor Nagabhata "crushed the large army of the powerful Mlechcha king." This large army consisted of cavalry, infantry, siege artillery, and probably a force of camels. Since Tamin was a new governor he had a force of Syrian cavalry from Damascus, local Arab contingents, converted Hindus of Sindh, and foreign mercenaries like the Turkics. All together the invading army may have had anywhere between 10–15,000 cavalry, 5000 infantry, and 2000 camels.

The Arab chronicler Sulaiman describes the army of the Pratiharas as it stood in 851 CE, "The ruler of Gurjars maintains numerous forces and no other Indian prince has so fine a cavalry. He is unfriendly to the Arabs, still he acknowledges that the king of the Arabs is the greatest of rulers. Among the princes of India there is no greater foe of the Islamic faith than he. He has got riches, and his camels and horses are numerous."

Legacy

Historians of India, since the days of Elphinstone, have wondered at the slow progress of Muslim invaders in India, as compared with their rapid advance in other parts of the world. The Arabs possibly only stationed small invasions independent of the Caliph. Arguments of doubtful validity have often been put forward to explain this unique phenomenon. Currently it is believed that it was the power of the Gurjara-Pratihara army that effectively barred the progress of the Muslims beyond the confines of Sindh, their first conquest for nearly three hundred years. In the light of later events this might be regarded as the "Chief contribution of the Gurjara Pratiharas to the history of India".

See also

• Gurjara Kingdom
• Kushan Empire