Chronology of Gujarat

SR No.: 006799
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: M R Majumdar
Publisher: Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
Publication Year: 1960
Total Pages: 494
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

Page 350

228
CHRONOLOGY OF GUJARAT
was finished in S. year 705 (expired) i.e. 783 A.D., when there were reigning, in various directions, determined with reference to Vardhamānapura--in the north, Indrāyudha; in the South, Srivallabha; in the east, Vatsarāja, King of Avanti; and in the west, Varāha or Jayavarāha, in the territory of the Sauryas,
identified with Saurāṣtra.-(K. Virji, Ancient History of Saurāṣtra, pp. TOI-103). C. 776
The rulers of Valabhi were broad-minded and altogether Catholic in their outlook. However, Saivism was the royal religion of the Maitrakas. The Bull and the Trident, the well-known emblems of God Śiva, were usually found on the seals and coins, respectively, and the term paramamāhésvara before the names of the Valabhi kings in their copperplates, go to prove the same.-(Bhandarkar, Vaisnavism, Saivism and Minor Religious Sects, p. 119).
All the Valabhi rulers with the exception of Dhruvasena I (519-40 A.D.), who was a 'Bhāgavata', and Dharapațţa (550 A.D.), who was a devotee of the Sun, were followers of the Saiva cult. Guhasena ( 553-569 A.D.) has, however, in one of his inscriptions called himself a Buddhist'-a paramopāsaka, perhaps to please his cousin Duddā (who may have been either a child-widow or a maiden, and had become a Buddhist nun ), and also out of regard for the
learned and virtuous Buddhist monks, who were his contemporaries. C. 779 The Saindhava king Agguka I, (774-794 A.D.) son and successor of
Krşnarāja I, seems to be an important king of the Saindhava dynasty.-(A. S.
Altekar, EI, xxxvi, 192 ). 779
The Rāştrakūta practice was to depute younger princes and cousins as Provincial Governors. Indrarāja of the Gujarat Branch had appointed his younger son Govinda as a Provincial Governor.-(EI, III, p. 53: Altekar, The
Rāstrakūtas, p. 153). C. 780 In C. 780 A.D. Vatsarāja, the Pratihāra king of Gurjaradeśa, conquered
Ānarta and Saurāşțra, and became the suzerain of most of the kingdoms of North India. It was during his reign that Uddyotana Sūri wrote his Kuvalaya
māla at Jhālor, and Jinasena wrote his Harivamśa Purāna at Wadhwān. A.D. Under orders from the Khalifa Mahdi, the successor of Khalifa Mansur, the 778 Governor of Sindh, Abd'ul Malik attacked Gujarat again, and conquered Bārbūt
near Broach. This was, however, followed by an epidemic in the Arab army which compelled them to return (778 A.D.).—Sir William Muir, The Caliphate :
Its Rise, Decline & Fall, Edinburgh, 1924. p. 471., S. S. Nadwi, op. cit., p. 16). 779 The Kuvalayamālā composed at Jābālipur (modern Jhālor in N. Rajputana)
in $. 700 ( = 779 A.D.), when one day was less in Saka year 700 (i.e. 835 Vikram Samvat) is a religious tale ( Dharmakatha ) narrated in prose and verse on the pattern of Sanskrit Campū-Kavya. Its author is Uddyotanasūri, also, called Dāksinyacinha, pupil of Tattvācārya. He lived when Sri Vatsarāja ruled