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MAITRAKA-GURJARA PERIOD
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The Navasāri grant of Jayabhata IV states that Dadda IV protected the lord of Valabhi ( probably Dhruvasena II), from Harsadeva i.e. Harşavardhana, of Thāṇeśvara.
It was perhaps during this reign that Dharasena IV, son and successor of Dhruvasena occupied Bharukaccha, one of his copper-plates of the year 648 A.D. being dated from "the victorious camp situated at Bharukaccha". About the same time, or perhaps a little earlier, the Cālukyas seized Bharukaccha, and established their rule in the southern half of the Gujarat dominions.-(IA, xiii, 81-88 Kaira Copper Plates : EI., II., 20; Sankheďā grant ; Bomb. Gaz.. I, 314).
In the ( Valabhi) year 310, Āśvayuja bahu. 5 (629 A.D.), a grant of land was issued from Valabhi by Maitraka king Dhruvasena II, Bālāditya, to the Buddhist vihāra erected by Gohaka within the vihāra-mandala built by Queen Dudda at Valabhi. The grant records the endowment of the village Bhasanta in Kālāpaka Pathaka in Surāṣtra. The Dutaka was Sämanta Šilāditya. The grant was composed by Vatrabhatti who is already mentioned in the edicts of his predecessors.-( Bošād Plates : IA, VI, 12 f.).
The Gurjara King Dadda II, Praśāntarăga, issued from Nāndipuri the grant of the village Sirişa padraka in Akrūreśvara Vişaya to forty Brāhmaṇas of Vatsa, Kāśyapa, Daundakiya, Dhūmrāyaṇa, Kauņdinya, Māțhara, Bhāradvāja and Cauliša gotras. The grant was composed by Reva, Minister of Peace and War, and issued in the Cedi year 380, Kārttika su. 15 (629 A.D.).-( Kaira Plates : IA, XIII, 82 ff.).
Dadda II was the real founder of the Gurjara kingdom in the Lāța country. His Kaira Plates (two sets) are dated in K. 380 ( 629-30 A.D.) and K. 385 (634-35 A.D.) and record the grant of Sirişapadraka (modern Sisodrā, II miles from Anklesvar in the Broach District ) to certain Brāhmaṇas.
Two other sets of plates, issued on the same day in K. 392 (641-42 A.D.), register the grant of two fields in the village Kșirasara in the vişuya (district) of Sangama Khețaka (modern Sankhedā). He is also mentioned in a fragmentary Sankheda grant of his brother Raņagraha, dated K. 391.
Dadda II was obliged to acknowledge the suzeranity of Pulakesin II, soon after he carved out a kingdom for himself in the lower Narmadā valley. On the seals of his plates, he is styled Sāmanta or a feudal lord, while in his grants he is said to have won the Pancamahāśabda (the right to use the five great sounds). Like his grand-father, he was a devotee of the Sun.
Dadda II heads the genealogy in all later records. His descendants took pride in describing him as one who had a canopy of glory, possessing the grace of a moving large and white cloud, which sprung from his protection of the king of Valabhi when he was attacked by the Emperor, the illustrious Harșadeva.-(57 tarptautia Mi
l farasta: 1)
629-30
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