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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
heir-apparent. He mounted the throne after Muñja had been killed by Tailapa. Against this the Navasdhasán kacharita (XI, 98) says that "Vakpati placed the earth in Sindhuraja's arms, when he started for Ambika's town." Strictly interpreted, this sentence would mean that he made his brother Yuvaraja on his death-bed and solemnly appointed him his successor. Considering what we know of Vakpati's manner of death, this view is not admissible. But the passage may indicate that Sindhuraja had become Yuvardja some time before Vak pati's fatal expedition. At all events it does not give one the idea that enmity reigned between the two brothers. And there is a further fact which favours the same conclusion. For Padmagupta, who had been first Våkpati's poet-laureate, later held the same position in Sindhuraja's court. He himself says (Nav. Char. I, 7) :
"When his majesty Vakpati was about to ascend to heaven, he placed a seal on my song; Sindhuraja, the younger brother of that brother of poets, now breaks it."
Had the brothers been deadly enemies, Padmagupta would certainly have been left in obscurity after his first patron's death.
As regards the second point, the duration of Sindhuraja's reign, his various military undertakings, which the Navasdhasánkacharita reports, certainly prove that he must have reigned for at least seven or eight years before the poem was written. As Vakpati II. died between A. D. 994 and 997, it is not possible to assume that Padmagupta composed it earlier than about the middle of the first decade of the eleventh century. How much longer Sindhuraja may have reigned, cannot be determined at present.
The statements of the Udepur Prasasti regarding Sindhuraja's son Bhoja are most extravagant. Verse 17 asserts that he ruled the earth from Kailasa in the Himalayas to Malayagiri in Malabår and from the mountain where the sun rises to that where it sets, and thus gives a most ridiculous account of the extent of his dominions, which in reality never much exceeded the limits of modern Målva. Verse 18 names as the kings and nations vanquished by him the lord of Chedi, Indraratha, Toggala (?), Bhima, the king of the Gurjaras, the lord of Laţa, the Karņațas, and the Turush. kas. Verse 18 alludes to his extensive knowledge and bestows on him the title Kaviraja, king of poets. Verse 20 informs us that he built numerous temples dedicated to various forms of Siva and to Vishņu-Ramešvara. Verse 21 finally admits that he succumbed to foreign foes, and that at his death his capital Dhårå was in their possession.
As regards Bhoja's wars, the first was probably one with the Karnatas, i.e., the Chalukya king of Kalyani. For, in an inscription of the reign of Jayasimha III., dated Saka Samvat 941 or A. D. 1019-20, it is said that this king was "a moon to the lotus which was king Bhoja," i.e., that he took away Bhoja's glory just as the moon causes the day-lotuses to close their flowers; and again that he "searched out and beset and pursued and ground down and put to flight the confederacy of Málava." These statements indicate that the king of Malvå was the aggressor, and that his attack was carefully planned. The southern inscription, of course, represents the Chalukya as successful, and the numerous documents from Jayasimha's reign certainly prove that he
* Ueber das Nav Char. p. 6 (686), fat fureta u Tuce ut facraec regrut wfoarte foafer वा संप्रति सिन्धुरान:।
"Indian Antiquary, vol. V, p. 17; compare also Dr. Blandirkar, Early History of the Dekhan, p. 60.
