Indian Antiquary Vol 56

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 59

MARCH, 1927)
DHARAVARSHA PARMARA OF ABU AND HIS INSCRIPTIONS
DHARAVARSHA PARMARA OF ABU AND HIS INSCRIPTIONS.
BY R. R. HALDER. DHĀRĀVARSHA was a famous ruler among the Parmaras of Abu. He is popularly known in Rajputând as 'Dhår Parmara'. The word Parmâra denotes the name of the family and is derived, as has been supposed, from the name of the man, who arose from the altar of the sacrificial fire of Vaśishtha on Mount Abû, and was considered by the latter as one who would take delight only in killing his enemies, and was thus named.1
Dhârâvarsha was a son of Yasodhavala, who was a feudatory of the Solanki ruler Kumarapåla of Gujarat. When Kumarapala waged war against Mallikarjuna of northern Kauukana, Dhâråvarsha led his forces and greatly contributed towards victory. In the Taju'l-Ma'asir, we find that Dhårâvarsha and Rai Karan were the two commanders of the Hindu army, which had collected at the foot of Mount Abd, when, in the middle of the month of Safar A.H. 593 (January, A.D. 1197), the world-conquering Khusrü (Qutbu'ddîn I-bak] turned his face towards the annihilation of the Rai of Naharwâla (Anhilvada). Though the Hindus were defeated in this battle, nevertheless, in a previous one fought against Shihabu'ddîn Chari at that place in the A.H. 574 (A.D. 1178), they had won victory. "Tod asserts that it was at this very place (Nadole] that 'Mahmûd's arms were disgraced, the invader wounded and forced to relinquish his enterprise'".4 It is also clearly written in the description of the battle with Qutbu'ddin I-bak that "the Musalmans did not dare to attack them (the Hindus) in that strong position, especially as in that very place Sultan Muhammad Sâm
Shihabu'ddin] Churi had been wounded, and it was considered of bad omen to bring on another action there, lest & similar accident might occur to the commander". 6
Dhårdvarsha was the contemporary of the four Solanki rulers of Gujarat, namely, Kumarapala, Ajaipâla, Mälarâja II and Bhimdêva II. After the accession of Bhimdēva II., many of his ministers and chiefs threw off his yoke, and became independent. Dhåråvarsha was among them, but, when the Yadava king Sioghanaof Deccan and Sultan Shamsu'ddîn Altamsh of Delhi attacked Gujarat, he prepared to render help to the king of Gujarat along with other kings of Marwâr. 8
Dhåråvarsha was also very brave and extraordinarily fond of hunting expeditions. In the Påtanarayana inscription of Samvat 1344 (A.D. 1287), it is mentioned that he could kill three buffaloes with one arrow. In support of this statement, we can still see on the margin of a big kunda (reservoir), called Mandakini, outside the temple of Achaleśvara on Mount Abû, an image of Dhârâvarsha with bow in hand, drawn at three life-size stone buffaloes, standing in its front with a hole right across their bodies. .
Up to the present, one copper plate and 14 stone inscriptions of the time of Dhârâvarsha have been discovered by Rai Bahadur Pandit Gaurishankar H. Ojha, curator of the Rajputana 1 Epigraphia Indica, vol. VIII, p. 210, verse 32.
Eliot's History of India, Vol. II, pp. 229-30. 3 It was not, however, Nadole but Kayadra, a village at the foot of Mt. Abu. Kayadra is also called KAgahrada [Ep. Ind., vol. IX, p. 77, .verse 36), which is wrongly identified by Prof. Bühler, see p. 73, ibid., and also Ep. Ind., vol. I, p. 229. See also Ep. Ind., vol. VIII, p. 206, n. 2.
4 Raverty's Țabakd!. ---Nasiri, p. 522 n. 6 See note 9 above. In sobald !--Nasiri [E.H.I., p. 294). Shihabuddin's defeat is mentioned. O i n To : : : 1 TOTEU TATAR FETT supra ||
Somesvar's Kirtilaumudi, canto 2, verse 61. 7 Bombay Gazetteer, vol. I, pt. II, p. 525.
Hamfram adamandana of Jayasimhasari, p. 11. In it the Sultan is called Mlechchharaja', Milachhrikara,' eto. The latter is a changed form of Amir-i-sbikara, an office assigned to his slave Altamsh by Qutbu'ddin l-bak (note 4 above, p. 803). . एकबाणनिहतं बिनुलायं बं निरीश्व कुरुबोधसाशं ।
O v erse 18 (From original impression). The Rajputana Museum Report, 1909-10, p. 9.