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CXXXVIII
Kavyanusasana
mention of this account. The first Muslim historian to mention this event is Ibu Asir (about 1230 A. D.). From this absence of reference amongst early Muslim historians, we are driven to the conclusion that this expedition against Somanatha must not have been an event of that importance which it is reported to be by the later Muslim chroniclers upon whom the modern historians have almost uncritically relied. It might have been just the ordinary looting of a marauding army as the places came on its way.
*
The K. K. and the S. S. K. mention the defeat of Bhoja at the hands of Bhima which the D. K. does not directly mention. The Puratanaprabandhasamgraha and the P. C. describe incidents which refer to constant warfare between Malava and Gujarāta - relieved by a few intervals of peace. An effort made by Bhoja to break the peace-treaty (Sandhidūshaṇa ) is mentioned in the P. P. S. and the P. C. They also refer to an attack on Aṇahillapura by a general of Bhoja named Kulachandra or Phula who was a Digambara Jaina. This event happened, according to the P. C., when Bhima was engaged in his expedition against Sindha. This has made the stealing by Kulachandra' proverbial (p. 32. The P. C.). On another occasion Bhima had to send his Minister of War and Peace Damara to avert a proposed expedition against Gujarata by Bhoja as there was famine. Dāmara managed this business very cleverly by instigating Bhoja to march against the southern king Tailapa who had beheaded his uncle Munja, and by spreading a rumour, as he was
(
*For a further discussion of this topic, see Jinavijaya's article Mahmud Gaznavi and Somanatha in the J. S. S. Vol. III Pp. 252-257.
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