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POLITICAL HISTORY OF N. INDIA FROM JAIN SOURCES
vati, Soratha, Devala vāda and Someśvara were looted by Turks.1 According to Muni Jina Vijayaji the poet Dhanapāla of this poem is identical with the author of the Tilakamanjari of the same name. Thus, this is an almost contemporaneous account. The Satyapura-kalpa of the Vividhatirtha-kalpa refers to the looting of Gurjara country by Gajjanavī, i.e., the lord of Gazani in V.E. 1081 (A.D.1025). Both these references are obviously to the expedition of Mahamud Gazanī.
About this invasion the other Gujarati authors from Hemacandra downwards, except the two quoted above, are almost silent. It is also strange to know that Al-utbi, a sort of private secretary to Mahmud, does not mention the sacking of Somanāth in his work Tarikhá-i-Yamini. He wrote a good account of Mahmud's biography and lived for four years after this event. After two hundred years, the first Muslim historian who mentioned this event was Ibu Asir (c. 1230 A.D.). This shows that the expedition against Somanāth might have been an insignificant event unworthy to receive the attention of the early writers. The modern historians, however, have put much reliance on the records of the later Muslim writers, but they maintained the view that Mahmud's invasion had no permanent effect on the history of Gujarat. The Mundaka and Rādhanapur grants show that Bhima was in safe possession of his capital Anahilavāda. The Duya śrya-karya also mentions another struggle of Bhīma with the Sindha king Hammuka.3 It is recorded that Bhīma was informed by his spies that the king of Sindha was planning to murder him. “He has also subdued the ruler of Sivāsaņa. He has a powerful cavalry and can vanquish whom he wants. He corrupts your friends.” Bhīma after consulting the ministers marched against Sindha. He crossed the mighty stream of the river Sindhu by building a bridge accross it and defeated and conquered the king of Sindha, Hammuka. 4
Though we have no epigraphic evidence to support the struggle with the ruler of Sindha, it is likely that Bhīma, like his predecessors Mülarāja and Cāmunda, fought with the ruler of Sindha, and carried on the policy laid down by the founder of the dynasty.
H. Fer Falang sa
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HITTI FRUTTrret (200) famiÀ
1 JSS., III, No. III, p. 1, Vs. 3-4: HAR.... E ....
2 SJGM., X, p. 29: NAS JE मिच्छराजो।
3 JSS., III, pp. 252-57. 4 DHNI., II, p. 962. 5 DV., Canto VIII, Vs. 52-56. 8 Ibid.
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