Political History of Northern India

Author(s): Gulabchandra Chaudhary
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar

Page 67

THE DYNASTIES OF MADHYADESA
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Another Jain inscription of Vātsarāja from Osiä in Jodhpur division says:
“Tasyäkarşat kila premnā Laksmanaḥ Pratihäratam Tatobhavät Pratihūra vanso Rāma samudbhavaḥ."
‘Lakşmaya, a brother of Rāma, out of affection, performed the duty of door-keeper (Pratihāratām). So the Pratīhāra dynasty originated from him'.1
Thus in both the records the name Pratīhāra is derived from a memorable event in the life of Laksmana. This shows that the clan is said to be descended from the same epic hero and thereby considered as a genuine indigenous one.
According to the available sources historians have divided this dynasty into two branches:—the one is the Jodhpur branch and the other is the Ujjain branch which later on shifted to Kanauj. Fortunately we have definite information about each of the branches.
Jodhpur Branch: For this branch of dynasty we have a Jain inscription of Kakkuka from Ghațiyālā, which is one of the five Ghațiyāla inscriptions published in JRAS., 1895, p. 513 ff. This inscription fortunately bears the date V.E. 918 or 861 A.D. and treats of the same line of Pratihāra chiefs which is eulogised in the Jodhpur inscription of Bauka, dated V.E. 894. But it has some additional value because it corrects and adds to the information which has been drawn from that inscription and also because by far the greater part of it nearly upto the end of line 20, is written in Mahārāştri Prākst.
Its proper object is to record (in verse 22 and 23) that a chief named Kakkuka founded a Jain temple and made it over to a Jain community of Gaccha Dhaneswara. But it tells us also in the verses (19-21) that the same chief on the day of Wednesday, the second lunar day of the bright half of Caitra of the year 918 (apparently the Vikrama era) while moon was in Nakşatra Hasta, established a market at the village of Rohiņīkūpa and erected two pillars, one at the same village and the other at Mäddora. And by way of introduction it gives (in verses 3-6) the following genealogy of Kakkuka.
Brāhmana Haricandra and his wife Bhadrã who was of the Ksatriya caste had a son Rajjila. His son was Narabhata; his son Nāgabhata (Nāhad) his son Tāta; his son Yaśovardhan; his son Canduka; his son Sīlluka; his son Jhoța; his son Bhilluka; his son Kakka and his son from Durlabhadevi was Kakkuka.
1 EI., XVIII, pp. 95-97 and pp. 107–110, V. 6. Cj. Gwalior Prasasti of Bhoj, Ibid., p. 99, V. 3.