Political History of Northern India

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

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POLITICAL HISTORY OF N. INDIA FROM JAIN SOURCES
With the exception of Durlabhādevi and her son Kakkuka all these persons were known to us already (some under slightly different names) from the Jodhpur inscription of Bauka. But the present inscription shows that Yasovardhana was the son of Tāta, not as has been wrongly inferred from the Jodhpur inscription, of Tāta's younger brother Bhoja, who is here omitted; and that the son of Sīlluka (Siluka or Sīlūka) was Jhoța, not Jhařovara. According to the Jodhpur inscription Kakka had another son named Bauka from the Mahārājñi Padmini. He, of course, must have been a brother of Kakkuka, who in the present inscription is described as the son of Kakka and Durlabhadevi. As the date of the Jodhpur inscription is read V.E. 894 by Dr. R. C. Majumdar, it appears that Kakkuka, whose present inscription contains a date of the year 918, would have been the step-brother and successor of Bauka.
Thus the above inscription furnishes us with a line of kings extending over twelve generations. Dr. Majumdar suggests that if 25 years be given as an average for each generation, the total reign-period of the dynasty would be about 300 years. As the known date of Kakkuka is V.E. 918 or 861 A.D. and that of his step-brother Bauka, Samvat 894 or 837 A.D. the founder of the dynasty, Haricandra, may be placed at 550 A.D.2
It may, of course, be argued, in the absence of pompous and high sounding titles in the inscription, of this line of rulers, that they were only small feudatory chiefs, but the light thrown by the other inscription of this dynasty, i.e., Jodhpur inscription of Bauka, dated 840 A.D., proves otherwise.3
This inscription eulogises Kakkuka much, but does not furnish any details regarding his predecessors. It does not also inform us the name of his step-brother Bauka. It, besides referring to his great power in general, makes specific reference to the provinces of Marumada, Strāvaņi, Valla, and also Gurjaratrā as forming part of his dominions. Though we know from the Daulatapură plates that in 843 A.D. Gurjaratrā was under the possessions of Bhoja (I) a king of another line of Pratihāras, the inscriptions of Kakkuka show that Bhoja had lost it again and even as late as 861 A.D. the disputed territory was in the possession of the Pratīhāra family of Jodhpur.
1 JDL., X, pp. 6-7. 2 Ibid. pp. 7-8 3 EI., XVIII, p. 87 ff. 4 JDL., X, p. 48.