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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EARLY GURJARAS The correct reading of the verse which can now be restored with the help of the better preserved Prince of Wales Museum plates shows, on the other hand, that Jayabhata went to the rescue of the king of Valabhi, when his capital was attacked by the Tajikas or Arabs, and inflicted a defeat on the enemy. Jayabhata IV may have come to the throne in circa 720 A.C. His Kāvī and Prince of Wales Museum grants are both dated in 736 A.C. The first encounter with the Arabs, in which Jayabhata obtained a decisive victory, must, therefore, be placed between 720 A.C. and 735 A.C. The only period during this interval when the Arabs followed a vigorous policy was that of the governorship of Junaid. A1 Bilādurī1 tells us that after defeating Jaishiya and storming Kīraj, Junaid sent his officers against Marmad, Mandal, Dahanaj and Barūs. He also sent forces against Ujain, Māliba and Baharīmad, and conquered Bailaimān and Jurz. During one of these raids, his forces must have attacked Valabhī.2 Jayabhata IV, realizing the common danger, seems to have gone to the help of the king of Valabhī and defeated the Arabs. Now, Junaid was appointed Governer of Sindh by Umar and confirmed by Khalif Hasham (724-743 A.C.). As he was succeeded about 726 A.C. by Tamīm,3 we may place the raid of Valabhī in cira 725 A.C. The contemporary king of Valabhī who was thus saved by Jayabhata IV was probably Sīlāditya V.4 But the Arabs were not completely vanquished. Before long they overran the kingdom of Jayabhata himself, and pressed forward as far as Navasārikā. At this point their further advance was checked by Avanijanāśraya-Pulakēśin,5 who inflicted a crushing defeat on them some time before 740 A. C., the date of his Navsāri plates. The Gurjara kingdom was thereafter probably annexed by the Gujarat Chālukyas. After the overthrow of the latter by the Rāshtrakūta prince Dantidurga, the country to the north of the Kim was occupied by a feudatory Chāhamāna family with its capital at Bharukachchha. The Hānsōt plates6 of Bhartrivaddha, a feudatory of the Gurjara-Pratihāra Nāgabhta, were issued from Bharukachchha in V. 813 (756 A.C.).
The Gurjara kingdom seems to have been bounded by the Kim in the south and the
Arabian sea in the west. Northward it followed the course of the Mahi up to the former
Rewakantha Agency, from where the boundary line ran along the eastern limit of the
Panch-Mahals District to Chhota-Udaipur in the east. Over this country the Gurjaras
ruled almost continuously for six generations comparing about a hundred and twenty
years. Their capital was at first Nandipuri (Nandod in the former Rajpipla State), as
all the records of Dadda II are issued from it. After him it seems to have been shifted
to the prosperous emporium Bharukachchha (Broach). Of the five later records-one of
Dadda III, two of Jayabhata III and two of Jayabhata IV-one was issued from the
royal camp at Kayatavatara (modern Karwan) south of Baroda, and two from Bharukachchha
(without the addition of a word like vasakat), while the place of issue in the
case of the other two is not known. It is again noteworthy that the expeditions of
Dharasena IV, Siladitya III and later on of the Arabs were directed against Broach
itself. It was, therefore, probably the later capital of the Gurjaras.
1E. D. H. I., Vol. I, p. 126.
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