Revival of the Vikramadityan Tradition
The situation in the latter part of the eleventh and first three quarters of the twelfth century was not unlike that in the sixth century AD. The old empires of the Pratiharas and the Palas were falling to pieces like the Gupta empire after Buddha Gupta. The task of defending Hindustan fell upon their former feudatories who now set up as independent sovereigns. The fight with the Yamini Turks and their successors became as engrossing a subject as the earlier struggle with the Huns. There was a revival of the Vikramadityan tradition, and the example of the great hero who braved a Saka king in his own city, and that of his famous grandson who beat back the incursions of the Huns and restored an empire after vanquishing the enemies of his family, must have inspired the greater rulers of the new age-kings like Gangeyadeva of Chedi, Sindhuraja of Malwa, and Tribhuvanamalla of Kalyan, who called themselves Vikramaditya or the new Sahasanka. The new spirit is well illustrated by the execution of the pusillanimous Pratihara king Rajyapala by a Kachchapaghata chief who was “anxious to serve Vidhadharadeva”, and the attempt of Tribhuvanamalla Vikramaditya VI to supersede the Saka era by a new national reckoning. But the cases of Rajyapala, the representative of the Imperial Pratiharas, and of Tribhuvanamalla himself who fought against his own brother, are symptomatic of the weakness of the Hindu princes-their internal strife and failure, except on rare occasions, to take concerted action in a time of national crisis. The Hindus of the age, moreover, lacked the invigorating and dynamic influence of a new impulse that was then moving vast masses of mankind in Western and West Central Asia.
Bhima I, the Chalukya or Solanki king of Gujarat, had failed to bar the route to the holy shrine of Somnath. After the invader was gone, he sought to repair the ravages which the Turks had inflicted on the habitations of the gods. He began to build at Somnath a temple of stone in place of the former temple of brick and wood. His general, Vimala, built the famous Jaina temple at Abu, known as Vimala Vasahi. Other edifices were constructed in the time of the successors of Bhima, particularly in the days of Siddharaja Jayasimha and Kumarapala. Two later rulers, Mularaja II Solanki and Viradhavala Vaghela, attained greater success than Bhima I in repelling the attacks of invaders. Two officers of Viradhavala, Vastupala and Tejahpala, have immortalised their names by the construction of magnificent shrines at Satrunjaya, Girnar and Abu. In course of time the feelings of hostility roused by Turkish aggression wore off to a certain extent and king Arjuna of Gujarat had the broadmindedness to endow a mosque erected by a Muslim ship-owner of Ormuz, and provided for the expenses of certain Shiite festivals. He further laid down that under the management of the Muslim community of Somnath any surplus was to be made over to the holy districts of Mecca and Medina. In 1297, Gujarat passed into the hands of Sultan Ala-ud-din Khalji of Delhi.
The throne of the Paramaras of Malwa was, in the days of Sabuktigin, occupied by the famous Munja, a great patron of poets, whose power was crushed by Taila II, the Chalukya king of the Deccan. His brother and successor, Sindhuraja, assumed the significant title of Navasahasanka, that is, the new Sahasanka or Vikramaditya. Bhoja, son and successor of Sindhuraja, claims victories over the Turushkas or Turks. He made his name immortal by his patronage of learning, just as the Gujarat statesmen did by their temples. A versatile scholar, he wrote treatises on numerous subjects, including poetics, rhetoric, polity, philosophy, astronomy and architecture. He also established a college for Sanskrit studies. The construction of temples and the encouragement of Sanskrit culture seem to have been parts of a common programme. The attempts of Pericles to restore Greek temples and foster Greek learning after the ravages of the Persian wars may be recalled in this connection. The example of Bhoja was imitated by Hindu statesmen in later ages, notably by the rulers of Vijayanagar.
The Chandellas of Jejakabhukti or Bundelkhand had, under Dhanga, Ganda, and Vidyadhara, possibly attempted to help the cause of the Shahis of Udabhanda, but their efforts proved unavailing. Vidyadhara, however, seems to have matured plans, along with the Kalachuri king and Bhoja of Malwa, for the restoration of the prestige of Hindu arms. But the power of his family soon declined. There was a revival under Kirtivarman Chandella in the closing years of the eleventh century, but some of his successors were not so strong as he was. One of them, Paramardideva, suffered defeats at the hands of Prithviraja III, the Chauhan king of Ajmer and Delhi. The power of the Chandellas was shattered by Qutb-ud-din Aibak in AD 1202. Like the contemporary dynasties of Gujarat and Malwa, the Chandellas showed their interest in the work of reconstruction by the building of temples at Khajuraho and the encouragement of poets like Krishna Misra who adorned the court of Kirtivarman.
Politically, a more important role was played by the Kalachuri kings, Gangeyadeva and his son Lakshmi Karna. The former, as already stated above, assumed the title of Vikramaditya and took under his protection the holy cities of Allahabad and Lakshmi Karna seems to have made himself Master of the southern Doab and did much to revive the glorious traditions associated with the empires of Harsha and Bhoja I. He conciliated the rulers of Bengal by matrimonial alliances and pushed his conquests south-wards as far as Kalinga. Had he lived longer, he might have restored the shattered fabric of imperialism in northern India and erected an effective barrier against the advance of the Turks. His career was cut short by a hostile combination of the rulers of Gujarat, Malwa, Bundelkhand and the Deccan. The Kalachuris still retained considerable power under his son and grandson, but the control of the Madhya-desa (upper Ganges valley) soon passed into the hands of the famous house of Gahadavala.
The founder of the Gahadavala dynasty was Chandradeva who rose to power in the closing decade of the eleventh century. His grandson, Govinda Chandra, was the real ruler of the Madhya-desa for half a century, first as crown prince (I- 104-1114) and later on as king (1114-1154). He founded an empire embracing the greater part of the present United Provinces and Bihar. He successfully defended Jetavana (in northern Oudh), Benares and other holy places of Buddhists and Hindus alike against the Turks. But a rival empire was established in the west by the Chauhan Vigrahararaja IV with seats at Ajmer and Delhi. The latter city was probably founded by a Tomara chieftain about the middle of the eleventh century AD, and it was from the Tomaras that the Chauhans obtained on of this famous capital. Prithviraja III, nephew of Vigraharaja IV, came into conflict with Jayachchandra (Jai Chand), grandson of Govinda Chandra. The rivalry of the Chauhans and the Gahadavalas weakened them both till all of them were swept away by a fresh deluge that was gathering force in the wilds of Ghur in Afghanistan.
