Features Of Pratiharas: Medieval India

The Gurjara Pratiharas are another name for the Pratiharas, who long controlled Kanauj. The Pratiharas founded a number of principalities in central and eastern Rajasthan. We can trace the Pratiharas' ancestry with the use of the epigraphic evidence. The classic epic, the Ramayana, claims that Pratiharas, derived from Lakshamana, were the solar race's ancestors. They are mentioned in the Aihole inscriptions of Pulakesin-II, the records of Hieun Tsang, and Bana's Hashacharita. The Rashtrakuta chronicle states that the Pratiaharas were of Gurjara descent. 

 

•    In the Late Classical era of the Indian subcontinent, the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty ruled over a large portion of Northern India from the middle of the eighth to the eleventh centuries. First, they held power in Ujjain, and later in Kannauj.

 

•    Arab forces were successfully repelled east of the Indus River thanks in large part to the Gurjara-Pratiharas.

 

•    Nagabhata I defeated the Arab army commanded by Junaid and Tamin during the Caliphate conquests in India. Under Nagabhata II, the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty rose to prominence in northern India.

 

•    His son Ramabhadra succeeded him and ruled for a brief while before being succeeded by Mihir Bhoja. Under Bhoja and his successor Mahendrapala I, the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty reached the height of its prosperity and power.

 

•    By the time of Mahendrapala, its dominion rivalled that of the Gupta Empire and extended from Bengal in the east to the Himalayas in the north, as well as from territories south of the Narmada to the Sindh border in the west.

 

•    The Rashtrakuta and Pala empires engaged in a three-way power struggle for dominance of the Indian subcontinent as a result of the expansion.

 

•    Imperial Pratihara received the honorific Maharajadhiraja of Aryavarta (Great King of Kings of India) at this time.

 

•    From the sixth to the eleventh century, the Indian imperial dynasty known as the Gurjara Pratihara, commonly referred to as the Pratihara Empire, governed a large portion of Northern India.

 

•    The Gurjara Pratiharas' imperial capital was Kannauj. The Gurjara Pratihara kings of the tenth century were referred to as Maharajadhiraja of Aryavarta. "Pratihara" is Sanskrit for "protector" or "one who dominates the enemy or rival."

 

•    According to legend, Harichandra established this dynasty in the sixth century C.E. He founded a minor empire at Bhinmal following the collapse of the Gupta Empire in the year 550 CE.

 

•    From Mandor, Nagabhata I extended his realm of influence east and south, taking Malwa all the way to Gwalior and the Gujarat port of Bharuch.

 

•    He established Avanti in Malwa as his capital and suppressed the Arab population's expansion in Sind.

 

•    Vatsaraja (775-805 C.E.) followed two incompetent kings who had succeeded Nagabhata I.

 

•    The Pratiharas would compete with the Bengali Pala dynasty and the northern Deccani Rashtrakutas for control of northern India for the following two centuries as a result of Vatsraja's desires for Kannauj.

 

•    For possession of Kannauj, Vatsraja successfully challenged and overcame the Rashtrakuta monarch Danti durga as well as the Pala ruler Dharmapala. Vatsraja was succeeded by Nagabhata II.

 

•    Govinda III of the Rashtrakutas initially beat Nagabhata II, but he eventually recaptured Malwa from them, expelled the Palas from Kannauj and the Indo-Gangetic Plain as far as Bihar, and once more restrained the Muslims in the west.

 

•    Bhoja I, also known as Mihir Bhoja, expanded the Gurjar dominions to the Narmada, Bengal, and the Sindh border in the east, west, and south, respectively. He was the most powerful Pratihara emperor and a tremendous supporter of both literature and the arts.

 

•    Numerous emperors, including Mahenderpal-I, Bhoja II, Mahipala-I, Rajapala, and Trilochanpala, exercised kingly authority after Bhoja. The last Gurjar king of Kanauj, Jasapala, passed away in 1036.

 

•    The Pratihara successfully fought western invasions for a very long period.

 

•    Before the Muslim conquest, Northern India's last great kingdom was the Gurjara Pratihara kingdom, which ruled for about a century.

 

•    This honour is given to the Harsha Empire by many distinguished historians, although it is unjustified given that the Pratihara Empire rivalled the Gupta Empire and brought political unity and its benefits to a significant portion of Northern India.

 

•    However, since the reign of Junaid, its primary claim to renown has been its successful defence against western invasions. This was explicitly acknowledged by the Arab author’s themselves. 

 

Conflict within the dynasty reduced the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty's influence. A significant raid conducted by Rashtrakuta king Indra III, who captured Kannauj in or about 916, significantly devastated it. Under a succession of insignificant kings, the dynasty was never able to recapture its former power. By the end of the eleventh century, the dynasty had little influence over anything other than the Gangetic Doab as its feudatories gained in strength and left the dynasty one by one. Mahmud of Ghazni expelled Rajyapala, their last significant king, from Kannauj in 1018.