Conflict between the Rashtrakutas, Gurjara Pratihara and Palas | Indian History

Conflict between the Rashtrakutas, Gurjara Pratihara and Palas | Indian History
by Puja Mondal


Did the regular conflict between the Rashtrakutas, Gurjara Pratihara and Palas create a political vacuum in northern India which facilitated the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni? Read this article to get the answer!

By the middle of the 10th century India witnessed the decay of three of the most powerful states which had dominated east, north and central India during the two preceding centuries.

These were the Pala Empire with its capital at Mongyr, the Gurjara Pratihara Empire with its capital at Kanauj and the Rashtrakuta Empire with its capital at Manyakhet.

The Pala Empire was founded by the elected ruler Gopal in 750. He was succeeded by his son Dharmapala who raised the pala Kingdom to greatness. Soon after his accession Dharmapala was involved in a struggle with the two main powers the Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas. The Pratihara ruler Vastaraja defeated Dharmapala in a battle which took place in the Gangetic Doab. But before Vastraja could reap the fruits of victory, he was defeated by the Rashtrakuta king Dhruva. Thereafter Dhruva defeated Dharmapala and a little later left for the Deccan.

Despite these reverses, Dharmapala gained more than what he had anticipated. With the defeat of the Pratihara power and the retreat of the Rashtrakutas, Dharmapala could dream of building up a mighty empire. Dharmapala installed Chakrayudha on the throne of Kanauj. But it was soon challenged by his Pratihara adversary, Nagabhatta II, who conquered Kanauj and drove away Dharmapla’s protege Chakrayudha.

Struggle for supremacy between the two rivals became inevitable; The Pratihara ruler advanced up to Mongyr and defeated Dharmapala in a pitched battle. But Dharmapala was rescued by the timely intervention of the Rashtrakuta king Govinda III to whom he might have appealed for aid. The power of the palas is attested, to by an Arab merchant Sulaiman who visited India in the middle of the 9th Century. He says that the pala ruler was at war with his neighbours, the Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas, but his troops were more numerous than his adversaries.

The object of political ambition at that time was to conquer and hold the city of Kanauj, which had become a symbol of imperial power perhaps owing to its connection with Harsha and with Yashovarman, who maintained this status for the city. It became a bone of contention between these three powers and much of their military activity of these powers was directed towards its conquest.

Control of Kanauj also implied control of the upper Gangetic valley and its rich resources in trade and agriculture. In addition, the palas and the Pratiharas clashed with each other for the control of the area extending from Benaras to south Bihar which again had rich resources and well developed traditions. The Pratiharas clashed with the Rashtrakutas also. Gujarat and Malwa was the bone of contention between them.

The Gurjara Pratihara Empire extended from the foothills of the Himalyas to Ujjain in the south and from Gujarat in the west to Mongyr in the east. Bhoja, the real founder of the Gurjara Pratihara Empire, tried to extend his sway in the east, but he was defeated and checkmated by the Pala ruler, Devapala.

He then turned towards central India and the Deccan and Gujarat. This led to the revival of the struggle with the Rashtrakutas. In a battle on the bank of the Narmada, Bhoja was able to retain his control over considerable parts of Malwa, and some parts of Gujarat.

Between 915 and 918 the Rashtrakuta king Indra III attacked Kanauj and devastated the city. This weekend the Pratihara Empire, and probably passed into the hands of the Rashtrakutas, for al Masudi says that the Pratihara Empire had no access to the sea. The loss of Gujarat, which was hub of the overseas trade and main outlet for north Indian goods to the west Asian countries, was another blow to the pratiharas. Another Rashtrakut ruler, Krishna III, invaded north India in about 963 and defeated the Pratihara ruler. This was followed by the rapid dissolution of the Pratihara Empire.

The rivalry between them was self destroying. This was to exhaust all three of them leaving the field open to their feudatories, which resulted in the founding of small regional kingdoms all over Northen India. Al Masudi, who visited Kanauj in the early tenth century, wrote that the king of Kanauj kept a large army and was surrounded by smaller kings always ready to go to war.

A hundred years later the Pratiharas were no longer a power in northern India. The Turkish army sacked kanauj in 1018 and this virtually ended the Pratihara rule. In the western Deccan, the Rashtrakutas as had been supplanted by later Chalukyas.

The almost simultaneous decline of the three rival powers, the Pratiharas, palas and Rashtrakutas, was most surprising. Their strength was closely matched and depended on large well organized armies. Sources of revenue to maintain this army were similar and excessive pressure on these sources was found to produce the same result.

The continued conflict over the possession of Kanauj diverted attention from their feudatories, who succeeded in making themselves independent. The subordination of feudatories and invasion from the north -west and the south destroyed what little had remained of political unity of northern India.

On the periphery of what had been the three major kingdoms, there had arisen a number of small states. The most prominent among them were the Chauhans of Sakambari, the Paramaras of Malwa and the Chalukyas of Gujarat. These in turn had many feudatories which sometimes helped their overlords but more often aspired to become independent.

Reference http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/history/conflict-between-the-rashtrakutas-gurjara-pratihara-and-palas-indian-history/4467/