SOAS Research Online

Abstract

In about 900 A.D. the empire of the Gurjaras embraced a very large portion of Northern India. It spread roughly over the triangle of which the line from Karnal to Kathiawad was the base and Paharpur in North- Bengal the apex. The shock of the Rastrakuta invasion in c. 915 A.D. proved so disastrous to the stability of the Gurjara - empire that by the middle of the 10th century the outlying provinces were already breaking away from the imperial sway. Prom this time down to the completion of the Muslim conquest of the Madhyadesa in about 1196 A.D. the whole of Northern India was ruled by numerous dynasties who struggled continuously for the crown which fell down from the head of the Kanauj emperor. Perhaps in time some of them like their predecessors the Guptas of Magadha, the Pusyabhutis of Sthanvisvara or the Gurjara-Pratiharas of Malava, would have in the end succeeced in compelling the other powers to acknowledge their hegemony. But unfortunately for them before the process of adjustment was complete the Turks, this time carrying the Muslim flag, appeared on the portals of North-Western India, In the struggle that followed the dynasties were gradually conquered by the Turks from their bases In the Madyadesa fell into their hands after the fall of the Cahamanas and the Gahadavalas. The history of this period transition lacks so far as its political side is concerned any central theme. It is largely the history of separate unite whose only political contact with their neighbours was when they fought with each other or combined to destroy a hated and powerful rival. The study of their history and their conquest by the Muslims has never been satisfactorily undertaken, though its importance is obvious. In the present work an attempt has been made to present a full account of the dynasties of this period on sound epigraphic foundations with the assistance wherever available of reliable Hindu and Muslim literary records. It is an attempt to try to bridge the gulf that has so long separated the treatment of the Hindu and Muslim periods Indian History. The present volume only treats of the political side of the history of the dynasties. In the second volume, I hope to deal fully with the Administrative, Economic, Social, Religious, and other important questions of the period. A thorough analysis of these facts may reveal important links hitherto unknown between the Hindu and the so called Muslim period of Indian History. It would certainly help us to judge how far if at all the Turkish and Afgan rulers borrowed their social or economic systems or their methods of administration from their Hindu predecessors.