Dantidurga’s march to Ujjayini

01The door-keepers of Ujjayini

The Sanjan copper plates of his successor Amoghavarsha I, issued in 871, recall that at Ujjayini Dantidurga performed the hiranyagarbha, the ritual of passing through a golden womb, and that kings such as the Gurjara lord were made to serve as pratiharas, door-keepers, at the ceremony. The word is a pointed pun, since the Gurjara rulers of Malwa were themselves called Pratiharas. The Dashavatara cave inscription at Ellora also lists his early conquests.

02From vassal to emperor

The march north was a show of strength. Dantidurga’s Samangad plates of 754 claim that with a small force he defeated the Karnataka army, which had beaten the kings of Kanchi, Kerala, Chola and Pandya. That means the Chalukya Kirtivarman II, his overlord. By 753 the Badami Chalukyas were finished, and the Rashtrakutas, ruling from Elapura and later Manyakheta, became the greatest power of the Deccan for two centuries.

Person · Reigned c. 730–760 CENagabhata INagabhata I raised the Gurjara-Pratiharas from a western chiefdom to a power, and in the years after the fall of Sindh he threw back the Arab armies that had broken into Rajasthan and Malwa. His descendants later held Kanyakubja and most of the north.Read →