Prince Govindachandra repels the Turushkas

01The Rahan plate

The Rahan copper plate of the Gahadavala Madanapala, dated 1109, says that his son Govindachandra, by his matchless fighting, again and again made the Hammira put aside his enmity. Hammira is the Sanskrit rendering of amir, the title Indian records used for Turkish commanders. Persian sources confirm Ghaznavid raids toward Kanauj in the reign of Masud III, and one of them names the capture of a Hindu prince there for ransom.

02The Turushka tax

Gahadavala grants of these decades mention a levy called the turushkadanda, the Turushka levy, which most historians read as a tax raised to pay for defence against the Turks, or possibly as tribute. Govindachandra became king around 1114 and ruled for some forty years, holding the middle Ganga from Kanyakubja to Kashi. His queen Kumaradevi built a monastery at Sarnath, and his minister Lakshmidhara compiled the great Dharmashastra digest, the Kritya-kalpataru.

Place · Ashoka’s pillar and stupa, 3rd century BCE; Dhamek stupa rebuilt in the Gupta periodSarnathThe deer park of Rishipatana near Kashi where the Buddha gave his first sermon. Ashoka’s lion capital from here became the national emblem of India in 1950.Read →