Nagabhata II’s hill-fort campaigns

01The Gwalior verse

The Sagartal inscription at Gwalior, set up by his grandson Mihira Bhoja, has a verse on Nagabhata II that names the kings whose hill-forts he took by force: those of Anarta, which is north Gujarat; Malava; the Kiratas of the hills; the Turushkas, here probably the Arab-ruled frontier in the west; Vatsa around Kaushambi; and Matsya, the Jaipur–Alwar country. The same record credits him with the victory over Chakrayudha and Dharmapala.

02Rebuilding an empire

Govinda III had swept through the north and gone home. Nagabhata II spent the following years taking back what the Rashtrakutas and Palas had shaken loose, and finally made Kanyakubja his capital. His Buchkala inscription of 815 shows him ruling in Marwar. Jain tradition remembers him as a devotee who ended his life by ritual means at the sangam of Prayaga, in the Vikrama year 890, that is 833.

Person · Reigned c. 836–885 CEMihira BhojaBhoja I, called Mihira and Adivaraha, ruled the Pratihara empire from Kanyakubja for nearly fifty years, from Haryana to Malwa and Kathiawar. An Arab merchant who visited India in 851 called his the finest cavalry in the land and his country the safest from robbers.Read →