Chandelas of Jejakabhukti

01Yashovarman and Dhanga

Nannuka founded the line in the early ninth century. Yashovarman took the fort of Kalinjar and, according to the inscription of 954, set up an image of Vaikuntha brought from the Pratihara court in the Lakshmana temple at Khajuraho. His son Dhanga ruled about fifty years, built the Vishvanatha temple, inscribed in 1002, and in the last years of his life was one of the kings who joined Jayapala Shahi against the Ghaznavids, as Firishta records.

02Vidyadhara faces Mahmud

Vidyadhara was the strongest Hindu king of the north in his day. When the Pratihara Rajyapala abandoned Kannauj to Mahmud in 1018, Vidyadhara had him killed for it. Mahmud came against him in 1019 and again in 1022; both times the armies faced each other, terms were made, and the Chandela kingdom stood. The Kandariya Mahadeva temple, the tallest at Khajuraho, is generally dated to his reign.

Person · Reigned c. 1003–1035 CEVidyadharaVidyadhara ruled the Chandela kingdom of Jejakabhukti, modern Bundelkhand, when Mahmud of Ghazni reached the Ganga plain. He punished the king of Kanauj for submitting to Mahmud, faced the Sultan’s army twice and kept his kingdom. The Kandariya Mahadeva temple at Khajuraho is generally dated to his reign.Read →

03Paramardi, Alha and the end

Prithviraj Chauhan defeated Paramardi in 1182 and sacked Mahoba. The ballad cycle of Alha and Udal, Paramardi’s Banaphar champions, grew from that war and is still sung in Bundelkhand in the monsoon. In 1202–03 Qutb ud-Din Aibak besieged Kalinjar and took it. Trailokyavarman won it back, and the Chandelas held parts of Bundelkhand as a smaller kingdom for another century, until Hammiravarman early in the fourteenth.

The rulers

1. 1NannukaFounderc. 831–845
2. 2Harshac. 900–925
3. 3YashovarmanTook Kalinjar; Lakshmana templec. 925–950
4. 4DhangaVishvanatha temple, 1002c. 950–999
5. 5Gandac. 999–1002
6. 6VidyadharaStood against Mahmud of Ghaznic. 1003–1035
7. 7Vijayapalac. 1035–1050
8. 8KirtivarmanPrabodhachandrodaya staged at his courtc. 1060–1100
9. 9Madanavarmanc. 1128–1165
10. 10ParamardiLost to Prithviraj 1182; Kalinjar fell 1203c. 1165–1203
11. 11TrailokyavarmanRecovered Kalinjarc. 1203–1245
12. 12Hammiravarmanc. 1289–1311

What they left

• Khajuraho temples, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
• Kalinjar fort and its Neelkanth temple
• Krishna Mishra’s Prabodhachandrodaya
• The Alha-Khand ballads of Bundelkhand
• Great tanks of Mahoba such as Madan Sagar