Govinda III (Prabhutavarsha)

01Stambha and the twelve kings

Govinda III was the son of Dhruva Dharavarsha, who chose him over his elder brothers, and he came to the throne in 793. His elder brother Stambha, governor of Gangavadi, waited until he had gathered allies and then rose against him with what the inscriptions call twelve kings. Govinda broke the revolt and took Stambha prisoner, and then, sure of his loyalty, sent him back to rule Gangavadi; Stambha kept faith for the rest of his life. A record of 804 at Someshvara names his chief queen as Gamundabbe. His capital in these years was Mayurakhandi, in today’s Bidar district. Contemporary grants call him Prabhutavarsha, Jagattunga and Kirti Narayana, and they speak of a court that patronised Shaiva, Vaishnava and Jain learning alike.

02The northern campaign of 800

Kanyakubja, Kannauj, was the prize fought over by three powers, the Gurjara-Pratiharas, the Palas and the Rashtrakutas. Around 800 Govinda marched north. He defeated Nagabhata II, made the Paramaras of Malwa his vassals, and received the submission of the Pala emperor Dharmapala and of Chakrayudha, the king Dharmapala had set up at Kannauj. The Sanjan plates of his son say that his horses drank the icy water of Himalayan streams and his elephants tasted the sacred Ganga. He did not stay to rule the north; he went home, having shown who was strongest. In Gujarat he made his brother Indra ruler of Lata, from whom the Gujarat branch of the dynasty descends, the same branch whose Baroda plates later credited Krishna I with the Kailasa.

Place · Ancient city; Pallava capital from the 4th to the 9th centuryKanchipuram, city of learningOne of the seven Mokshapuris and the Pallava capital, whose ghatika, a college of Vedic learning, drew students from across the south. Shaiva, Vaishnava, Jain and Buddhist teachers all taught here.Read →

03Kanchi, the Pandyas and Lanka

Then he turned south. He defeated the Pallava Dantivarman of Kanchi, and the records say that the Cholas, the Pandyas and the Keralas paid him tribute. The king of Lanka, the inscriptions claim, sent him two statues, one of himself and one of his minister, in token of submission without a battle being fought. At its height his power reached from the Vindhyas and Malwa to Kanchi, with the heart of the empire between the Narmada and the Tungabhadra. Historians count him the most successful general of the line. The Jain acharyas Virasena and Jinasena began their great Dhavala commentary on the Shatkhandagama in his reign. He died in 814 and left the throne to his young son Amoghavarsha, under whom Manyakheta became the capital.