UPSC History North India from 700 CE to 1200 CE NCERT Extracts - The Palas, the Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas

 The Palas

• Since the days of Harsha, Kanauj was considered the symbol of the sovereignty of north India. Control of Kanauj also implied control of the upper Gangetic valley and its rich resources in trade and agriculture.
• The Pala empire was founded by Gopala, probably in 750.
• He was succeeded in 770 by his son Dharmapala who ruled till 810.
• Dharmapala was defeated by the Rashtrakuta ruler Dhruva.
• Dharmapala, occupied Kanauj and held a grand darbar there which was attended by vassal rulers from Punjab, eastern Rajasthan, etc.
• Devapala was son of Dharmapala. He succeeded to the throne in 810.
• He extended his control over Pragjyotishpur (Assam) and parts of Orissa. Probably a part of modem Nepal was also brought under Pala suzerainty.
• Their power is attested to by an Arab merchant, Sulaiman, who visited India in the middle of the ninth century, and wrote an account of it.
• He calls the Pala kingdom Ruhma, (or Dharma, short for Dharmapala) and says that the Pala ruler was at war with his neighbours, the Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas.
• Information about the Palas is also provided to us by Tibetan chronicles.
• According to these, the Pala rulers were great patrons of Buddhist learning and religion.
• The Nalanda university was revived by Dharmapal a and 200 villages were set apart for meeting its expenses.
• He also founded the Vikramasila university which became second only to Nalanda in fame. It was located on the top of a hill, on the banks of the Ganga in Magadha.
• The Palas built many viharas in which a large number of Buddhist monks lived.
• The Pala rulers also had close cultural relations with Tibet.
• The noted Buddhist scholars, Santarakshita and Dipankara (called Atisa), were invited to Tibet, and they introduced a new form of Buddhism there. As a result, many Tibetan Buddhists flocked to the universities of Nalanda and Vikramasila for study.
• The Palas had close trade contacts and cultural links with South-East Asia.
• The powerful Sailendra dynasty was Buddhist in faith.
• It ruled over Malaya, Java, Sumatra and the neighbouring islands.
• It sent many embassies to the Pala court and sought permission to build a monastery at Nalanda, and also requested the Pala ruler, Devapala, to endow five villages for its upkeep. The request was granted.

India (800-1000 A.D.)

The Pratiharas

• The real founder of the Pratihara empire and the greatest ruler to the dynasty was Bhoja.
• He rebuilt the empire and by about 836 he had recovered Kanauj which remained the capital of the Pratihara empire for almost a century.
• Arab travellers tell us that the Pratihara rulers had the best cavalry in India. Import of horses from Central Asia and Arabia was an important item of Indians trade at that time.
• The name of Bhoja is famous in legends. Bhoja was a devotee of Vishnu, and adopted the title of 'Adivaraha' which has been found inscribed in some of his coins.
• He is sometimes called Mihir Bhoja to distinguish him from Bhoja Paramaia of Ujjain who ruled a little later. He was succeeded by his son Mahendrapala.
• His inscriptions have also been found in Kathiawar, East Punjab and Awadh.
• Al-Masudi was a native of Baghdad. He visited Gujarat in 915-16. He testifies the great power and prestige of the Pratihara rulers and the vastness of their empire,
• He calls the Gurjara-Pratihara kingdom al-Juzr (a corrupt form of Guqara), and the king Baura, probably a mispronunciation ofAdivaraha, the title used for Bhoja.
• The Pratiharas were patrons of learning and literature. The great Sanskrit poet and dramatist, Rajashekhar, lived at the court of Mahipala, a grandson of Bhoja.
• Rashtrakuta ruler, Krishna III, invaded north India in about 963 and defeated the Pratihara ruler. This was followed by the rapid dissolution of the Pratihara empire.

The Rashtrakutas

• The Rashtrakuta kingdom was founded by Dantidurga who fixed his capital at Manyakhet or Malkhed near modem Sholapur.
• The greatest Rashtrakuta rulers were Govinda III (793-814) and Amoghavarsha (814- 878).
• Govinda terrified the Kerala, Pandya and the Chola kings and caused the Pallavas to wither.
• Amoghavarsha ruled for 68 years but by temperament he preferred the pursuit of religion and literature to war. He was himself an author and is credited with writing the first Kannada book on poetics.
• He was a great builder, and is said to have built the capital city Manyakhet so as to excel the city of Indra.
• According to al-Masudi who visited India at that time, the Rashtrakuta king Balhara or Vallabharaja, was the greatest king of India and most of the Indian rulers accepted his suzerainty and respected his envoys.
• The Rashtrakuta capital Malkhed was sacked and burnt in 972.
• The Rashtrakuta rulers were tolerant in their religious views and patronised not only Shaivism and Vaishnavism but Jainism as well.
• The famous rock-cut temple of Shiva at Ellora was built by one of the Rashtrakuta kings, Krishna-I in the ninth century.
• Amoghavarsha, is said to have been a Jain but he also patronised other faiths.
• The Rashtrakutas allowed Muslim traders to settle, and permitted Islam to be preached in their dominions.
• The great apabhramsha poet Svayambhu and his son probably lived at the Rashtrakuta court.

Political Ideas and Organisation

• In the Rashtrakuta empire, according to Arab writers, ladies did not veil their faces.
• A contemporary writer, Medhatithi, thinks that it was the right of an individual to bear arms, in order to defend himself against thieves and assassins.
• He also thinks that it was right to oppose an unjust king.
• Princesses were rarely appointed to government posts, but we do have an instance when a Rashtrakuta princess, Chandrobalabbe, a daughter of Amoghavarsha I, administered the Raichur doab for some time.
• The largest number of elephants was maintained by the Pala kings.
• Large numbers of horses were imported both by Rashtrakuta and Pratihara kings by sea from Arabia, and West Asia.
• The Pratihara kings are believed to have had the finest cavalry in the country.
• The Pala kings, and perhaps the Rashtrakutas, had their own navies.
• An important feature of the period was the rise in the Deccan of hereditary revenue officers called nad-gavundas or desa-gramakutas.
• Medhatithi, the foremost expounder of dharmashastra in this period, says that the king's authority was derived both from the Dharmashastra, including the Vedas, and from the Arthashastra or the science of polity.
• His public duty or rajadharma was to be based on the Arthashastra that is on principles of politics.