Rajput kingdoms and eastern India

Detail

After the Gurjara-Pratiharas broke up in the 10th century, their old governors and vassals became kings on their own. These are the houses later called Rajput. North India became a set of medium-sized kingdoms, each with its own capital, its own temples and its own poets.

Paramaras of Malwa — capital Dhara (modern Dhar)

• Started as vassals (junior rulers who obey a bigger king) of the Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas.
• Became fully independent in the late 10th century.
• Ruled Malwa, the high plateau of western Madhya Pradesh.
• Best-known king: Bhoja, r. 1010–1055.

Bhoja Paramara — the scholar-king

• Do not mix him up with Mihira Bhoja, the 9th-century Pratihara ruler. Different dynasty, different century.
• Politics and war
• Sent help to the Hindu Shahis (the kings of the north-west) against Mahmud of Ghazni.

• So Malwa was not a quiet corner. Its king took part in the big fight of the age.

• Builder

• Founded the town of Bhojpur.
• Dammed rivers to make a huge lake near Bhopal. The city name 'Bhojpal' comes from this work. The surviving piece of that lake is the Bhojtal.

• Built the Bhojeshwar temple — never finished, so the masons' marks and ramps are still visible.

• Writer

• The Samarangana Sutradhara — a book on architecture, town planning and mechanical devices (machines).

• Also wrote on governance, poetics (how to write good poetry), yoga and medicine.

• Result: Dhara became a famous centre of learning, and Bhoja himself turned into a folk legend — stories about him are still told.

Chandellas and Khajuraho

• The Chandellas resisted Mahmud of Ghazni.
• They built dozens of temples at Khajuraho, including the Kandariya Mahadeva and the Lakshmana temples.
• Chandella power was at its height between 950 and 1050 CE [2].
• Only about 20–23 temples survive today, spread over about 6 sq km, in three clusters — western, eastern and southern [2].
• The temples belong to two religions — Hinduism and Jainism — standing side by side [2].
• They are rare surviving examples of Nagara-style temple architecture (the north Indian style, with a curved tower over the shrine) [2].
• Kandariya Mahadeva
• The largest and grandest temple at the site; attributed to king Ganda (AD 1017–29) [2].
• A Shaivite temple (dedicated to Shiva), built around c. 1000 [3].

• Height about 31 metres (102 feet) — a pile-up of porches and small turrets rising to one tall spire [3].

• Khajuraho Group of Monuments was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 [2][3].

Chaulukyas (Solankis) of Gujarat — capital Anahilavada (modern Patan)

• Ruled Gujarat from the 10th to the 13th century.
• Very important exam point: these Chaulukyas are not the Chalukyas of the Deccan. Similar name, different family, different region.
• Defeated Muhammad Ghuri in 1178.

Mount Abu, 1178 — who gets the credit?

• Ghuri invaded Gujarat and was crushed near Mount Abu.
• Version 1: the Chaulukya king Mularaja II led the winning army.
• Version 2: from Merutunga's later chronicle (a history written down much later) — the army was led by the queen mother Naikidevi, riding into battle with her young son in her lap.
• Historians are divided over who to credit. But the defeat itself is well attested — everyone agrees Ghuri lost.

Chahamanas (Chauhans) — capital Ajayameru (modern Ajmer)

• Built an empire across Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana.
• Delhi in their records is called 'Dhillika'.
• Their famous ruler: Prithviraja III (Prithviraj Chauhan).

Senas of Bengal — capital Nadiya

• Came to power in Bengal after the Palas.
• Unlike the Buddhist-leaning Palas, the Senas gave patronage to Hindu religion (money, land and protection).
• Their court poet Jayadeva wrote the Gitagovindam, a Sanskrit poem on Krishna and Radha.

Eastern Gangas of Kalinga

• Their slogan-like claim: their land ran 'from the Ganga to the Godavari'.
• They began the Jagannatha temple at Puri.
• In the mid-13th century they built the Konark Sun temple.
• Konark detail
• Built by Narasimhadeva I (r. 1238–1264) [4][5].
• Built in about 1250; one account says 1200 artisans worked 12 years, 1243–1255 CE [4][5].
• Shaped like the chariot of the sun god Surya: 24 carved wheels, pulled by a team of 6 horses [4].
• Narasimhadeva I invaded southern Bengal in 1243 CE, defeated its Muslim ruler and took the capital Gauda; the temple is linked to marking that victory [5].
• It is the high point of Odishan (Orissan) Hindu architecture and a UNESCO World Heritage Site [4].

Prelims Hooks

• Paramara capital: Dhara (modern Dhar), Malwa.
• Bhoja Paramara ruled 1010–1055; wrote the Samarangana Sutradhara on architecture, town planning and machines. He is not Mihira Bhoja the Pratihara.
• Bhojeshwar temple is unfinished; Bhojtal near Bhopal is the remnant of Bhoja's lake.
• Kandariya Mahadeva, the biggest Khajuraho temple, is about 31 m (102 ft) high, Shaivite, c. 1000, attributed to king Ganda (1017–29) [2][3].
• Khajuraho became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986; about 20–23 temples survive in three clusters, Hindu and Jain, in Nagara style [2][3].
• Chaulukyas/Solankis ruled from Anahilavada (Patan) — distinct from the Deccan Chalukyas.
• 1178: Ghuri beaten in Gujarat — credited to Mularaja II or to Queen Naikidevi (Merutunga's chronicle).
• Chahamana capital Ajayameru (Ajmer); Delhi appears as 'Dhillika'.
• Jayadeva, of the Sena court of Bengal (capital Nadiya), wrote the Gitagovindam.
• Konark Sun temple: Eastern Ganga king Narasimhadeva I (1238–1264), c. 1250, 24 wheels, 6 horses [4][5].

Mains Points

• Political break-up did not mean cultural decline. The Pratihara collapse produced many mid-sized kingdoms, and each one spent heavily on temples, Sanskrit learning and court poetry — Khajuraho under the Chandellas, Dhara under Bhoja, Konark under the Eastern Gangas. Use this against the old 'dark age' label for early medieval India.
• Rajput states fought the Ghaznavid and Ghurid raids separately, not together. Bhoja aided the Hindu Shahis, the Chandellas resisted Mahmud, the Chaulukyas beat Ghuri in 1178 — but each acted alone. This pattern of separate resistance is the standard explanation for the later Ghurid success.
• Temples as political statements. Kandariya Mahadeva (c. 1000, ~31 m) and Konark (1250, Surya's chariot) were not only religious buildings; scale and iconography advertised a king's power, and Konark is directly tied to Narasimhadeva I's 1243 Bengal campaign [2][3][4][5]. Good material for questions on art as an instrument of legitimacy.
• Sources and gender: the Mount Abu dispute (Mularaja II vs Queen Naikidevi) shows how a later chronicle like Merutunga's can preserve a tradition that inscriptions do not confirm — a useful example of how historians weigh chronicle against epigraph, and of women's agency in early medieval politics.