South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

was born king Utpalarāja who had king Araṇyarāja as his son, After the latter, came the victorious king Kṛishṇarāja who was the very image of his father (Araṇyarāja).

Kṛishṇarāja’s son Dharaṇīvarāha succeeded to the throne after him. The latter was succeeded by his two sons Dhūrbhaṭa and Mahīpāla^[1] who perhaps divided the kingdom and ruled in their respective territories (verse 3). Thereafter Dhandhūka, the son of Mahīpāla, ruled over his own territory after driving away all his enemies (verse 4). Dhandhūka had three sons, viz. Pūrṇapāla, Dantivarman and Kṛishṇadēva, who ruled one after the other (verse 5).^[2] Dantivarman’s son was Yōgarāja, the conqueror of the earth, and Kṛishṇadēva’s son was Kākaladēva (verse 6). The son of Yōgarāja was Rāmadēva who was a terror in the battle-field while that of Kākaladēva was king Vikramasiṁha (verse 7). The son of Rāmadēva was king Yaśōdhavala who crushed in battle Ballāla, the king of Mālava (verse 8).^[3] His son Dhārāvarsha, the lord of Arbuda (Ābu), was an ornament of the Paramāra family and was the foremost among kings. He was well-versed in the Śāstras and clever in the use of weapons. He was a man of dominating personality and the influence of his virtuous life on his subjects, whom he had won over by love, was considerable (verse 9). He put to rout the brave soldiers of Mālava with a volley of his arrows on the bank of river Parṇā; but, in the meantime, Vikramasiṁha’s son Raṇasiṁha captured the territory of his father (verse 10).^[4] Then Dhārāvarsha, having pleased his master by means of his wisdom, devotion and valour, got back his own kingdom through his (i.e. his master’s) favour (verse 11).^[5] He had a wife named Rājyaśrī (?)^[6] of the Cāhamāna (Chauhān) family, who was the daughter of the illustrious Kēlhaṇadēva.^[7]

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^[1] Ojha wrongly considers Dhūrbhaṭa to be a second name of Mahīpāla (op.cit., pp. 193, 203).
^[2] Pūrṇapāla and Dantivarman ruled for a short time one after the other. It appears that the former had no son. But, although Dantivarman had a son, the throne was occupied by his younger brother Kṛishṇadēva. Thus Yōgarāja and Rāmadēva, respectively the son and grandson of Dantivarman, were deprived of their right of succession, and the kingdom passed on to Kākaladēva, the son of Kṛishṇadēva.
^[3] From Kākaladēva, his son Vikramasiṁha inherited the throne. But Vikramasiṁha was taken captive, in a battle, by the Sōlaṅkī king Kumārapāla of Surāshṭra (Gujarāt) who installed Yaśōdhavala, the son of Rāmadēva and nephew of Vikramasiṁha, on the throne of Ābu.
^[4] It appear that, when Dhārāvarsha was engaged in a battle with the Mālavas, Raṇasiṁha captured the territory of his father Vikramasiṁha, which had been given to Yaśōdhavala, the father of Dhārāvarsha, by Kumārapāla.
^[5] Dhārāvarsha’s master was the king of Gujarāt.
^[6] The name of the queen is uncertain. See below, p. 138, note 1. The present charter seems to have been issued by Dhārāvarsha.─Ed.]
^[7] After this, the record is lost in the missing plate or plates. For a brief history of the Paramāras, see Ojha, op. cit., pp. 190 ff. Ojha (op. cit., p. 198) states that Dhārāvarsha married Śṛiṅgāradēvī and Gigādēvī, the daughters of the Chauhān king Kēlhaṇa of Nāḍōla.

The inscription offers the following genealogy of the Paramāras of Ābu :─