Bhima II

Who he is

Name

Bhima II (Bhimadeva II, 'Bholo Bhima')

Title

King (maharajadhiraja)

Since

1178

Born

not pinned; a boy in 1178

Family

Chaulukya (Solanki); son of Ajayapala, brother of Mularaja II

Confidence

medium

Majumdar via Wikipedia: reign about 1178 to 1240. Queens named in later sources: Liladevi (daughter of Samarasimha of Jalor; Kadi inscription of 1205) and Sumaladevi (daughter of Lavanaprasada, in a later account). A successor, Tribhuvanapala, is named after 1240; his relation to Bhima is not given in the page we read.

What it holds

• Anahilapataka and the crown's villages in Anarta (the Sarasvati country)
• The crown's customs at Cambay and Bharuch
• The royal temples and tanks: the Sahasralinga Talav, the Rani ki Vav, Modhera, Siddhpur
• The right to call out the mandalikas and ranakas, to judge, and to grant villages to Brahmins and temples by copper plate

How it was acquired

By inheritance, 1178, from his brother Mularaja II.

Allies and rivals

Generals and priests of the court: Jagaddeva (who made the peace with Prithviraja III before 1187), Lavanaprasada and Shridhara (credited with the recovery from the Ghurids; their defence against Malwa comes in later years), and Someshvara, the court priest and poet. Rivals: Aibak at Delhi and Ajmer; Subhatavarman of Malwa; Jaitugi of Devagiri.

How things stand that morning

Bhima is in his capital, or very nearly, after the sack. No source we could check names his chief minister (mahamatya) in the winter of 1199-1200. The Jain minister houses of Anahilapataka are his bankers; Vastupala and Tejahpala, who serve the Vaghelas in later years, are young men in Dholka or Patan with no office (their ages are not pinned).

Wealth

The crown's share of the cotton, indigo, salt and port revenue of Gujarat; its lands are scattered and are the least of its power.

Military

His household horse, the elephants of the royal stables, and the levies of the feudatories. The generals of the recovery were Lavanaprasada and Shridhara; the court has no standing army that was able to hold the Abu pass in 1197.

Threats

• Another Ghurid column
• Paramara and Yadava pressure on Lata
• A usurper from a collateral line of the royal house (a later event, in likely_course_1200)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. about 1204 to 1210Subhatavarman's invasion and Jayantasimha's usurpationDepends on: See the realm record Stopped by: A resolute defence by Lavanaprasada and Shridhara

Places of note

• Anahilapataka (Patan): The capital on the Sarasvati; Jain quarter, mint, tanks
• Sahasralinga Talav: Siddharaja Jayasimha's reservoir fed by a channel from the Sarasvati
• Rani ki Vav: Udayamati's stepwell for Bhima I, about 1063, silting up

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry anahilapataka-patan: see the realm record.

Evidence: One good modern summary (Majumdar via Wikipedia); the prabandhas and Persian chronicles are late or hostile.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: The crown's own district is small; the realm record carries the wider kingdom.

Primary sources for Chaulukya Gujarat

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Crown of Glorious Deeds, Hasan Nizami (Sadr al-Din Muhammad ibn Hasan Nizami of Nishapur) (begun about 1205 at Delhi, carried on to about 1217). The earliest history written in Muslim India and the only contemporary account of Qutb al-Din Aibak's campaigns. Read online
• The Nasirean Generations (a general history of the Muslim dynasties), Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (completed 1260 at Delhi). The fullest narrative of the Ghurid conquest of northern India. Read online
• The Nasirid Generations: a General History of the Muslim Dynasties, Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (1259 to 1260, at Delhi). The Ghurid court's own history, by a man born in 1193 whose family served the sultans of Ghur and Ghazna. Read online
• Epigraphia Indica: inscriptions of the Chandelas, Paramaras, Gahadavalas, Chaulukyas, Senas and Eastern Gangas, Various (edited for the Archaeological Survey of India by J. Burgess, E. Hultzsch, F. Kielhorn, Sten Konow, F. W. Thomas and successors) (inscriptions of the 1180s to 1210s; the series ran from 1892). The main record series for the Hindu kingdoms of northern India around 1200. Read online
• Historical Inscriptions of Gujarat, Various (the Chaulukya and Vaghela chanceries), edited by G. V. Acharya (inscriptions of the 10th to 14th centuries; edited 1933 to 1942). The standard corpus of Gujarat's inscriptions. Read online
• A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
• The Book of Roger (the Pleasure of Him who Longs to Cross the Horizons), Muhammad al-Idrisi (completed 1154 at Palermo). The nearest Arabic geography in time to 1200 for the Indian Ocean. Read online
• The History of India as Told by its Own Historians: the Muhammadan Period, vol. 2, Various (Ibn al-Athir, Hasan Nizami, Awfi, Juzjani and others), edited by H. M. Elliot and John Dowson (the sources date from the 1190s to the 14th century; the collection was published in 1869). A one-volume anthology of the Arabic and Persian accounts of the Ghurid conquest. Read online

1 more in the sources library for Northern India.