The Jain merchant houses of Anahilapataka are the credit of the state: the families (Porvad, Shrimali, Oswal) who lend to the crown and give ministers to it, and their libraries (bhandars), where the palm-leaf copies made in Hemachandra's time are still being added to.
A king who loses these houses cannot pay an army whatever his revenue rolls say. Their patronage reaches Shatrunjaya, Girnar and Abu, and they are not tied to the Chaulukya house: the same families serve the Vaghelas after it.
Who he is
- Name
- not named for 1200
- Title
- Heads of the Shvetambara Jain houses of Anahilapataka
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
We found no source naming a Jain minister in office on 1 January 1200. The Chaulukya article says only that Chaulukya ministers built the Dilwara temples and that Kumarapala was the last great royal patron of Jainism. Vastupala and Tejahpala become ministers under Viradhavala from about 1219 (not dated in the Vaghela page we read), so in 1200 they hold no office. The campaign board adds Hemachandra (died 1173), Jinapati Suri as an eyewitness of the 1197 sack (confirmed by Majumdar via Wikipedia), and Bahad's rebuilding at Shatrunjaya about 1157.
What it holds
- The Jain quarter of Anahilapataka and its libraries
- The trusts of Shatrunjaya, Girnar and Abu, which they endow
- Credit to the crown
How it was acquired
By Kumarapala's patronage after about 1160 (Hemachandra's advice), per the campaign board.
Allies and rivals
Patrons of the Shvetambara sects (the Kharatara-gachchha, whose monk Jinapati Suri saw the 1197 sack); rivals in learning to the Nagar and Audichya Brahmins.
How things stand that morning
Shaken by 1197 (Jinapati Suri's eyewitness) but whole; the bhandars are the first thing a conqueror would burn and the last thing the court would name.
Wealth
Credit and trade; no figure from any source.
Threats
- A second sack
- A king who favours the Brahmins
Places of note
- The Jain quarter of Anahilapataka: Shvetambara merchant quarter and manuscript libraries (bhandars)
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: General statements from the Chaulukya and Bhima II pages and the campaign board; no document of 1200.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: The ground inside the city is not fixed.
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.
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia, 'Bhima II' (summarising A. K. Majumdar, The Chaulukyas of Gujarat, 1956)
- Wikipedia, 'Chaulukya dynasty' (summarising Majumdar 1956 and Dasharatha Sharma, Early Chauhan Dynasties, 1959)
- OMNIA board notes for the place (a lead only; checked against the sources above)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.