Samantasimha of Nadol

Who he is

Name

Samantasimha (probably), after Jayatasimha (1193 to 1197 in R. B. Singh's list)

Title

Maharaja (the title in his inscriptions) of the Naddula line

Since

after 1197 (inferred); attested by five inscriptions dated 1199 to 1201 (Wikipedia, Chahamanas of Naddula)

Born

not pinned

Family

Chahamana of Naddula. Predecessors: Alhana (1148 to 1163), Kelhana (1163 to 1193), Jayatasimha (1193 to 1197). Kirtipala of Jalor was a son of Alhana and brother of Kelhana. How Samantasimha is related to Jayatasimha is not stated.

Confidence

low

Wikipedia says only that Samantasimha 'may have succeeded Jayatasimha' and is attested by five inscriptions dated 1199 to 1201; the page does not give Vikrama dates, places of issue or grants. The campaign board puts the inscriptions at Nadol and calls Sadri the findspot of Jayatasimha's 1194 inscription (title Maharajadhiraja); we could not check either.

Overlord

Bhima II of Gujarat, nominally: the Naddula house was a Chaulukya feudatory for most of the twelfth century (Wikipedia, Guhila and Naddula pages)

What it holds

• Nadol and the Godwar: Bali, Sadri, Sanderao, the Desuri approaches
• Pali, the market of Marwar (probable; not shown)

How it was acquired

Inherited from the Naddula line; see above.

Allies and rivals

Kin and rival of the Jalor line; neighbour of the Guhilas across the pass; feudatory of the Chaulukyas; enemy of Aibak's garrison at Ajmer. The Paramaras of Abu are his allies of 1178 and 1197.

How things stand that morning

A damaged house in a damaged country: Aibak's passage of 1197 left no garrison at Nadol (so far as the sources we reached say) and no field army survives west of the Aravalli. The five inscriptions of 1199 to 1201 prove only that grants are being made.

Wealth

Godwar grain, the Pali market and the Luni salt (Pachpadra) are the revenue that matters; the road cut at Pali hurts the country more than any fort lost.

Military

Horsemen from the Godwar villages; no counts.

Threats

• Another Ghurid column by the Abu road or from Ajmer
• Jalor, if it chooses to take what Nadol cannot keep
• Guhila pressure over the Desuri pass

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. after 1204Udayasimha of Jalor takes Naddula (Wikipedia, Jalor)Depends on: The Naddula line having failed and Jalor strong Stopped by: A Ghurid intervention or Chaulukya support for Nadol

Places of note

• Sadri: Godwar town at the mouth of the hill roads
• Sanderao: Village seat of a Jain monastic lineage, named in the branch's charters (board)

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry nadol and sadri-marwar say the five inscriptions of 1199 to 1201 were issued at or near Nadol and that Sadri holds Jayatasimha's 1194 text; Wikipedia's Naddula page names neither the places nor the 1194 inscription (it has Jayatasimha reigning 1193 to 1197). Unconfirmed.
• The campaign board entry nadol says the kingdom 'broke into pieces' in 1197; Wikipedia says only that Jayatasimha withdrew and probably joined a confederacy at Mount Abu that was defeated.

Evidence: One Wikipedia page citing R. B. Singh, and the campaign board.

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

On the map: A small block; Nadol itself was abandoned in 1197.

Primary sources for Chahamana houses

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 Tree of Genealogies, and the Manners of War and Bravery, Fakhr-i Mudabbir (Fakhr al-Din Muhammad ibn Mansur Mubarakshah) (the Shajara about 1206, dedicated to Qutb al-Din Aibak; the Adab al-harb in the 1220s for Iltutmish). The prose introduction to the Shajara, written within six years of 1200, praises Aibak and tells of his rise under Mu'izz al-Din of Ghur, his consecration at Lahore in 1206 and the Ghurid campaigns in Hindustan, with some notice of the Turkish peoples.
• 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
• The Victory of Prithviraja, Jayanaka (a Kashmiri poet at the Chahamana court) (about 1191 to 1192, left unfinished). A court epic written at Ajmer in the months between Prithviraja III's victory at Tarain in 1191 and his defeat and death in 1192. 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.