Samarasimha of Jalor

Who he is

Name

Samarasimha

Title

Chahamana raja of Jalor

Since

about 1182 (Wikipedia gives approximate reign 1182 to 1204)

Born

not pinned

Family

Son of Kirtipala (reign about 1160 to 1182), who was a son of Alhana of Naddula and brother of Kelhana. His daughter Liladevi is a queen of Bhima II (the Kadi inscription of 1205, see Chaulukya Gujarat). Successor Udayasimha (r. 1204 to 1257). The campaign board adds that Kirtipala's younger sons Lakhanapala and Abhayapala were given Sinavana (Sonana); the Wikipedia page does not mention them.

Confidence

medium

Wikipedia's Jalor page: Kirtipala received twelve villages from Alhana and Kelhana, ruled from Suvarnagiri (Sonagiri), made an independent kingdom before his death and patronised Jains. The page says the fort was held by a branch of the Paramaras until the early twelfth century and seized by the Naddula Chahamanas in Alhana's reign; the campaign board's 'Kirtipala took it from the Paramaras about 1181' does not appear.

Overlord

Bhima II of Gujarat, nominally (his daughter is a queen at Anahilapataka)

What it holds

• Jalor fort and town
• Bhadrajun and the Marwar road toward Pali
• Bhinmal and Sanchore are claims, not holdings, on 1 January 1200 (Jalor's later conquests, in likely_course_1200)

How it was acquired

Kirtipala's grant and conquest in the 1160s to 1180s.

Allies and rivals

Chaulukya feudatory and father-in-law of the king; kin of Nadol; the Paramara of Siwana is kin and rival by turns (board).

How things stand that morning

A fortress lordship at peace for the moment, the strongest Chahamana line in the west because Aibak's path of 1197 went by Abu and Nadol and not Jalor.

Wealth

The Jain merchant houses, the Luni salt flats, tolls on the Marwar road.

Military

A hill fort with its own water; horsemen from the district.

Threats

• Aibak or a successor
• The Siwana Paramaras
• Nadol, if it rebuilds

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. 1204 to 1205Samarasimha's reign ends and Udayasimha begins; the Kadi inscription of 1205 names Liladevi a queen of Bhima IIDepends on: Nothing changes his circumstances Stopped by: An earlier death
2. 1262 (later)Udayasimha's Sundha Hill inscription lists Bhinmal, Sanchore (Satyapura), Mandor and Naddula among his conquestsDepends on: Udayasimha's conquests after 1204 Stopped by: Loss of the Jalor army

Places of note

• Sonagira: The Adinatha temple inside the walls
• Sinavana: A cadet provision of a few villages (board)

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry jalore says Kirtipala took the fort about 1181 and that Samarasimha holds it; Wikipedia agrees Samarasimha reigns 1182 to 1204 but says nothing of a capture date.
• The campaign board entry bhinmal-srimala treats a Jagaswami temple inscription of 1205 as the first hard evidence of Chahamana lordship there; board sanchore-satyapura says it comes under Jalor after 1204. We follow both and mark both 'contested' on the map.

Evidence: Wikipedia's Jalor page after Srivastava (1979); the campaign board's physical description.

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

On the map: Jalor itself is firm; Bhinmal and Sanchore are not.

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.