Vaghelas of Dholka

Who he is

Name

Lavanaprasada (Lavanyaprasada), son of Arnoraja; his son is Viradhavala

Title

Ranaka (chief), feudatory of Bhima II

Since

not pinned

Born

not pinned

Family

Vaghela (of Vyaghrapalli), a collateral Chaulukya line by the later tradition

Confidence

low

Majumdar via Wikipedia: Arnoraja, a loyal Vaghela feudatory, died fighting rebel mandalikas in Bhima II's early years; Lavanaprasada and Shridhara are the generals credited with driving the Ghurids out and, later, Subhatavarman. His known titles are later: on the Girnar inscriptions of 1231 Lavanaprasada is Maharajadhiraja and Viradhavala Maharaja, both still acknowledging Bhima. Wikipedia's Vaghela article says nothing in 1200 can be confirmed for them.

What it holds

• Dholka (Dhavalakka), with the Malav lake built by Minaladevi
• The Vyaghrapalli lands (the exact site is not pinned)
• A general's command of the king's levies in the recovery of the capital

How it was acquired

Arnoraja's service to Kumarapala and Bhima II; Lavanaprasada's by inheritance and by the recovery of Anahilapataka (not dated).

Allies and rivals

Allies: Shridhara, the king's other general. Rivals: the Ghurids; Subhatavarman of Malwa; the Yadavas. Later, the Chahamana feudatories of Marwar whom Lavanaprasada and Viradhavala will subdue.

How things stand that morning

A general and a feudatory, not a ruler. The first sources that give the family regal titles are of 1231.

Wealth

Dholka's markets (it is among the chief trading towns of Gujarat in al-Idrisi's account of 1154, as the campaign board says), and the villages of the Sabarmati country.

Military

The retainers of a ranaka; no source gives a size.

Threats

• A second sack of the capital
• The king's jealousy, if he is a jealous king

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 1204Lavanaprasada and Shridhara drive Subhatavarman out of LataDepends on: The invasion; they are in the field Stopped by: They are absent or beaten
2. about 1219 to 1220Vastupala and Tejahpala become ministers of ViradhavalaDepends on: Their service to Lavanaprasada first Stopped by: The brothers dying or Lavanaprasada's line losing Dholka

Places of note

• Malav lake: Reservoir built at the close of the eleventh century by Minaladevi

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry dholka-dhavalakka: Arnoraja 'holds' Dholka on this morning; the sources we could check make him dead in the rebellions of the 1180s or 1190s (not pinned), so we give Lavanaprasada as the probable holder.

Evidence: The Vaghela rise is documented in sources of the 1220s and after (Someshvara's Kirtikaumudi, the Sukrtasamkirtana, the Girnar inscriptions of 1231); nothing we could check puts either man in a named office in 1200.

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

On the map: Approximate; the Vyaghrapalli lands are not drawn because the site is not pinned.

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.