The Chaulukya kingdom of Gujarat

Who rules

Name

Bhima II (Bhimadeva II; the Jain prabandhas call him Bholo Bhima, 'simple Bhima')

Title

King (maharajadhiraja) of Gujarat

Since

1178 (reckoning of A. K. Majumdar, 1956)

Born

not pinned; he was a boy in 1178, so on 1 January 1200 probably a man in his twenties or early thirties

Family

Chaulukya (Solanki) house, son of Ajayapala and younger brother of Mularaja II

Confidence

medium

Wikipedia's Bhima II article, summarising Majumdar, gives the reign as about 1178 to 1240 and says he succeeded his brother Mularaja II as a young king. The epithet Bholo Bhima is the prabandhas' usage (recalled, not rechecked here).

What the realm holds

• The capital Anahilapataka (Patan) on the Sarasvati, with its tanks, mint and Jain quarter
• Siddhpur (the Rudra Mahalaya), Modhera, Vadnagar and the temple towns of Anarta
• The Sabarmati country (Ashaval and Karnavati, Dholka, Viramgam) and the black-soil Khetaka-mandala (Kheda)
• Lata: Vadodara, Dabhoi, Bharuch, Ankleshwar, Kamrej, Surat, Navsari, with the Narmada and Tapi ferries
• The gulf ports Cambay and Ghogha and the customs of the Gulf of Khambhat
• North Kathiawar (Jhalawad): Wadhwan, Patdi, Dhandhuka
• Homage, tribute and pilgrim dues from Saurashtra through the Chudasama rajas of Junagadh (Somnath, Girnar, Palitana, Dwarka)
• Homage from the chiefs of Kutch and from the Bhil and Koli headmen of the eastern hills
• The Abu pass and the Arbuda country through the Paramara Dharavarsha, and the Marwar road through the Chahamana lords of Nadol and Jalor

How it was acquired

The Chaulukya house has ruled Anahilapataka since Mularaja I in the tenth century. Bhima II inherited in 1178 from his brother Mularaja II, in the year the regency repelled Muhammad of Ghor at Kasahrada (the victory is credited to the queen mother Naikidevi in Merutunga, to Bhima II in some Muslim accounts).

Allies and rivals

Loyal in name: the Paramaras of Abu (Dharavarsha), the Chahamanas of Jalor (Samarasimha's daughter Liladevi is named as a queen in the Kadi inscription of 1205), the Vaghelas of Dholka. Peace: a treaty with Prithviraja III of Shakambhari made before 1187 (Kharatara-gachchha Pattavali, via Majumdar), now void with Prithviraja dead. Enemies: the Ghurids at Ajmer and Delhi; the Paramaras of Malwa (Vindhyavarman, then Subhatavarman; the Paramara invasion of Lata is a later event, in likely_course_1200); the Yadavas of Devagiri, whose king Jaitugi claims a victory over the 'Gurjaras' in an inscription dated 1200.

The Guhilas of Medapata, restored in Mewar about 1182 by submission to Bhima, are a vassal house whose later break from Gujarat is in likely_course_1200.

The realm that morning

On 1 January 1200 Bhima II is on the throne and his capital is, with probability, back in his hands: Aibak's sack was in early 1197 and Majumdar has the capital in Chaulukya control by 1201, with Lavanaprasada and Shridhara credited with driving the Turks out; the month is not pinned. Nothing in the sources shows the Ghurids at the Gujarat border in the winter of 1199-1200: Aibak's strength is committed to the Delhi, Doab and Malwa fronts. The feudatories are intact but have learned that the king cannot protect them, and the Chahamana lords of Nadol have lost their old capital.

A Yadava inscription dated 1200 claims a victory over the Gurjaras (see likely course): the sources give nothing more than the boast.

Wealth

Port tolls at Cambay and Bharuch and the Saurashtra harbours; the horse trade landed from Hormuz between November and March; cotton cloth, indigo and carnelian beads; salt from the Rann edge; the loans and gifts of the Jain merchant houses; pilgrim dues at Somnath, Girnar and Shatrunjaya. No source gives a revenue figure.

Military

A feudal host of mandalikas and ranakas with horse and elephants, led in the field by the king's generals (Jagaddeva, Lavanaprasada, Shridhara). Hill forts at Idar and Pavagadh, the walled city of Anahilapataka, and the town gates of Zinzuwada; the Uparkot of Junagadh belongs to the Chudasamas. The Persian figures for 1197 (Hasan Nizami: 50,000 Chaulukya dead; Firishta: 15,000 killed and 20,000 taken) are rhetorical and are not used as counts.

No navy is documented.

Threats

• A second Ghurid column up the Abu road, now that the Mount Abu confederacy has been broken twice
• Paramara raids from Malwa on Lata, which can grow into an invasion (a later event, in likely_course_1200)
• Yadava horse on the Narmada
• Vassals who will not come to the muster, above all the Guhilas of Mewar and the Chudasamas of Saurashtra

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.

In 1200

1. 1200 (no month or place given)An inscription of the Yadava king Jaitugi dated 1200 claims a victory over the Gurjaras, usually read as a raid into Lata. Majumdar also mentions a chief named Simha, earlier allied with the Paramaras, who turns to the Chaulukyas about now.Depends on: Nothing more is recoverable; no Gujarat record answers it Stopped by: Treat it as a boast or a border affair on the Narmada, not a war

Later, on the likely course

1. about 1204Subhatavarman of Malwa invades Lata, takes Dabhoi for a time and may sack Anahilapataka; Lavanaprasada and Shridhara drive him off (Dabhoi prashasti of Someshvara; Devapattana prashasti)Depends on: Subhatavarman's strength and the Chaulukya feudatories coming to the muster Stopped by: A Chaulukya or Vaghela force on the Mahi before he crosses
2. about 1205 to 1210Jayantasimha, a member of a collateral Chaulukya line, seizes Anahilapataka; Arjunavarman of Malwa defeats him; Bhima recovers the capital only in 1223 to 1226Depends on: A weak king and a Malwa army in the country Stopped by: Bhima II shows the capital's ministers and feudatories he can command them
3. between 1207 and 1227The Guhilas of Medapata declare themselves independentDepends on: Gujarat's weakness after Jayantasimha Stopped by: A strong Chaulukya or Vaghela army in Marwar

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry anahilapataka-patan says Bhima 'holds it again and is issuing from it' on this morning. The sources we could check say only that he held it by 1201 (Majumdar), that Firishta puts a Muslim governor there after the sack and Ibn al-Athir Hindu vassals; the date of the recovery is not pinned.
• The campaign board entry dholka-dhavalakka puts Arnoraja in Dholka on this morning. Majumdar, as summarised, has Arnoraja dying in the rebellions of Bhima's early years, which makes Lavanaprasada the more likely holder by 1200; not pinned.
• The campaign board entry kasahrada-kayadra says Jayatasimha of Nadol stood at Kasahrada in 1197. The Muslim sources name 'Darabaras' (Dharavarsha of Abu), 'Rai Karan' and 'Wallan'; Jayatasimha is the campaign board's inference, and the identification of Rai Karan with Kelhana is doubted because Kelhana died about 1193.
• The campaign board entry palanpur-prahladanapura says Palanpur was founded in the late twelfth century; Wikipedia, after Dhaky 1961, gives 1218 for the founding by Prahladana.

Evidence: Two Wikipedia articles summarising Majumdar (1956) and Sharma (1959) carry the political narrative; the Persian chronicles (Hasan Nizami, Ibn al-Athir, Firishta) are reached only through them because archive.org was closed to me. The Hindu side is inscriptions and the prabandhas (Merutunga, 1305; Someshvara's Kirtikaumudi), written long after the events.

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

On the map: The core is drawn from modern districts and so shows a block; the real kingdom is a chain of towns, tanks and ports with feudatories in between. Saurashtra and Kutch are drawn in their own records, not here.

Primary sources for this realm

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
• The Wishing-Stone of Narratives, Merutunga (a Jain monk of the Nagendra gaccha) (1305 (Vikrama 1361) at Vadhvan in Gujarat). A Jain collection of historical anecdotes about the kings of Gujarat and Malwa, a century after 1200. Read online