The Paramaras of Malwa

Who rules

Name

Subhatavarman (Sohada, also written Subhatavarman or Sribhata)

Title

Maharajadhiraja Paramesvara Paramabhattaraka

Since

about 1194 (reconstruction)

Born

not known

Family

Paramara. Son of Vindhyavarman; his son and successor is Arjunavarman I, a prince on 1 January 1200 whose age is not known.

Confidence

medium

Reign put at about 1194 to 1209 or 1210 by the standard reconstruction, from inscriptions of his son and grandson and the Gujarat chronicles. No stone of his own is dated to the 1190s in our sources.

Overlord

none (the Chaulukya overlordship of Malwa ended with Vindhyavarman)

What the realm holds

• Dhara (Dhar), seat of the house and of Bhoja's memory
• Ujjain (Ujjayini) with the Mahakala temple
• Mandapa-durga (Mandu), the plateau fortress
• Bhilsa (Vidisha) on the eastern gate
• Bhojpur and the Bhoja lake dams, Sarangpur, Maheshwar, Mandhata (Omkareshvara), Mandsaur, Jhalrapatan and Hinglajgarh
• the Nimar plain and the Narmada ferries
• the Bhil hills of the south-west as tributaries

How it was acquired

Vindhyavarman reversed the Chaulukya conquest in the 1170s to 1190s; Dhara in his hands by 1192. Subhatavarman succeeded about 1194.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: the Chaulukyas of Gujarat (war on and off for sixty years; the general Kumara beat Vindhyavarman at Goggasthana), the Yadavas of Devagiri and the Hoysalas (both raided Malwa), the Chandelas on the Betwa and round Bhilsa. The Paramara line of Abu is a Chaulukya feudatory. A cadet line, the Mahakumaras, held ground round Bhopal. The Ghurids at Gwalior and Narwar are the new danger.

The realm that morning

Independent and recovering. No Ghurid garrison is in Malwa. The campaign board and Fakhr-i Mudabbir put a Ghurid conquest or raid of Malwa in 1199 to 1200; no source shows an administration afterwards, so it was a raid or it did not happen. The Chaulukyas are weakened by the Ghurid sack of Anhilwara (about 1197), which is Subhatavarman's opening.

Wealth

Black-soil wheat and cotton (the Cambay road), tanks and stepwells, iron from the Vindhya, the pilgrim traffic of Ujjain and Omkareshvara, tolls on the Gujarat to Ganges road and on the Narmada ferries; the Jain merchant communities of Dhara and Nalcha.

Military

Forts on the plateau edge (Mandu, Raisen, Hinglajgarh), cavalry and foot of the Malwa Rajputs, Bhil auxiliaries. Defeated by the Chaulukya general Kumara in the last reign; no numbers survive.

Threats

• A Ghurid column down the Gwalior to Ujjain road (Fakhr-i Mudabbir)
• Yadava raids from the Tapti and the Narmada
• Chaulukya counter-attack once Bhima II is secure
• Chandela claims on Bhilsa and Dasarna

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. 1199 to 1200 (month unrecoverable)A Ghurid column from Gwalior goes into Malwa (Fakhr-i Mudabbir: conquest; later historians: a raid). Minhaj says Aibak's territory reached the frontier of Ujjain.Depends on: Aibak free of other wars; Tughril and Aibak both wanting the credit. Stopped by: Distance and the Paramara fortresses; no garrison is ever recorded.

Later, on the likely course

1. about 1204 on the Wikipedia reckoning (earlier on some others)Subhatavarman invades Gujarat, takes Lata and holds Dabhoi for a time; Lavanaprasada and the Chaulukya governor Shridhara turn him back.Depends on: Chaulukya weakness after the Ghurid sack; the Yadavas busy elsewhere. Stopped by: Lavanaprasada and Viradhavala of Dholka.
2. 1209 or 1210Subhatavarman dies; Arjunavarman I succeeds.Depends on: Natural death.

Places of note

• Dhara: seat
• Ujjain: richer city
• Mandapa-durga: refuge fortress

Where the sources disagree

• Board: "Subhatavarman invades Gujarat within five years" (i.e. by about 1205): the same as the Wikipedia date, a later event. The date is reconstructed, and some historians put the invasions earlier.
• The campaign board entry calls the Malwa raid "certain in direction". Only Fakhr-i Mudabbir dates it; no other chronicler mentions it.

Evidence: Reign lengths are reconstructions from the inscriptions of Arjunavarman and Devapala and from Gujarat sources a century later; the 1190s are thin for Malwa itself.

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

On the map: The outline is the modern districts of Dhar, Ujjain, Indore, Dewas, Shajapur, Rajgarh, Agar, Mandsaur, Neemuch, Ratlam, Sehore, Bhopal, Raisen, Vidisha, Khargone, Barwani, Harda, Khandwa and Jhalawar. The north (Guna, Ashoknagar, Shivpuri) and the Bhil west (Jhabua, Alirajpur) were looser.

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 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
• Inscriptions of the Kalachuri-Chedi Era, Various, edited by V. V. Mirashi (inscriptions of the 7th to 13th centuries; edited 1955). Collects every known record of the Kalachuris of Tripuri (Dahala) and of Ratnapura (south Kosala), with text, translation and a long historical introduction. Read online
• Inscriptions of the Paramaras, Chandellas, Kachchhapaghatas and two minor dynasties, Various, edited by H. V. Trivedi (inscriptions of the 9th to 14th centuries; edited 1978 to 1991). The collected records of the Paramaras of Malwa (parts 1 and 2) and of the Chandelas of Jejakabhukti (part 3), re-edited from Epigraphia Indica and earlier journals with new finds.
• Sanskrit and Old Canarese Inscriptions relating to the Yadava Kings of Devagiri, Various (Yadava chancery), edited by J. F. Fleet (inscriptions of the 12th and 13th centuries; edited 1876). The first collected edition of the Yadava (Seuna) records, with texts and translations, from the Indian Antiquary. 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