[History][Topic-20] Gurjara Pratiharas, Palas & Rashtrakutas..The Kannauj Traingle

The Gurjara Pratiharas

often simply called Pratihara Empire
Kannauj was the capital of imperial Gurjara Pratiharas
The Gurjara Pratihara rulers in the tenth century was entitled as Maharajadhiraja of Āryāvarta (“Great King over Kings of the abode of the Aryans”. i.e. Lords of Northern India).
Nagabhatta-I is said to be the founder of this dynasty

Al-Masudi , an Arab traveller called the Gurjara kindom as Al-Juzr and the king as Baura.
Bhoja was succeeded by Mahendrapal
The great sanskrit poet and dramatist Rajashekhar lived at the court of Mahipala, grandson of Bhoja.
Rajshekhar wrote Karpurmanjari

Gopala was the first ruler from the dynasty.
The Palas were followers of the Mahayana and Tantricschools of Buddhism.
The empire reached its peak under Dharmapala and Devapala
Devapala was successor of Dharmapala who was successor of Gopala
They created many temples and works of art as well as supported the Universities of Nalanda and Vikramashila.
Somapura Mahavihara built by Dharmapala is the greatest Buddhist Vihara in the Indian Subcontinent.
The Pala Empire can be considered as the golden era of Bengal.
An Arab merchant Sulaiman wrote an account of Pala kingdom named Ruhma.

This dynasty was founded by Dantidurg.
They were called as Ballahara by the Arabs.
Their capital was Manyakheta (present day Malkhed in the Gulbarga district, Karnataka state)
An Arabic writing Silsilatuttavarikh (851) called the Rashtrakutas one of the four principal empires of the world.
Krishna-I built the famous Shiva temple(rock cut temple at Ellora)
The earliest known Rashtrakuta inscription is a 7th-century copper plate grant that mentions their rule from Manpur in the Malwa region of modern Madhya Pradesh.
Govinda-III and Amoghavarsha were the greatest rulers of this dynasty
Amoghvarsha composed one of the earliest tet in Kannada literature, the ‘Kaviraj Marga’