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    Yashovarman

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    Gadothkajan Bhim
    Yashovarman was a medieval ruler of Kannauj in northern India in the early 8th century. Little is reliably known about his life due to limited historical sources. He emerged as the powerful ruler of Kannauj after the death of King Harsha, who did not have an heir. Accounts of his conquests across northern India are likely exaggerated fiction. While a powerful king, the exact dates and details of his reign remain unclear. He may have constructed a temple in Ayodhya and had diplomatic relations with China and Kashmir during his rule of Kannauj.

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    Yashovarman

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    Gadothkajan Bhim
    536 views3 pages
    Yashovarman was a medieval ruler of Kannauj in northern India in the early 8th century. Little is reliably known about his life due to limited historical sources. He emerged as the powerful ruler of Kannauj after the death of King Harsha, who did not have an heir. Accounts of his conquests across northern India are likely exaggerated fiction. While a powerful king, the exact dates and details of his reign remain unclear. He may have constructed a temple in Ayodhya and had diplomatic relations with China and Kashmir during his rule of Kannauj.

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    Yashovarman

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    Yashovarman was a medieval ruler of Kannauj in northern India in the early 8th century. Little is reliably known about his life due to limited historical sources. He emerged as the powerful ruler of Kannauj after the death of King Harsha, who did not have an heir. Accounts of his conquests across northern India are likely exaggerated fiction. While a powerful king, the exact dates and details of his reign remain unclear. He may have constructed a temple in Ayodhya and had diplomatic relations with China and Kashmir during his rule of Kannauj.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    536 views3 pages

    Yashovarman

    Uploaded by

    Gadothkajan Bhim
    Yashovarman was a medieval ruler of Kannauj in northern India in the early 8th century. Little is reliably known about his life due to limited historical sources. He emerged as the powerful ruler of Kannauj after the death of King Harsha, who did not have an heir. Accounts of his conquests across northern India are likely exaggerated fiction. While a powerful king, the exact dates and details of his reign remain unclear. He may have constructed a temple in Ayodhya and had diplomatic relations with China and Kashmir during his rule of Kannauj.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    Yashovarman

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    Yashovarman

    Ruler of Kannauj

    Predecessor Harsha

    Successor Āma

    Born 7th or 8th century AD

    Died 8th century AD

    Issue Āma

    Yashovarman (IAST: Yaśovarman) was a medieval Indian ruler of Kannauj. There are few sources
    that provide information of his life, although he was indubitably a powerful man.

    Contents

     1Life
     2Legacy
     3References
     4External links

    Life[edit]
    Yashovarman was king of Kannauj in the early part of the eighth century. The city (then known as
    Kanyakubja) had previously been ruled by Harsha, who died without an heir and thus created a
    power vacuum. This lasted for around a century before Yashovarman emerged as its
    ruler.[1] Alexander Cunningham, an archaeologist of the British Raj period, speculated on possible
    rulers of Kannauj during the period between Harsha and Yashovarman but there is little evidence to
    support his claims.[2]
    Little is known of Yashovarman or his family, with most information being derived from
    the Gaudavaho (Slaying of the king of Gauda),[3] a Prakrit-language poem written by Vakpati.
    Yashovarman was a supporter of culture and Vakpati was among his courtiers: the extent to which
    the poem can be relied upon for statements of fact is impossible to determine.[a]Vakpati's work has
    been variously said to describe Yashovarman as either a divine incarnation of Vishnu[4] or
    a kshatriya of the Lunar dynasty; Cunningham considered him likely to be related to the Maukharis,
    who had ruled Kannauj prior to Harsa, and some Jain works say that he was related to the
    Chandraguptas who ruled the Mauryan empire.[5] The dates of his reign are also obscure, with
    assertions including c. 728–745 (Vincent A. Smith), around the late-seventh century/early eighth-
    century (Sankara Panduranga Pandit) and, according to the calculations of Ramashandra Tripathi,
    probably 725–752.[6]
    The Gaudavaho depicts Yashovarman as conquering large swathes of northern India —
    including Bihar, Bengal, the western Deccan, Indus Valley and Kashmir — before returning in
    triumph to Kannauj. However, Kalhana, a Kashmiri court chronicler who lived around the 12th
    century CE, gives a very different story in his Rajatarangini, depicting Yashovarman as a ruler who
    was among those defeated by Lalitaditya Muktapida, a ruler of Kashmir. The variant claims of
    stupendous conquests given by both of these courtiers are improbable,[7]with Tripathi saying of those
    in the Gaudavaho that "These exploits read more like fiction than sober history".[8] Other early
    sources are the Prabhavakacarita, Prabandha Kosha and Bappabhattasuricarita, which
    are Jain documents.[9]
    Although R. C. Majumdar is among those who are wary of the ancient accounts of conquests, he
    believes that Yashovarman was "unquestionably the most powerful king [in the region] about this
    time." He believes that diplomatic relations existed between the Chinese court and that in Kannuaj,
    evidenced by Yashovarman sending a minister to China in 731, and that he was for a time in alliance
    with Muktapida, with the two rulers defeating the Tibetans. These two diplomatic events may be
    connected because China was at that time at war with Tibet but it is also possible that the Chinese
    relationship grew from a shared concern about the growth of Arab power. The alliance with
    Muktapida collapsed around 740, according to Majumdar because of jealousy felt by the Kashmiri
    king. While Majumdar says that Lalitaditya then defeated Yashovarman and annexed his
    lands,[3] Tripathi believes that Kalhana's account of what happened is inconsistent and that
    Yashovarman may have been allowed to remain on his throne after a "nominal acknowledgement of
    supremacy" to Lalitaditya.[10]

    Legacy[edit]
    Little physical evidence exists of Yashovarman's reign, although he is reputed to have constructed
    the temple at Harischandranagari (present-day Ayodhya).[11] An inscription has been found
    at Nalanda, and some coins elsewhere, that may relate to him but there is no certainty.[12]
    According to the Jain chronicles, Yashovarman had a son named Āma, who succeeded him as the
    king of Kannauj during 749-753 CE. Historian Shyam Manohar Mishra believes this claim to be
    historically true, as it is not contradicted by any historical evidence.[13] C. V. Vaidya theorized that the
    Ayudha rulers were descendants of Yashovarman, but no historical records connect the two
    dynasties. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar similarly proposed that Vajrayudha and Indrayudha were
    names of Āma. But this theory is contradicted by the Jain accounts.[14]

    References[edit]
    Notes
    1. ^ Another poet who lived at the court of Yashovarman was Bhavabhuti.[3]
    Citations

    1. ^ Chopra (2003), p. 194


    2. ^ Tripathi (1989), p. 192
    3. ^ Jump up to:a b c Majumdar (2003), p. 259
    4. ^ Eraly (2011), p. 92
    5. ^ Tripathi (1989), pp. 193–194
    6. ^ Tripathi (1989), pp. 194–197
    7. ^ Eraly (2011), pp. 92–93, 622
    8. ^ Tripathi (1989), p. 197
    9. ^ Tripathi (1989), p. 193
    10. ^ Tripathi (1989), pp. 202–203
    11. ^ Elgood (2000), p. 144
    12. ^ Tripathi (1989), pp. 205, 207
    13. ^ Mishra 1977, p. 117.
    14. ^ Mishra 1977, p. 125.
    Bibliography

     Chopra, Pran Nath (2003), A Comprehensive History of Ancient India, Sterling


    Publishers, ISBN 978-81-207-2503-4
     Elgood, Heather (2000), Hinduism and the Religious Arts, Bloomsbury
    Publishing, ISBN 9780826498656
     Eraly, Abraham (2011), The First Spring: The Golden Age of India, Penguin Books
    India, ISBN 9780670084784
     Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra (2003) [1952], Ancient India (Reprinted ed.), Motilal
    Banarsidass, ISBN 9788120804364
     Mishra, Shyam Manohar (1977). Yaśovarman of Kanauj. Abhinav. OCLC 5782454.
     Tripathi, Ramashandra (1989), History of Kanauj: To the Moslem Conquest (Reprinted ed.),
    Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 9788120804043

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