PRATIHARAS

PRATIHARAS

The foundation of one branch of Pratiharas was laid down by Harichandra, a brahman, near modern Jodhpur in the ;niddle of the sixth century AD. The foun­dation of another branch was at Malwa with its capital at Ujjain, and the earliest known king of this branch was Nagabhatta I. He c~me into prominence because of his successful resistance of the Arabs. He fought against the Rashtrakuta ruler Dantidurga. The next important ruler of the dynasty was Vatsaraja. The greatest king of the dynasty was Bhoja who ascended the throne in or about 836 and assumed the titles Mihira and Adivaraha. He extended his kingdom's boundary to the east and up to the Sindhu in the north. Bhoja was succeeded by Mahendrapala I around 893. In about 912, Mahipala came to the throne. In the reign of his successor, Mahendrapala II, the disintegration of the Pratihara kingdom began and on its ruins arose small independent kingdoms, many of them of Rajput princes.