Harsola copperplate

The origin of the Rajputs has been one of the most speculated topic in Indian history. The Harsola copperplate grants of 949 CE are one of the most important documents that shed light on origin of the Paramara dynasty, and hence on the origin of Rajputs. They establish that

* The Paramaras started out as feudatory of the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta.
* They belonged to the same "kula" (family) as the Rashtrakutas.

This establishes that the legend of the agni-kunda origin came much later.

The Grants

The Harsola copperplate grants were found at Harsola in district Ahmedabad in Gujarat. This is a pair of grants, each engraved on two plates.

* Grant A: grant to father
* Grant B: grant to son

The early parts of the text in the two grants is identical, although the two grants were obviously engraved in different hands. Apparently the grants were linked by a ring, with the royal seal (garuda) at the end of Grant A, which was placed after B.

The Text

In this pair of grants, the first verse after the opening Siddhaminvokes blessings of vishnu in form of Vaharaha ("sukhayantuvah.." etc). The second verse first mentions the sovereign king(lines 3-4):

"parama-bhattaraka maharadhiraja" (etc.) Akalavarsha, with titles"prathvivallabha-shrivallabha", who had learned at the feet of "parma-bhattaraka" (etc) Amoghavarsha,

Later in lines 5 and 6 it mentions:

... in his family was born, vappiyaraja (so named) king (nrapa),following him his son Vairisimha..

Later it in line 8, it mentions Siyaka in this family (tasmin kule.. jaatah ). Further (lines 11,12,13) it mentions for the same Siyaka,

"mahamandalika-chudamani- ..shri-siyakah-bhujyaman ..kumbharotaka-grama .."

Here is explicitly mentions Siyaka as a mandalika (i.e a feudatory)and a village in his domain. Note that Parama-bhattarka indicates a sovereign king, who is not under a higher king.

The complete text can be seen in the reference below.

Paramara Chronology:

Through Parmar copper-plates, the genealogies given in Navasahasanka-charita and the Udaipur prashasti, the following genealogy can beconstructed for early Paramaras, along with estimated period:

* Upendra
* Bappairaja/Vakpatiraja/Krishnaraja [895-920]
* Vairisimha [920-945]
* Siyaka/Harsha/Simha [945-973]
* Vakpati/Munja [973-995]
* Sindhuraj/Navasahasanka [995-1000]
* Bhojadeva [1000-1055] the best known king of the dynasty

The name of Upendra is not given in any of the copperplates, but ismentioned in Navasahasanka-charita, where he is said to haveperformed many sacrifices. He is mentioned there as the founder ofthe Paramar house. He is the first historicperson of the Paramar clan. If the agni-kunda sacrifice correspondsto something historical, it must be the sacrifices conducted byUpendra.

Parmaras had several branches, the bestknown of them is the Malava branch (above). It was Siyaka who wasmainly responsible for establishment of the Malava branch. Otherbranches were located at Chandravati (records of 1043-1287), Vagad(records of 1059-1109), Bhinamal (records of 1012-1183) and Jalor (arecord of 1118), all of them in the vicinity of Abu. The last recordof the Malava branch of Jaivarman/Jaisimha is dated to 1274. Itappears that a minister of the Parmaaras, Koka, took a large partof the kingdom from the last king of Malava, Bhoj II. AlauddinKhalji's general Einulmulk Multani, defeated Koka and captured Dharaand built a mosque there in 1311. A Bhoja, said to have beenconverted to Islam, must have been this Bhoja II.

References

" H.V. Trivedi, Editor, Inscriptions of the Paramaras, Chandellas, Kachchhapaghatas and two minor Dynasties", part 2 of the 3-part Vol III ofCorpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, edited in 1974 by (published in 1991).