NOTES TO PAGES 44-45 197
Sources and the Muslims (Eighth to' Fourteenth Century) (New Delhi:
Manohar Publishers, 1998).
- See Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum. vol. IV, part r: Inscriptions of the
Kalachuri-Chedi Era, no. 30, plate XXIII, pp. 137-45. My thanks to Blake T.
Wentworth for the translation:
His younger brother, absorbed in devotion to his lotus feet, is the eminent
King Pulakesin, Sustainer of the Peoples of the Earth .. A devotee of
Mahesvara, a sovereign, his ascendency increases with each passing day.
Ever since childhood, he has borne every kind of virtue. Riijalak~mI, the
goddess of royal fortune, has chosen to embrace his chest entirely of her
own will. With the spread of his pure white fame, he frees the entire earth
from stain. The eminent King Vallabha, who is enamored of heroism, gra-
ciously conferred on him four more titles-"Mainstay of the South,"
"Gem of the. Ciilukya Lineage," "Earth's Beloved," and "Evictor of Those
Who Do Not Withdraw"-when the Tiijika forces were defeated. On the
battle front, headless bodies formed dancing circles,. moving to the
piercing beat of war drums that pounded incessantly, their delight seem-
ingly caused by one thought: "Today at last, the debt of one lifetime that
we owe to our lord has been cleared with this payment of our own heads!"
The Tiijikas had torn apart such renowned kings as the Saindhava, Kac-
chella, Saurii~tra, Ciivotaka, Maurya, and Gurjara with their piercing,
brightly gleaming swords. Hurling arrows, lances, and clubs, they were
eager to enter the South and conquer. From the outset, thei came to sub-
jugate the realm of Navasiirikii. The tough, noisy hooves of their steeds
kicked up the ground to shroud the earth with dust in all directions.
Their 1:iodies were hideous, their armor reddened with torrents of blood
from innards that had burst out from the heavy bellies of great warriors
who had rushed them wildly and were mangled by the blades of their
spears. The best among hosts of kings had not defeated them before. Any
number of champions' bodies were armored with hair that bristled in the
fury of their battle spirit. These were men who attacked the Tiijikas head
on, giving their own heads in exchange for the extraordinary gifts and
honors they accepted from their lord. They bit their pursed lips cruelly
with the tips of their teeth, their turbans and honed swords reddened by
a thick veil of blood that had poured from wounds in the trunks and
sloping cheeks of enemy elephants, who had only the nooks and crannies
of countless battlefields for a stable. Though they were mighty warriors,
who sliced enemy necks like lotus stalks with a hail of arrows tipped
with forged crescent blades, launched in a swift barrage to destroy their
foes, they did not establish their dominance.
- See S. Qudratullah Fatimi, "The Twin Ports of Daybul: A Study in the Early
Maritime History of Sind," in Sind through the Centuries (Karachi: Oxford
University Press, 1981), pp. 97-105; and F. A. Khan, "Debal and Mansura: The
Historic~ Cities of the Early Islamic Period," Pakistan fournal of History
and Culture vol. II, no. 1 (Jan. 1981), pp. 103-122.
- Futiih al-Buldiin, p. 438.
- Ibid., 438.
- Abu'l Hasan 'Ali bin Husayn Mas'iidi, Murfl.j al-Dhahab wa-Maadin al-
fawahir, vol. 1, (Beirut: Diiar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, 1985), p. 99.
