THE REGIONAL KINGDOMS OF EARLY MEDIEVAL INDIAWarangal. But in due course they all fell prey to the superior military
strategy of the Delhi Sultanate in the early fourteenth century just about
one century later than the rulers of North India.
Having discussed the interrelations of the major historical regions of
India, we can now turn to a closer examination of some of the important
medieval dynasties. The details of their numerous confrontations are
omitted unless such facts are of direct relevance to the fate of the respective
dynasty.
The rise of the RajputsWhen Harsha shifted the centre of North Indian history to Kanauj in the
midst of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab, the tribes living to the west of this new
centre also became more important for the further course of Indian history.
They were first and foremost the Rajputs who now emerged into the
limelight of history. Thus the origin of the mighty dynasty of the Gurjara
Pratiharas can be traced to the Pratihara clan of the Gurjara tribe of the
Rajputs. The antecedents of these tribes are unknown. Because the Rajputs
always insisted on ritual purity and valiantly fought against the Arabs and
against the Sultans of Delhi an Indian historian in the days of the freedom
movement staked a determined claim for their descent from the Vedic
Aryans. But it is also possible that some of these tribes came from Central
Asia in the wake of the invasion of the Huns and became part of local tribes.
The route of Gurjara migration, for instance, can be traced by looking at the
names of districts and places which they traversed from the Panjab down to
Rajasthan until they finally settled down near Jodhpur and to the west of the
Aravalli Mountains. In this mountain range there is the famous Mount Abu
with its great Jaina temples. There is a tradition that in the year 747 a great
fire ceremony was held on Mount Abu by which all Rajput clans were
purified and admitted to the status of Kshatriyas. The Paramaras, for
instance, mentioned in their inscriptions that they belong to the Agnikula
(‘fire family’) purified by the Rishi Vasishta at a great fire sacrifice on Mount
Abu. By tracing their origin to the fire they wanted to be on a par with the
great legendary lineages of the Sun and the Moon (Suryavamsha,
Chandravamsha) which go back to Rama and Krishna respectively.
The rise of the Rajputs in the vast area of Rajasthan seems to have been
connected with an extension of settled agriculture and with the
displacement of indigenous tribes like the Sabaras, Pulindas and Bhils. The
constant division of Rajput tribes into small exogamous clans led to the
development of a complicated network of marital alliances. This in turn
produced a fusion of the leadership of the Rajputs and gave rise to a
common Rajput culture which is still characteristic of Rajasthan today.
The strength of the Gurjara Pratihara dynasty was based to a large extent
on the integration of the various Rajput tribes and clans into the imperial