The Early Medieval Kingdoms

For two centuries the Gurjara-Pratiharas of western India, the Palas of Bengal and Bihar, and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan fought a tripartite struggle for Kannauj, the symbolic throne of the north. The Arab traveller al-Masudi counted the Pratihara realm among the great powers that had checked Arab expansion into India; the Pala Dharmapala briefly placed his own nominee on the Kannauj throne; and the Rashtrakuta Dhruva marched to the Ganga — yet no power could hold the prize for long.

The dynasties left enduring monuments: the Rashtrakuta Krishna I carved the Kailasa temple at Ellora from a single rock; the Palas founded the universities of Vikramashila and Somapura and nurtured the bronzes of Nalanda; and the Pratihara Mihir Bhoja ('Bhoja') was remembered as a model of royal splendour.

As the great houses declined, Rajput clans — Chauhans, Paramaras, Chandelas, Guhilas and others — built a belt of fortified kingdoms. Theirs was a world of chivalric honour, clan feuds, hero-stones and fortress-cities like Chittor and Ranthambore. Scholars describe their polity as feudal: kings granted land and fiscal rights to subordinate chiefs, decentralising authority. The Chandela kings raised the temples of Khajuraho (c. 950–1050), whose sculptural programme is the most complete statement of the medieval Indian temple style.

In the Kaveri delta the Cholas rose from obscurity to build the most remarkable state of the age. Rajaraja I (985–1014) conquered the south and crowned his capital Thanjavur with the Brihadishvara (Rajarajeshvara) temple; his son Rajendra I (1012–1044) marched to the Ganga and took the title Gangaikonda Chola, then sent a naval expedition across the Bay of Bengal against the Srivijaya empire (1025) — the only major overseas military expedition in Indian history before the modern age.

Chola administration is famous for its village self-government: the Uttaramerur inscription of Parantaka I details eligibility, election by lot (kudavolai) and recall for the sabha committees of Brahmana villages. Chola power rested on the temple-agrarian economy, and Chola bronze-casting produced the supreme icons of south Indian art — above all the Nataraja, Shiva as lord of the cosmic dance.