Mihira Bhoja

Mihira Bhoja (c. 836–885 CE) or Bhoja I was the Pratiharan Emperor from 836 to 885 CE. He inherited a weakened realm in an adverse situation from his father, Ramabhadra. However, his capable reign transformed it into a large and prosperous empire. Bhoja was a devotee of Vishnu and adopted the title of Ādivarāha, which is inscribed on some of his coins. . One of the outstanding political figures of India in the ninth century, he ranks with Dhruva Dharavarsha and Dharmapala as a great general and empire builder.

At its height, Bhoja's empire extended to the Narmada River in the south, the Sutlej River in the northwest, and up to Bengal in the east. It extended over a large area from the foot of the Himalayas up to the river Narmada and included the present district of Etawah in Uttar Pradesh.

Reign
During his reign, the capital was Kannauj (present-day Uttar Pradesh), then referred as Panchala.

He was a bitter enemy of the Arab-Islamic invaders who, according to an Arab chronicler, Sulaiman, maintained a large army and had a fine cavalry.

He was succeeded by his son Mahendrapala I (c. 836 – 910 CE).

Defeat and Subjugation of Bhoja by Devapāla
Mihira Bhoja first consolidated his territories by crushing the rebellious feudatories in Rajasthan, before turning his attention against the old enemies the Palas and Rastrakutas.

Devapāla's own inscriptions, as well as the inscription referring to his reign, state that he subjugated Gurjaras, Utkalas, Hunas, Dravidas, Kambojas, and Pragjyotisas. His victory over the Gurjaras specifically refers to the Pratiharas, with the Pratihara king in this case being Mihir Bhoja.

Campaigns of Mihir Bhoja
He then launched a campaign to conquer the territories to the south of his empire and was successful, Malwa, Deccan and Gujarat were conquered. In Gujarat, he stepped into a war of succession for the throne of Gujarat between Dhruva II of the Gujarat Rashtrakuta dynasty and his younger brother, Bhoja led a cavalry raid into Gujarat against the Dhruva while supporting his Dhruva's younger brother. Although the raid was repulsed by Dhruva II. Bhoja was able to retain dominion over parts of Gujarat and Malwa. The Gurjara-Pratiharas were defeated in large battle in Ujjain by Rastrakutas of Gujarat however, retribution followed on the part of the Pratiharas,by the end of his reign, Bhoja had successfully destroyed the Gujarat Rashtrakuta dynasty.

Bhoja's feudatory, the‌ Guhilas Samanta named Harsha of Chatsu, is described as : "“defeating the northern rulers with the help of the mighty elephant force”, and “loyally presenting to Bhoja the special ‘Shrivamsha’ breed of horses, which could easily cross seas of sand.' He gradually rebuilt the empire by conquest of territories in Rajputana, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh" Besides being a conqueror, Bhoja was a great diplomat. The kingdoms which were conquered and acknowledged his suzerainty includes Travani, Valla, Mada, Arya, Gujaratra, Lata Parvarta and Chandelas of Bundelkhand. Bhoja's Daulatpura-Dausa Inscription (AD 843), confirms his rule in Dausa region. Another inscription states that,"Bhoja's territories extended to the east of the Sutlej river."

Kalhana's Rajatarangini states that the territories of Bhoja extended to Kashmir in the north, and Bhoja had conquered Punjab by defeating ruling 'Thakkiyaka' dynasty.

After Devapala's death, Bhoja defeated the Pala emperor Narayanapala and expanded his boundaries eastward into Pala-held territories near Gorakhpur.

Conflict with Arabs
In the early 8th century, Arabs fought on and off to take over Sindh. Imran ibn-Musa, who governed Sindh, tried to expand Arab rule to nearby areas. When Bhoja became powerful the Pratiharas fought back repulsed them from fort of Sindan, pushing the Arabs out of Kutch between 833 and 842 AD. Later on, the Arabs lost a best part of Sindh. This was the major conflict between the forces of Mihirbhoja and Imran ibn-musa

Hudud-ul-Alam, a tenth-century Persian geographic text, states that most of the kings of India acknowledged the supremacy of the powerful 'Rai of Qinnauj', (Kannauj was the capital of the Imperial Pratiharas) whose mighty army had 150,000 strong cavalry and 800 war elephants.

Coins of Mihira Bhoja


Mihira Bhoja's epithet was Srimad-Adivaraha (the fortunate primeval boar incarnation of Vishnu) and therefore there is a broad agreement amongst the scholars on the attribution of adivaraha dramma billon coins to him. These coins have a depiction of Adivaraha on the obverse. On the obverse along with the god Adivaraha, in his right there is a solar wheel with spokes and in the left are other emblems such as mace, lotus flower and conch-shell. Under the feet of the god is probably a two-headed serpent.

According to Alexander Cunningham these types of coins are only found in silver and copper. It is suggested that copper coins were originally coated with silver to circulate as silver coins.

Adivarah coins were noted by Thakkar pheru in the 13th-century text Dravya-Pariksha who was mint master under Alauddin khilji.