Origin of Pratihar Dynasty

Many Indians today are crazy for shows like Game of thrones and are supporting their royal houses too. But Indian history has also been decorated by many such Royal houses like Mauryas, Chauhans, Chalukyas, Dogras and Sisodiyas. As shown in GoT the wheel of Power kept rotating in India also. Every house named above has either ruled India or was dominant at some point of time in the history. There had been many Great empires like Marathas, Vijaynagar and Mughals as well.Most of them are hyped and were researched by Britishers and added to the history syllabus. And we are studying this till now.No further research has been added to History-Syllabus after independence. One of the most underrated Houses is House Pratihar.

Pratihars Claim to be the descendants of Lord Lakshamana, they call themselves Raghuvanshi. Word pratihar is derived from Lakshamana as he was sworn to protect Lord Rama and was considered his door keeper. After defeating Rawana the state of Mandore which belonged to Ravana's in-laws (Ravana's wife mandodari was named after her motherland_Mandore, ) was overtaken by Lakshamanas descendants.From then pratihars are ruling this land.

The empire of Pratihars saw emperor Maharaja Bhojdev rise to the power after his father emperor Maharaja Rambhadra. Bhojdev's mother was Appadevi. He was a worshipper of goddess Bhagwati. Bhojdev was also called Mihir and Adivrah. First major issue Bhojdev had to address, when he took control of the throne, was to unite his own kingdom. To achieve this, in early years of his reign Bhojdev worked on strengthening his kingdom. He also managed to win few more neighbouring regions and add to his kingdom.

His empire then had a stronghold on major part of India. His empire was spread across modern day Afganistan to the Assam and from Kashmir to modern day Andhra in South.

He sponsored many poets, scientists, singers in his time. It shows that he was a Artistic person. Scholars like Meghatithi and Rajshekhar were also sheltered by Bhojdev.

(Bal Bharat,Bal Ramayana, Kavya Mimansa are written by Rajshekhar)

Bhojdev also introduced silver coins by his name to prove his greatness. As pratihars used to Worship Lord Vishnu in Warah Avtar,  Lord Warah was printed on the one side of the coin.

Many emperors like Mauryans, Chalukyas, Guptas and parmars had to fight with only one prominent enimy.but pratihars had to fight with 3 prominent Enimies like Pals of Bengol towards east, Caliphate in the West and Rashtrakut Yadavas of South. If we consider this resistance we can understand that how powerful this empire would have been. Pratihars had to keep large armies on all the sides of his empire to deal with these Royal Houses.

Bhojdev's queen was Sister of the Ruler of Shakambhari- Guvakdev Chauhan. (Because of the relations between Chauhans and Chalukyas, Pratihars got support by them on their southern Borders.)

The date is not confirmed but Yuvaraj Mahendrapal succeeded his father in Year 888 after the Death of Bhojdev.

Very few rulers after Bhojdev were as Brave and Capable as him, major part of his empire was reclaimed by Rashtrakuts, Chalukyas and Palas at the initial years of Rashtrakut Era which lead towards the downfall of Pratihars empire.

Upto 1951 Princely states of Mahalani, Aligarh and Shindkheda and also many small Jaggirs, Eastates and Thikanas were Ruled by Pratihar(Parihar) Rajputs. today large population of Pratihar-Rajputs live in Marwad, Gujrat and Maharashtra.


Reference:

राजपूताने का प्राचीन इतिहास- Gaurishankar Ojha

गुप्तोत्तर युगीन भारत का राजनीतिक इतिहास-Dr. Pradeep kumar Rao