Dridhaprahara (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

: Dṛḍhaprahāra, r. c. 860-880) is the earliest historically attested ruler of the

Seuna (Yadava) dynasty The Seuna, Sevuna, or Yadavas of Devagiri ( IAST: Seuṇa, –1317) was a Medieval Indian dynasty, which at its peak ruled a kingdom stretching from the Narmada river in the north to the Tungabhadra river in the south, in the western part of ...

that ruled the western

Deccan The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the ...

region in present-day India.

Early life

According to

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

tradition, Dridhaprahara was a son of king Vajrakumara of Dvaraka. When his mother was pregnant with him, a great fire destroyed the city.

saint Jainaprabhasuri saved his mother, he was born sometime after the destruction of Dvaraka. Dridhaprahara was a devotee of the eighth Jain

tirthankara In Jainism, a ''Tirthankara'' (Sanskrit: '; English: literally a 'ford-maker') is a saviour and spiritual teacher of the ''dharma'' (righteous path). The word ''tirthankara'' signifies the founder of a '' tirtha'', which is a fordable passag ...

Chandraprabha Chandraprabha () is the eighth Tirthankara of ''Avasarpini'' (present half cycle of time as per Jain cosmology). Chandraprabhu was born to King Mahasena and Queen Lakshmana Devi at Chandrapuri to the Ikshvaku dynasty. According to Jain texts ...

. Dridhaprahara is one of the earliest historically attested ruler of the

grew under the care of 8th Tirthankara Chadraprabhu Swami also named his capital ''Chandraditypura'' after him''.'' No historical evidence connects Dridhaprahara or his dynasty to Dvaraka: after rising to prominence, the dynasty started claiming descent from the legendary hero Yadu, whose descendants (called the

Yadava The Yadava (literally, descended from Yadu) were an ancient Indian people who believed to be descended from Yadu, a legendary king of Chandravamsha lineage. The community was formed of various clans, being the Abhira, Andhaka, Vrishni, and Sat ...

s) are associated with Dvaraka. The dynasty's claim of connection with that city may simply be a result of their claim of descent from Yadu rather than their actual geographic origin. Epigraphic evidence suggests that the dynasty likely emerged from a Kannada-speaking background. The name "Dridhaprahara" may be a Sanskritized form of the

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

name "Dhāḍiyappā", which was also borne by two of Dridhaprahara's successors.

Rise to power

The ''Nasikkya-pura-kalpa'' section of Jinaprabha-suri's '' Vividha-tirtha-kalpa'' provides following account of Dridhaprahara's rise to power: Once, cattle thieves raided his town, and stole the people's cows. Dridhaprahara single-handedly fought the thieves and retrieved the cows. The local

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

s and other honoured him with the title ''Talarapaya'' ("the protector of the village"). Historian A. S. Altekar theorizes that Dridhaprahara was a warrior living around 860, when Pratihara-Rashtrakuta wars would have brought instability to the

Khandesh Khandesh is a geographic region in Central India, which includes parts of the northwestern portion of Maharashtra as well as Burhanpur District of Madhya Pradesh. The use of Khandeshi Language (a.k.a. the Ahirani Language) is prevalent in ...

region. He probably protected the region against enemy raids, because of which people started paying him taxes, and his family rose to prominence.

Legacy

Dridhaprahara is the earliest historically attested ruler of his dynasty, and finds a mention in the

Vasai Vasai (Konkani and Marathi pronunciation: �əsəi formerly and alternatively Mahratti; ''Bajipur'', English: Bassein; Portuguese: Baçaim), is a historical place and City near Mumbai (Bombay)'s western suburbs, located in Palghar district ...

(Bassein) and Asvi inscriptions. He is said to have established the city of Chandradityapura (modern Chandor). His son and successor was Seunachandra, who was probably a

Rashtrakuta Rashtrakuta (IAST: ') (r. 753-982 CE) was a royal Indian dynasty ruling large parts of the Indian subcontinent between the sixth and 10th centuries. The earliest known Rashtrakuta inscription is a 7th-century copper plate grant detailing their ...

Early life

Rise to power

Legacy

References

Citations

Sources