Ganda (

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 ...

: Gaṇḍa) was an early 11th century king of the

Chandela The Chandelas of Jejakabhukti was an Indian dynasty in Central India. The Chandelas ruled much of the Bundelkhand region (then called ''Jejakabhukti'') between the 9th and the 13th centuries. They belonged to the Chandel clan of the Rajputs. ...

dynasty of India. He ruled in the Jejakabhukti region (

Bundelkhand Bundelkhand (, ) is a geographical and cultural region and a proposed state and also a mountain range in central & North India. The hilly region is now divided between the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, with the larger portion lyin ...

in present-day

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

). The exact period of his reign is uncertain, but has been dated approximately as 999-1002 CE.

Sources of information

No inscriptions issued by Ganda are available, but his name (as Ganda-deva) appears in the following inscriptions issued by his successors: *

Mahoba Mahoba is a city in Mahoba District of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in the Bundelkhand region, well known for the ninth century granite Sun temple built in Pratihara style. It is also well known for the 24 rock-cut Jain tirthankara image ...

stone inscription composed of

Paramardideva Paramardi (reigned c. 1165–1203 CE) was a king of the Chandela dynasty of central India. He was the last powerful Chandela king, and ruled the Jejakabhukti region ( Bundelkhand in present-day Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh). Around 1182–1 ...

* Mau stone inscription of

Madanavarman Madana-Varman (reigned c. 1128–1165 CE) was a king of the Chandela dynasty of India. He succeeded his father Prithvi-Varman as the ruler of the Jejakabhukti region (Bundelkhand in present-day Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh). He revived the ...

* Ajaygadh rock inscription of Kirttivarman * Ajaygadh rock inscription issued during the reign of Bhojavarman The information about Ganda in these inscriptions is not of much historical value. They mostly contain eulogistic descriptions, such as calling him invincible, or stating that he had "the sole lordship of the earth".

Career

Ganda succeeded

Dhanga Dhanga (r. c. 950-999 CE), also known as Dhaṇgadeva in inscriptions, was a king of the Chandela dynasty of India. He ruled in the Jejakabhukti region (Bundelkhand in present-day Madhya Pradesh). Dhanga established the sovereignty of the Chande ...

as the Chandela king. An analysis of the information available about Ganda's successor

Vidyadhara Vidyadhara(s) (Sanskrit , literally "wisdom-holders") are a group of supernatural beings in Indian religions who possess magical powers. In Hinduism, they also attend Shiva, who lives in the Himalayas. They are considered ''Upadeva''s, or demi ...

suggests that Ganda managed to maintain the territory he inherited. According to the Mau stone inscription, Dhanga's chief minister Prabhasa retained the position during the reign of his successor Ganda. The Ajaygadh inscriptions suggest that a

Kayastha Kayastha (also referred to as Kayasth) denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally locatedthe Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the C ...

named Jajuka was another important official of Ganda. Until the 1970s, scholars such as R. K. Dikshit assigned the end of Ganda's rule to 1015 CE. However, later, a copper-plate issued by Vidyadhara's queen Satyabhama was discovered at Kundeshwar. This inscription is dated 1004 CE, which proves that Vidyadhara was already ruling in 1004 CE. Based on this, S. K. Sullerey dates the end of Ganda's rule to 1002 CE. Some earlier historians believed that Ganda ruled until at least 1018 CE. R. K. Dikshit identified Dhanga with the king of

Kalanjara Kalinjar ( hi, कालिंजर) is a fortress-city in Bundelkhand, in Banda District of Uttar Pradesh, in India. It was ruled by several dynasties including the Guptas, the Vardhana Dynasty, the Chandelas, Solankis of Rewa, Mughal an ...

who contributed contingents to the Hindu confederacy that was defeated by

Mahmud of Ghazni Yamīn-ud-Dawla Abul-Qāṣim Maḥmūd ibn Sebüktegīn ( fa, ; 2 November 971 – 30 April 1030), usually known as Mahmud of Ghazni or Mahmud Ghaznavi ( fa, ), was the founder of the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty, ruling from 998 to 1030. At th ...

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

in 1008 CE. In 1018 CE, Mahmud of Ghazni invaded

Kannauj Kannauj ( Hindustani pronunciation: ənːɔːd͡ʒ is a city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city's name is a corrupted form of the class ...

, whose king (possibly Rajyapala) fled the city, allowing the Ghaznvid army to sack it without facing much resistance. According to the later Muslim historians such as

Firishta Firishta or Ferešte ( fa, ), full name Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah Astarabadi ( fa, مُحَمَّد قاسِم هِندو شاہ), was a Persian historian, who later settled in India and served the Deccan Sultans as their court historian. He was ...

(16th century), Nanda, the king of Khajuraho killed the king of Kannauj as a punishment for his cowardice. Some British-era scholars identified "Nanda" as a misspelling of Ganda.

Ali ibn al-Athir Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-Din (Arabic), Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī ( ar, علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري) lived 1160–1233) was an Arab people, ...

(12th century), a Muslim historian earlier than Firishta, named the king of Khajuraho as "Bida", a variant of "Vidya" (that is, Ganda's successor

). The later Muslim historians must have misread this as "Nanda". Moreover, an inscription discovered at Mahoba states that Vidyadhara defeated the ruler of Kannauj. Based on this, it can be inferred that Ganda's reign ended sometime before 1018 CE, when his successor defeated the ruler of Kannauj.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Chandelas of Jejakabhukti Chandelas of Jejakabhukti 11th-century Indian monarchs