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Ancient India
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Harsha moved his capital
from Thaneshwar to Kanauj. The area under his control covered many parts of
Northern
India, including the Punjab, eastern Rajasthan and the Ganga valley as far as Assam. But,
his empire included territories of distant feudal kings too. Harsha governed his empire on
the same lines as the Guptas. The kings he conquered paid him revenue and sent soldiers
when he fought war. They accepted his sovereignty, but remained rulers over their
own kingdoms. Harsha's ambition of extending his power to the Deccan and
South India
were stopped by Pulakesin II, the Chalukya king of Vatapi in northern
Mysore.
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Kailashnathar
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The major kingdoms of this period were
the Chalukyas, the Pallavas and the Pandyas. The Chalukyas built their kingdom on the
ruins of the Vakatakas, who in turn had built theirs on the remains of the
Satavahanas.
They established their capital at Vatapi (modern Badami). |
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The eastern part of the
Satavahana kingdom (in the deltas of the rivers Krishna and Godavari), had been conquered
by the Ikshvakus in the third century AD. They were supplanted by the
Pallavas, whose
authority extended over both Southern Andhra and Northern Tamil
Nadu. They set up their
capital at Kanchi (modern Kanchipuram), which became a town of temples and Vedic learning
under them. To the south of the Pallavas were the Pandyas of Madurai, who had established
their control in the region by the sixth century.
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Elephanta Caves
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The Pallava kings constructed a number of
stone temples in the seventh and eighth centuries. The most famous are the ones at
Mahabalipuram. Cave architecture reached excellence
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in the Kailashnath temple at Ellora in
the eighth century. The Chalukyas erected numerous temples at Aihole from about 610 AD.
The work was continued in Badami and Pattadakal. For example - Papanatha temple (c. 680
AD) and Virupaksha temple (c. 740 AD).
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Puri Jagannathar
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Three powerful kingdoms arose between 750
AD and 1000 AD out of the ruins of Harsha's empire. The Rashtrakutas of the
Deccan, the
Palas of Bengal and the Pratiharas, who
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controlled parts of Malwa and Rajasthan. All three
were continuously engaged in a struggle over Kanauj. Each of them
ocucpied Kanauj in
turn, but finally the wars weakened them and led to their decline. The Rashtrakutas were
replaced by the later Chalukyas, the Palas by the Sena dynasty and the Prathihara kingdom
broke up into smaller kingdoms.
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Palas
The Pala empire was probably founded in 750 AD. For about a hundred years, from the middle
of the 8th to the middle of the 9th century, the Pala rulers dominated
Eastern India. The
Nalanda university which had been famous all over the eastern world was revived. The Palas
had close trade contacts and cultural links with South-East Asia. Early in the twelfth
century, they were replaced by the Sena dynasty, which reversed the Palas traditional
support of Buddhism and encouraged Hindu orthodoxy.
Rashtrakutas
Of the three empires, the Rashtrakuta's lasted the longest. Not only was it the most
powerful of the time, but it also acted as a bridge between north and south India.
Amoghavarsha (814 AD - 880 AD) is probably the best remembered of the Rashtrakuta kings.
His long reign was distinguished for its royal patronage of Jainism and the flourishing of
regional literature. By the end of the tenth century, the second line of the Chalukyas
brought the Rashtrakuta Kingdom within their control.
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