Ādivarāha Mihir Bhoj
Emperor Mihir Bhoja (c. 836–885 CE) or Bhoja I was the most renowned king of his lineage. The mighty Rajput king of the imperial Pratihara Dynasty of Kannauj succeeded his father Ramabhadra.
Bhoja was a devotee of Lord Vishnu and adopted the title of Ādivarāha which is inscribed on some of his coins.
Barah Copperplate (836 CE)
The Barah Copper Plate Inscription (836 CE) introduces him as “Param Bhagavati Bhakto Maharaja Bhojdev”. The Pratihar Rajput king made Kannauj his capital city and extended his empire from the foothills of the Himalayas to the river Narmada in the South and Bengal in the east. One of the outstanding political figures of India in ninth century, he ranks with Dhruva Dharavarsha and Dharmapala as a great general and empire builder.
Teli Kā Mandir
Teli Temple, also known as Teli ka Temple, is a Hindu temple located within the Gwalior Fort in Madhya Pradesh, India. Dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Matrikas. The site of the Teli ka Mandir and other historic temples is found in early inscriptions. Some of these refer to the town as Gopagiri. According to Bajpai, the temple may have been built during the reign of the Mihira Bhoja Pratihara. [K. D. Bajpai (2006). History of Gopāchala. Bharatiya Jnanpith. p. 31.]
Military Career
Mihira Bhoja started his career by invading the Pala Empire of Bengal, but was defeated by Devapala.
Bhoja and Bengal
Mihira Bhoja recovered from initial setbacks and invaded the Pala kingdom of Bengal. He gains the support of the Chedi ruler of Gorakhpur and the Guhilots. Mihir Bhoja defeated the Pala ruler Narayanapala and captured the western part of his empire.
Bhoja and Rashtrakutas
He defeated the Rashtrakuta king Krishna II on the banks of river Narmada and occupied Malwa. From here Bhoja moved towards Gujarat. Later he maintained the supremacy over Kathiawar peninsula. Extended his dominion over Punjab. Kalachuris of Gorakhpur were his feudatories, chandelles of Bundelkhand also accepted his overlordship.
Mihir Bhoj and Arabs
Within a year of Bhoja’s accession, the Arabs again tried their luck to invade India from the western front. As we have mentioned above that the date of Bhoja’s accession might be somewhere in 836. It is strongly believed that during this time Irman ibn Musa became the governor of Sindh who had planned a grand invasion of Bhoja’s empire. But this attack resulted in a failure.
From 833 to 842 the Arabs were successfully driven out from Kachchha and the Caliphs lost control of Sindh in a few years. Only Multan and Mansurah remained under their hegemony.
The Arabs described that Bhoja’s empire was about 120 sq Parsangaes of Sindh.
Note: Each Parsangaes is equal to 8 miles.
