Jayapala or Jaipal was a ruler of the Hindu Shahi dynasty from 964 to 1001 CE. His kingdom stretched from Laghman to Kashmir and

Sirhind Sirhind-Fategarh is a town and a municipal council in the Fatehgarh Sahib district in the Indian state of Punjab. Demographics In the 2011 census Sirhind-Fatehgarh had a population of 60852. Males constituted 54% of the population and femal ...

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the olde ...

, with

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 ...

being in the center. He was the son of Hutpal and the father of Anandapala. Epithets from the Bari Kot inscriptions record his full title as "Parama Bhattaraka Maharajadhiraja Sri Jayapaladeva".

History

Jayapala fought against the Ghaznavids in the

Gandhara Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Val ...

region of

Ancient India According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by ...

, which is now in modern-day north-eastern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

and north-western

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, until finally being defeated in Peshawar by superior forces of the latter. Jayapala attacked the Ghaznavids and invaded their capital city of

Ghazni Ghazni ( prs, غزنی, ps, غزني), historically known as Ghaznain () or Ghazna (), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana ( gr, Αλεξάνδρεια Ωπιανή), is a city in southeastern Afghanistan ...

both in the reign of Sebuktigin and that of his son Mahmud, which initiated the Muslim Ghaznavid and Hindu Shahi struggles. Jayapala, however, was defeated, and he was forced to pay an indemnity to Sebuktigin. Maharaja Jayapala stopped paying tribute and took to the battlefield once more. Maharaja Jayapala, however, lost the battle and control of the entire region between the Kabul Valley and

Khyber Pass The Khyber Pass (خیبر درہ) is a mountain pass in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, on the border with the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. It connects the town of Landi Kotal to the Valley of Peshawar at Jamrud by traversi ...

. Before his struggle began Jayapala had raised a small army of Punjabis. When Jayapala went to the

Punjab region Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

, his army was raised of 10,000 horsemen and an smaller host of foot soldiers. According to

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 wa ...

: However, the army was hopeless in battle against the eastern forces, particularly against the Punjabis. In the year 1001, soon after Sultan Mahmud came to power and was occupied with the Qarakhanids north of the

Hindu Kush The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Prov ...

, Maharaja Jayapala attacked Ghazni once more and upon suffered his first defeat by the powerful numerous Ghaznavid forces, near present-day

. After the Battle of Peshawar, Jayapala was captured, and although he was freed by a 50 elephant indemnity. He abdicated in favor of his son and committed suicide by funeral pyre.Ferishta (trans. Dow, A.),
The History of Hindoostan
', vol.1, p.57

Succession

Jayapala was succeeded by his son Anandapala, who along with other succeeding generations of the Shahiya dynasty took part in various campaigns against the advancing Ghaznavids for decades successfully keeping them from crossing the Indus.

References

{{reflist 1001 deaths Year of birth unknown 10th-century Indian monarchs Ancient Indian monarchs Ancient peoples Ancient Hinduism History of Punjab Indus Valley civilisation Prehistoric India Prehistoric Pakistan

History

Succession

See also

References