Shobhita (

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

: Śobhita, r. c. 982–986 CE) was an Indian king belonging to the Naddula Chahamana dynasty. He ruled the area around Naddula (present-day Nadol in

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

), and achieved military successes against the Paramaras of Chandravati.

Reign

Shobhita was a son of his predecessor

Lakshmana Lakshmana (, ), also known as Laxmana, Lakhan, Saumitra, and Ramanuja, is the younger brother of Rama in the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is considered as an incarnation of Shesha, the lord of serpents. Lakshmana was married to Urmila, and i ...

. He is also known as Sohita or Sohiya. According to the Sundha Hill inscription, Shobhita "took away the glory of" the lord of Arbuda (

Mount Abu Mount Abu (), known as Arbudgiri in Jain tradition, is a hill station in the Aravalli Range in the Sirohi district of the state of Rajasthan in western India. Here, the mountain forms a rocky plateau 22 km long by 9 km wide. It is ref ...

). Historian R. B. Singh theorizes that this lord of Arbuda was probably Aranyaraja, a ruler of the Paramara branch of Abu. Dasharatha Sharma identifies him with another Paramara ruler named Dharanivaraha, who had been attacked and defeated by the

Chaulukya The Chaulukya dynasty (), also Solanki dynasty, was a dynasty that ruled parts of what are now Gujarat and Rajasthan in north-western India, between and . Their capital was located at Anahilavada (modern Patan). At times, their rule extended ...

king

Mularaja Mularaja () was the king of Gujarat and the founder of the Chaulukya dynasty. Also known as the Chaulukyas of Gujarat or Solanki, this dynasty ruled parts of present-day Gujarat. Mularaja supplanted the last Chavda dynasty, Chavda king, and foun ...

. Sharma theorizes that Shobhita sided with Mularaja in this conflict. Shobhita has been described as the lord of Dhara in the Sewari inscription of his descendant Ratnapala. Dhara was the capital of the imperial

Paramara dynasty The Paramara Dynasty (IAST: Paramāra) was an Indian dynasty that ruled Malwa and surrounding areas in west-central India between 9th and 14th centuries. They belonged to the Parmar (clan), Paramara clan of the Rajputs. The dynasty was establi ...

Malwa Malwa () is a historical region, historical list of regions in India, region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic plateau, volcanic upland north of the ...

. Historian D. C. Ganguly speculated that "Dhara" was a mistake for "Thara", which was a city in the 12th century

Mewar Mewar, also spelled as Mewad is a region in the south-central part of Rajasthan state of India. It includes the present-day districts of Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand, Udaipur, Pirawa Tehsil of Jhalawar District of Rajasth ...

region. However, according to Dasharatha Sharma, Shobhita fought against the Paramaras of Malwa, and occupied their capital Dhara. R. B. Singh notes that Shobhita's successor Baliraja is said to have defeated an army of the Paramara monarch Munja. Singh theorizes that Shobhita might have captured Dhara for a brief period, while Munja was busy in his southern campaigns against the Chalukyas of Kalyani. Shobhita was succeeded by his son Baliraja. A Mount Abu inscription wrongly names Baliraja as the predecessor of Shobhita: this is directly contradicted by other inscriptions of the family.

References

Bibliography

* * Chahamana kings of Naddula 10th-century Indian monarchs {{royal-stub