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{{for|other people|Jayachandra (surname)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=March 2019}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name = Jayachandra
| title = Ashva-pati Nara-pati Gaja-pati Rajatrayadhipati
| succession = King of [[Ganga-Yamuna Doab|Antaravedi]]
| reign = c. 1170-1194 CE
| coronation = 21 June 1170 <ref>{{Cite book|last=|first=|title=Tomars of Delhi by Harihar Niwas Dwivedi|publisher=Vidya Mandir Publications|year=1983|isbn=|location=Gwalior|pages=256}}</ref>
| predecessor = [[Vijayachandra]]
| successor = [[Harishchandra (Gahadavala dynasty)|Harishchandra]]
| issue = Harishchandra
| house-type = Dynasty
| house = [[Gahadavala]]
| father = [[Vijayachandra]]
| mother =
}}

'''Jaya-chandra''' ([[IAST]]: Jayacandra, r. c. 1170–1194 CE) was a king from the [[Gahadavala]] dynasty of northern India. He is also known as Jayachchandra ([[IAST]]: Jayaccandra) in inscriptions, and '''Jaichand''' in vernacular legends. He ruled the Antarvedi country in the [[Ganga|Gangetic]] plains, including the important cities of [[Kanyakubja]] and [[Varanasi]]. His territory included much of the present-day eastern [[Uttar Pradesh]] and some parts of western [[Bihar]]. The last powerful king of his dynasty, he was defeated and killed in 1194 CE, in a fight against a [[Ghurid]] army led by [[Qutb al-Din Aibak]].

A fictional account of Jayachandra (as Jaichand) occurs in the medieval legendary text ''[[Prithviraj Raso]]''. According to this account, he was a rival of another Indian king, [[Prithviraj Chauhan]]. His daughter [[Samyukta]] eloped with Prithviraj against his wishes, and he allied with the foreign Ghurids to ensure Prithviraj's downfall. Although this account is historically inaccurate, the name "Jaichand" became synonymous with the word "traitor" in folklore of northern India because of this legend.

== Early life ==

Jayachandra was a son of the [[Gahadavala dynasty|Gahadavala]] king [[Vijayachandra]]. According to a Kamauli inscription, he was crowned king on 21 June 1170 CE.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=102}} Jayachandra inherited his grandfather [[Govindachandra (Gahadavala dynasty)|Govindachandra]]'s royal titles:{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=102}} ''Ashva-pati Nara-pati Gaja-pati Rajatrayadhipati'' ("leader of three forces: the [[cavalry]], the [[infantry]] and the [[war elephant|elephant corps]]"{{sfn|D. C. Sircar|1966|p=35}}) and ''Vividha-vidya-vichara-vachaspati'' ("patron of different branches of learning"{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=87}}).

== Military career ==

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"properties": { "marker-symbol": "monument", "title": "[[Bodh Gaya]]" },
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Jayachandra's inscriptions praise him using the conventional grandiloquent terms, but do not mention any concrete achievement of the king. The records of his neighbouring Hindu kings ([[Paramara]], [[Chahamanas of Shakambhari|Chahamana]], [[Chandela]] and [[Kalachuris of Tripuri|Kalachuri]]) do not mention any conflict with him either.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=103}} The [[Sena dynasty|Sena]] king [[Lakshmana Sena]] is believed to have invaded the Gahadavala territory, but this invasion may have taken place after Jayachandra's death.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=105}}

=== Ghurid invasion ===

The Muslim [[Ghurid]]s invaded Jayachandra's kingdom in the 1193 CE. According to the contemporary Muslim accounts, Jayachandra was "the greatest king of India and possessed the largest territory".{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=105}} These accounts describe him as the ''Rāi of Banaras'' (king of [[Varanasi]]).{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=109}} According to ''[[Ali ibn al-Athir|Kamil ut-Tawarikh]]'', his army had a million soldiers and 700 [[War elephant|elephants]].{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=110}}

The Hindu accounts (such as [[Vidyapati]]'s ''Purusha-Pariksha'' and ''[[Prithviraj Raso]]'') claim that Jayachandra defeated the Ghurids multiple times. The contemporary Muslim accounts, on the other hand, mention only two battles: one relatively minor engagement and the [[Battle of Chandwar]], in which Jayachandra was killed.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=107}}

The Ghurid ruler [[Muhammad of Ghor]] had defeated the [[Chahamanas of Shakambhari|Chahamana]] king [[Prithviraja III]] in 1192 CE. According to [[Hasan Nizami]]'s 13th century text ''Taj-ul-Maasir'', he decided to attack the [[Gahadavala]] kingdom after taking control of [[Ajmer]], [[Delhi]] and [[Kol Tehsil|Kol]]. He dispatched a 50,000-strong army commanded by [[Qutb al-Din Aibak]]. Nizami states that this army defeated "the army of the enemies of the Religion" ([[Islam]]). It appears that the defeated army was not Jayachandra's main army, but only a smaller body of his frontier guards.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|pp=110-111}}

Jayachandra then himself led a larger army against Qutb al-Din Aibak in 1194 CE. According to the 16th century historian [[Firishta]], Jayachandra was seated on an elephant when Qutb al-Din killed him with an arrow. The Ghurids captured 300 elephants alive, and plundered the Gahadavala treasury at the Asni fort.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|pp=111-112}} (The identification of Asni is not certain, but most historians believe it to be the present-day Asni village in [[Fatehpur district]].{{sfn|D. P. Dubey|2008|p=231}}) After this, the Ghurids advanced to Varanasi, where according to Hasan Nizami, "nearly 1000 temples were destroyed and mosques were raised on their foundations". A number of local feudatory chiefs came forward to offer their allegiance to the Ghurids.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|pp=111-112}}

Jayachandra's son [[Harishchandra (Gahadavala dynasty)|Harishchandra]] succeeded him on the Gahadavala throne. According to one theory, he was a Ghurid vassal. However, in an 1197 CE [[Kotwa, India|Kotwa]] inscription, he assumes the titles of a sovereign.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|pp=113-114}}

== ''Prithviraj Raso'' legend ==

Jayachandra is a prominent character in the historically unreliable fictional text ''[[Prithviraj Raso]]''. According to the text, Jayachandra ("Jaichand") was a cousin of the [[Chahamanas of Shakambhari|Chahamana]] king [[Prithviraja III]] ("Prithviraj Chauhan"). Their mothers were sisters born to the [[Tomara dynasty|Tomara]] king of [[Delhi]]. This claim is directly contradicted by the more reliable contemporary text ''[[Prithviraja Vijaya]]'', according to which Prithviraj's mother had nothing to do with the Tomaras.{{sfn|R. C. Majumdar|1977|p=339}}

The text states that Jaichand's wife was a daughter of king Mukunda-deva, the [[Somavaṃśī dynasty|Somavanshi]] king of [[Kataka (city)|Kataka]]. Jaichand's father [[Vijayachandra]] had defeated Mukunda-deva, who concluded a peace treaty by marrying his daughter to prince Jaichand. [[Samyukta]] was the issue of this marriage. This narrative is historically inaccurate: the Somavanshi dynasty did not have any king named Mukunda-deva. Moreover, the Somavanshis had already been displaced by the [[Eastern Ganga dynasty|Gangas]] before Vijayachandra's ascension.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=92}}

The text also talks of a conflict between Jaichand and Prithviraj. Neither Chahamana nor Gahadavala inscriptions mention any such conflict. The text claims that Jaichand assisted the [[Chandela]] king [[Paramardi]] in a battle against Prithviraj. The Chandelas were defeated in this battle. The inscriptional evidence confirms that Prithviraj defeated Paramardi, but there is no evidence for a Gahadavala-Chandela alliance. That said, it is known that Paramardi's grandfather [[Madanavarman]] had friendly relations with the Gahadavalas. It is also possible that Gahadavalas may have supported the Chandelas, because the Chahamanas were a common rival of these two kingdoms.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=103}} This hypothesis notwithstanding, there is no reliable evidence to suggest that Jayachandra and Prithviraja were rivals.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=107}}

''Prithviraj Raso'' further claims that Jaichand launched a ''digvijaya'' campaign (conquest in all directions). At the end of this campaign, he conducted a [[rajasuya]] ceremony to proclaim his supremacy.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=106}} However, none of the Gahadavala inscriptions mention such a ceremony by Jaichand. The contemporary literary work ''Rambha-Manjari'', which presents Jaichand as a hero, does not mention this campaign either.{{sfn|Swami Parmeshwaranand|2000|p=541}}

According to the text, Jaichand also conducted a [[svayamvara]] (husband selection) ceremony for his daughter Samyukta. He did not invite Prithviraj to this ceremony, but Samyukta had fallen in love with Prithviraj, and decided to select him as her husband. Prithviraj came to the ceremony and eloped with the princess after a fight with Jaichand's men. This anecdote is not supported by any historical evidence either.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=106-107}}

It is possible that Jaichand and Prithviraj were political rivals, as indicated by their non-cooperation against the Ghurid invaders.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=107}} But the ''Prithviraj Raso'' goes on to claim that Jaichand not only refused to help Prithviraj against the Ghurids, but also formed an alliance with the invading Ghurid king [[Muhammad of Ghor]]. No historical evidence supports this claim.{{sfn|R. C. Majumdar|1977|p=317|ps=:"There is, however, nothing to support the current story that Jayachandra invited the Muslim king to invade India to weak his vengeance against Prithviraja."}} Although the account in [[Prithviraj Raso]] is disputed by historians, the name "Jaichand" became synonymous with the word "traitor" in Indian folklore because of this historically unreliable legend.{{sfn|Dhirendra K Jha|Krishna Jha|2012|p=234}}

== Inscriptions ==

Several inscriptions from Jayachandra's reign have been discovered, most of them in and around [[Varanasi]].{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=103}} One of the inscriptions has been discovered at [[Bodh Gaya]] in present-day [[Bihar]].{{sfn|Sukumar Dutt|1988|p=209}}

The inscriptions from Jayachandra's reign include the following:{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|pp=255-260}}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Date of issue (CE)
! Place of discovery
! Issued at
! Issued by
! Purpose
|-
| 21 June 1170
| [[Varanasi district]]: Kamauli
| Vadaviha
| Jayachandra
| Village grant
|-
| 4 June 1172
| [[Varanasi district]]: Kamauli
| [[Prayaga]]
| Jayachandra
| Village grant
|-
| 21 November 1173
| [[Varanasi district]]: Kamauli
| Varanasi: Near Adikeshava Temple
| Jayachandra
| Village grant
|-
| 1174
| [[Varanasi district]]: Kamauli
| Varanasi: Near Krttivasa Temple
| Jayachandra
| Village grant
|-
| 1175
| [[Varanasi district]]: Kamauli
| Varanasi
| Jayachandra
| Village grant
|-
| 30 August 1175
| [[Varanasi district]]: Sehwar
| Varanasi
| Jayachandra
| Village grant
|-
| 3 April 1177
| [[Varanasi district]]: Kamauli
| Varanasi
| Jayachandra
| Village grant
|-
| 9 April 1177
| [[Varanasi district]]: Varanasi
| Varanasi
| Jayachandra
| Village grant (Godanti)
|-
| 9 April 1177
| [[Varanasi district]]: Varanasi
| Varanasi
| Jayachandra
| Village grant (Kotharavandhuri)
|-
| 25 December 1177
| [[Varanasi district]]: Varanasi
| Varanasi
| Jayachandra
| Village grant
|-
| 11 April 1180
| [[Varanasi district]]: Varanasi
| Randavai on Ganga
| Jayachandra
| Village grant (Dayadama)
|-
| 11 April 1180
| [[Varanasi district]]: Varanasi
| Randavai on Ganga
| Jayachandra
| Village grant (Saleti)
|-
| 11 April 1180
| [[Varanasi district]]: Varanasi
| Randavai on Ganga
| Jayachandra
| Village grant (Abhelavatu)
|-
| 22 February 1181
| Unknown
| Varanasi
| Jayachandra
| Village grant
|-
| 1186
| [[Faizabad district]]: [[Faizabad]]
| Varanasi
| Jayachandra
| Village grant
|-
| 1189
| [[Kaushambi district]]: Myohar (or Meohar)
| Unknown
| Vastavya [[Thakur (title)|Thakkura]]
| Erection of Siddheshvara temple
|-
| 1180s-1190s (1240s [[Vikram Samvat|VS]])
| [[Bodh Gaya]]
| Unknown
| Unknown
| Construction of Jayapura cave monastery
|}

== Cultural activities ==

Jayachandra's court poet Bhatta Kedar wrote a eulogy titled ''Jaichand Prakash'' on his life, but the work is now [[lost work|lost]]. Another lost eulogy on his life is the poet Madhukar's ''Jaya-Mayank-Jasha-Chandrika'' (c. 1183).{{sfn|Sujit Mukherjee|1998|p=142}}

== Religion ==

According to the 1167 CE Kamauli inscription, as a prince, Jayachandra was initiated as a worshipper of [[Krishna]] by the [[Vaishnavite]] [[guru]] Praharaja-Sharman.{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=197}} Nevertheless, after ascending the throne, Jayachandra assumed the dynasty's traditional title ''Parama-Maheshvara'' ("devotee of [[Shiva]]"). His Kamauli grant inscription states that he made a village grant and performed [[tulapurusha]] ceremony in the presence of the god Kṛittivāsa (an epithet of Shiva).{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=198}}{{sfn|V. B. Mishra|1973|p=70}}

An inscription discovered at [[Bodh Gaya]] suggests that Jayachandra also showed interest in [[Buddhism]]. This inscription begins with an invocation to [[Gautam Buddha]], the [[Bodhisattava]]s, and one Shrimitra (Śrimītra). Shrimitra is named as a perceptor (''[[diksha]]-guru'') of Kashisha Jayachchandra, identified with the king Jayachandra. The inscription records the construction of a ''guha'' (cave monastery) at Jayapura.{{sfn|Sukumar Dutt|1988|p=209}}{{sfn|Roma Niyogi|1959|p=198}}

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

=== Bibliography ===
*{{cite book |author=D. C. Sircar |author-link=Dineschandra Sircar |title=Indian Epigraphical Glossary |url=https://archive.org/details/indianepigraphic00sircuoft |page=[https://archive.org/details/indianepigraphic00sircuoft/page/35 35] |year=1966 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=978-81-208-0562-0 }}
* {{cite journal |author=D. P. Dubey |title=A note on the identification of Asni |journal=Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute |volume=68 |year=2008 |publisher=Deccan College Research Institute |pages=231–236 |jstor=42931209 }}
* {{cite book |author1=Dhirendra K Jha |author2=Krishna Jha |title=Ayodhya - The Dark Night |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2012 |isbn=9789350299012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5GmsAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA235 }}
* {{cite book |author=R. C. Majumdar |author-link=R. C. Majumdar |title=Ancient India |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1977 |isbn=9788120804364 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNxiN5tzKOgC&pg=PA339 }}
* {{cite book |author=Roma Niyogi |title=The History of the Gāhaḍavāla Dynasty |publisher=Oriental |year=1959 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EJQBAAAAMAAJ |oclc=5386449 }}
* {{cite book |author=Sujit Mukherjee |title=A Dictionary of Indian Literature |volume=1 |publisher=Orient Blackswan |year=1998 |isbn=9788125014539 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YCJrUfVtZxoC }}
* {{cite book |author=Sukumar Dutt |title=Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1988 |isbn=9788120804982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lxRHYFd0fB4C }}
* {{cite book |author=Swami Parmeshwaranand |title=Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Vedic Terms |volume=1 |publisher=Sarup & Sons |year=2000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9xABgdMBrH4 |isbn=9788176250887 }}
* {{cite book |author=V. B. Mishra |title=Religious Beliefs and Practices of North India During the Early Mediaeval Period |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LB1qhsw10IwC&pg=PA70 |year=1973 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=90-04-03610-5 }}

{{Gahadavala dynasty}}

[[Category:Gahadavala dynasty]]
[[Category:12th-century Indian monarchs]]
[[Category:1194 deaths]]

Jayachandra - Revision history

CleanupBot at 09:16, 30 January 2022