Palas, Pratiharas, Rashtrakutas and the Tripartite Struggle

A monarch could win a celebrated battle hundreds of kilometres from home without governing the defeated province for a single decade. An invading expedition might rout a rival army, collect war elephants and tribute, or parade through a prestigious city; yet turning battlefield glory into everyday administration demanded reliable supply lines, loyal governors, cooperative subordinate chiefs (samantas), local village assemblies, and steady tax collection. Once the campaigning season ended and the army marched homeward, those deeper regional relationships decided what actually endured.

That distinction unlocks the history of the Palas, the Gurjara-Pratiharas, and the Rashtrakutas between roughly 750 and 975 CE. Each dynasty built resilient power inside a distinct ecological heartland: the Palas in riverine Bengal and Bihar, the Gurjara-Pratiharas across Rajasthan, Avanti, and north-central India before anchoring themselves at Kannauj, and the Rashtrakutas across the Deccan plateau around Manyakheta (Malkhed in Karnataka). Their armies collided repeatedly because all three courts sought paramount prestige and fiscal-commercial leverage in the fertile Ganga–Yamuna Doab centred on Kannauj (also styled Kanyakubja or Mahodaya).

Crucially, the Tripartite Struggle was never a single non-stop war or a simplistic morality play with one final conqueror. Across changing generations, campaigns alternated with decades of internal consolidation, southern and eastern diplomacy, agrarian land grants, and magnificent literary and monumental patronage—leaving enduring institutional legacies in all three regions long after the Kannauj rounds subsided.

1. Three regional bases made the contest possible

Each of the three contending dynasties drew military and fiscal strength from a distinct ecological zone before projecting power toward the middle Gangetic plain. In the east, the Palas of Bengal and Bihar were anchored in the fertile lower and middle Gangetic plains (Gaudadesha, Varendra, Vanga, Magadha), operating from mobile riverine residences and victory camps (jayaskandhavaras) such as Pataliputra and Mudgagiri (Munger, Bihar) that linked Himalayan and Assamese corridors to Bay of Bengal ports; abundant wet-rice surplus, river fleets, and forest war-elephants gave the Pala state deep resilience. In the west and north, the Gurjara-Pratiharas rose across semi-arid Marwar/Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Malwa (Avanti / Ujjayini), commanding strategic caravan highways that connected western seaports (Cambay, Broach) and overland horse-breeding/import routes to the Gangetic heartland—eventually transforming Kannauj itself into their imperial capital for nearly a century.

To the south, the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta superseded the Badami Chalukyas in the mid-eighth century and fixed their mature capital at Manyakheta (Malkhed) under Amoghavarsha I: from the black-cotton-soil Deccan plateau, they controlled rich Konkan maritime ports on the Arabian Sea and Vindhya–Narmada passes pointing directly into Malwa and the Ganga–Yamuna Doab, while simultaneously contesting Vengi and Tamilakam in the peninsula. Why did all three converge on Kannauj? Elevated on the western bank of the Ganga at the junction of riverine and overland trade across the agrarian core of Uttar Pradesh, Harsha's former capital carried unmatched symbolic legitimacy in North Indian kingship—even though capturing Kannauj never automatically conferred bureaucratic control from Bengal to Karnataka.

2. Surviving records reveal claims more clearly than borders

Historians cross-examine four complementary bodies of primary evidence—always separating poetic prashasti (eulogy) claims of universal conquest from operative local clauses:

1. Pala Charters & Inscriptions: Most notably Dharmapala's Khalimpur copper plate (recording Gopala's rise, the Kannauj assembly installing Chakrayudha, and a four-village Vaishnava grant), Devapala's Monghyr (Munger) and Nalanda copper plates, and the Badal pillar inscription celebrating a hereditary ministerial family serving successive Pala kings.
2. Pratihara Stone & Copper Records: Foremost is Mihira Bhoja's Gwalior (Sagar Tal) prashasti tracing Pratihara genealogy and victories from Nagabhata I onward, complemented by civic Gwalior fort-town inscriptions (875–76 CE), the Pehowa horse-dealers' inscription (c. 882 CE), and Barah/Daulatpura copper charters showing grant renewals from Mahodaya (Kannauj).
3. Rashtrakuta Epigraphy: Including Dantidurga's Samangad plates and Ellora Dashavatara inscription, Govinda III's Radhanpur/Wani plates, Amoghavarsha I's Sanjan copper plates (recounting earlier northern expeditions in vivid detail), and Indra III's Bagumra/Cambay grants (915 CE).
4. Contemporary Arab Geographers & Travellers: Writing around 851 CE, the merchant-traveller Sulaiman (followed in the early tenth century by Al-Masudi, who visited western India around 915 CE) independently observed all three empires—calling the Rashtrakuta monarch (Balhara = Vallabharaja) a premier sovereign friendly toward Arab Muslim traders, noting the Gurjara-Pratihara ruler (Juzr) for formidable cavalry and secure highways, and describing the Pala realm (Ruhma / Dharma) for vast elephant forces and cowrie/trade wealth!

3. Each ruling house built a regional base before all three entered the Kannauj contest

3.1 Gopala and the eastern Pala base

Following seventh-century upheavals after Shashanka and Harsha—and eighth-century invasions of Bengal by Yashovarman of Kannauj and Lalitaditya of Kashmir—Bengal suffered severe political fragmentation described in Dharmapala's Khalimpur plate as matsyanyaya ("the law of the fishes," where big fish swallow small ones). Around c. 750 CE, the charter states that the prakritis made Gopala take the hand of royal fortune to end this disorder. Historians emphasize precision here: prakritis denoted influential regional chieftains, notables, and political constituencies negotiating behind a capable leader—not a modern ballot-box election! Gopala stabilized Bengal, preparing the eastern launchpad for his son Dharmapala (r. c. 770–810 CE) and grandson Devapala (r. c. 810–850 CE).

3.2 From western power to the Gurjara-Pratiharas

Rising among Gurjaratra/Avanti lineages, Nagabhata I (mid-8th c. CE) earned renown in Mihira Bhoja's Gwalior prashasti for repulsing a powerful mlechchha army—widely identified with Arab forces advancing eastward from Umayyad/early Abbasid Sindh under Junayd's commanders toward Malwa and Gujarat. Building on that western prestige, his grand-nephew Vatsaraja (late 8th c. CE) expanded Pratihara power across Rajasthan and central India to bid directly for Kannauj.

3.3 Dantidurga and the Rashtrakuta rise in the Deccan

Starting as a feudatory within the Badami Chalukya realm, Dantidurga (r. c. 735–756 CE) overthrew the last Badami Chalukya ruler Kirtivarman II around 750–753 CE and proclaimed imperial sovereignty by performing the grand Hiranyagarbha ("golden womb") ritual gift at Ujjayini—where Pratihara chiefs reportedly served as ritual doorkeepers (pratiharas)! His uncle and successor Krishna I consolidated Deccan rule and immortalized Rashtrakuta grandeur by commissioning the monolithic rock-cut Kailasa Temple (Cave 16) at Ellora.

4. The struggle unfolded through changing rounds

4.1 Dhruva crossed north, won battles, and returned (c. 780s–790 CE)

The first triangular collision began in the late eighth century when Pratihara king Vatsaraja marched into the Ganga–Yamuna Doab, asserted supremacy over Kannauj's local ruler Indrayudha, and defeated the advancing Pala monarch Dharmapala (capturing two royal white umbrellas). Before Vatsaraja could consolidate his hold, the energetic Rashtrakuta emperor Dhruva Dharavarsha (r. c. 780–793 CE) crossed the Vindhyas and Narmada into northern India: Dhruva routed Vatsaraja—driving him back into the Marwar desert tracks of Rajasthan—and then marched into the Doab to defeat Dharmapala as well, adopting the sacred emblems of the Ganga and Yamuna onto the Rashtrakuta imperial standard (palidhvaja) before returning south to attend to Deccan affairs without annexing Kannauj.

4.2 Dharmapala's Kannauj arrangement met two reversals (c. 793–814 CE)

Dhruva's withdrawal created an immediate vacuum in North India. Seizing the moment, Pala king Dharmapala marched to Kannauj, deposed Indrayudha (who had leaned toward Pratihara protection), and installed his own protégé Chakrayudha on the throne of Kannauj amidst a celebrated imperial assembly (durbar) where the rulers of Bhoja, Matsya, Madra, Kuru, Yavana, Avanti, Gandhara, and Kira reportedly bowed in assent (as eulogized in Verse 12 of the Khalimpur copper plate). Yet Dharmapala's settlement soon met two rapid reversals. First, Vatsaraja's son Nagabhata II (r. c. 800–833 CE) revived Gurjara-Pratihara power, defeated Chakrayudha, occupied Kannauj, and bested Dharmapala's army in a fierce battle near Mudgagiri (Munger). Second, Dhruva's son and successor Govinda III (r. 793–814 CE) launched a sweeping northern campaign from the Deccan around 800–802 CE: routing Nagabhata II, receiving the tactical submission of both Dharmapala and Chakrayudha, and marching as far as the Himalayan foothills before returning south to break a Dravidian coalition along the Tungabhadra and Kanchi—once again proving Rashtrakuta striking power without establishing permanent Deccan rule over the Gangetic plain.

4.3 Pratihara Kannauj and later Rashtrakuta pressure (9th–10th centuries CE)

Across the mid-to-late ninth century, the three empires entered a long phase of regional equilibrium during which Kannauj became the actual imperial capital of the Gurjara-Pratiharas. Under Mihira Bhoja (r. c. 836–885 CE—who overcame early setbacks against Devapala and Rashtrakuta Dhruva II of Gujarat to build a vast realm stretching from Kathiawar and the Sutlej to northern Bengal frontiers, issuing the famous silver-alloy Srimad-Adi-Varaha drammas) and his son Mahendrapala I (r. c. 885–910 CE—whose inscriptions extend into Magadha and northern Bengal and whose court patronized the dramatist Rajashekhara), Pratihara Kannauj stood as North India's premier metropolis. Simultaneously, in the east, Dharmapala's son Devapala (r. c. 810–850 CE) maintained strong Pala rule across Bengal and Bihar while conducting maritime Buddhist diplomacy with Sailendra ruler Balaputradeva of Suvarnadvipa (Sumatra); and in the Deccan, Amoghavarsha I (Nripatunga, r. c. 814–878 CE) reigned for over six decades from his planned capital of Manyakheta, prioritizing Deccan statecraft, Jain philosophy, and Kannada and Sanskrit literature over northern military adventures.

In the tenth century, two final Rashtrakuta expeditions struck northward: between 915 and 918 CE, Amoghavarsha's great-grandson Indra III marched via Ujjayini, crossed the Yamuna at Kalpi, and devastated Pratihara Kannauj during the reign of Mahipala I—though once Indra III returned to the Deccan, Pratihara authority at Kannauj was restored with the aid of Chandella king Harsha and Guhila chiefs. Decades later, Krishna III (r. 939–967 CE), the last great Rashtrakuta campaigner, projected forces both northward into Bundelkhand (leaving Kannada inscriptions at Jura in Madhya Pradesh) and deep southward to Kanchi, Rameswaram, and the famous victory of Takkolam (949 CE) over Chola crown prince Rajaditya.

Comparative Master Matrix: Palas, Gurjara-Pratiharas, and Rashtrakutas

5. Armies depended on regional cooperation

Sustaining trans-Vindhyan or trans-Gangetic marches depended on combining regional military strengths with negotiated samanta contingents. Arab observers noted how Pratihara and Rashtrakuta courts prized imported Arabian and Persian cavalry warhorses (corroborated epigraphically by the multi-regional horse-dealers' fair at Pehowa under Mihira Bhoja), while Pala armies relied heavily on riverine fleets and eastern war-elephants. Yet relying on armed mahasamantas—such as the Chandellas, Paramaras, Chahamanas, Guhilas, and Chalukya scions—carried a structural trade-off: the very feudatory lords who supplied troops for distant Kannauj expeditions accumulated the forts and revenues to found independent kingdoms whenever imperial coordination slackened.

6. Government joined courts to local actors

Across all three realms, central chanceries worked through provincial and local actors rather than uniform bureaucracy. Pala charters list provinces (bhuktis such as Pundravardhana-bhukti and Srinagara-bhukti), vishayas, and mandalas alongside village elders (mahattaras) and cultivators; Pratihara records show fort commanders (kottapalas) cooperating with civic guilds of merchants, oil-millers, and gardeners at Gwalior and Siyadoni; and Rashtrakuta charters organize rashtras (led by rashtrapatis), vishayas, and bhuktis while welcoming West Asian maritime Tajika (Arab) merchants—even appointing an Arab dignitary (Madhumati/Sugatipa, i.e., Muhammad) as governor of Sanjan on the Konkan coast under Indra III and allowing mosques and coastal trade communities to flourish peacefully alongside Hindu and Jain shrines.

7. Production, towns, and routes sustained political power

7.1 Eastern rivers supported movement and institutions

In the Pala realm, the Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Karatoya river networks sustained intensive wet-rice cultivation, textile weaving, betel and coconut groves, and riverine boat transport linking Magadha and Varendra to the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia. Although high-denomination gold coins were rare in eighth- and ninth-century Bengal, silver units (puranas / drammas), copper issues, and vast quantities of imported Maldivian cowrie shells (kapardakas) lubricated village and monastery transactions alongside land-grant revenues.

7.2 Northern and western records show mixed exchange

Across the Gurjara-Pratihara empire, agrarian production in the Ganga–Yamuna Doab, Malwa, and Gujarat was closely linked to fortified market towns (mandapikas) and caravan highways. Inscriptions from Gwalior, Pehowa, Siyadoni, and Ahar document busy urban markets where merchants, oil-millers, and horse-dealers transacted in silver-alloy Srimad-Adi-Varaha and Vigrahapala drammas, confirming active monetized exchange alongside rural land grants.

7.3 The Deccan connected plateau, coast, and southern regions

Under the Rashtrakutas, black-soil cotton and millet cultivation on the Maharashtra–Karnataka plateau intersected with diamond and mineral extraction in the eastern Deccan, thriving inland merchant guilds (led by the early Ayyavole-500 network), and busy Konkan seaports (such as Sanjan, Thana, and Chaul) exporting cotton textiles, indigo, teakwood, and spices to the Persian Gulf and Red Sea in exchange for gold dinars and warhorses.

8. Patronage made political relationships visible

Across all three empires, royal and feudatory patronage of architecture, religion, and literature made political legitimacy visible while crossing confessional boundaries. In the east, the Palas—who styled themselves Paramasaugata ("devout worshippers of the Buddha")—endowed the great residential Buddhist mahaviharas of Nalanda, Vikramashila (founded by Dharmapala at Antichak in Bhagalpur, Bihar, renowned for Vajrayana and logic scholarship and for training masters like Atisha Dipankara Srijnana who journeyed to Tibet), Odantapuri, and the monumental cruciform brick Somapura Mahavihara (at Paharpur, a UNESCO World Heritage site), while nurturing the sleek black-basalt and cast-bronze Pala sculptural school associated with master artists Dhiman and Bitpalo. Crucially, Pala patronage was never exclusively Buddhist: Dharmapala's own Khalimpur copper plate opens with an invocation to the Buddha and then grants four villages to sustain a Vaishnava temple of Nanna-Narayana, while Narayanapala's Bhagalpur grant endows a Shaiva Pashupata shrine.

In northern and western India, the Gurjara-Pratiharas and their feudatories patronized refined northern Nagara sandstone temple architecture—exemplified by Gwalior fort's towering wagon-vaulted (Valabhi-roofed) Teli-ka-Mandir, the Bateshwar temple group on the Yamuna, the Osian temples in Rajasthan, and the Ghateshwara temple at Baroli—while at imperial Kannauj, Mahendrapala I and Mahipala I served as royal patrons and pupils of the polymath poet-dramatist Rajashekhara, author of the Prakrit play Karpuramanjari, the Sanskrit plays Balaramayana and Viddhashalabhanjika, and the pioneering treatise on poetic geography, the Kavyamimamsa.

In the Deccan, the Rashtrakutas combined Shaiva, Vaishnava, and Jain patronage on a breathtaking scale. Under Krishna I, master rock-cutters excavated over 200,000 tonnes of living basalt cliff from the top downward to create Ellora's freestanding monolithic Kailasa Temple (Cave 16). Subsequently, Amoghavarsha I (Nripatunga) deeply revered the Digambara Jain preceptor Jinasena (author of the Adipurana), sponsored the Jain mathematician Mahaviracharya (whose ninth-century Ganitasarasamgraha advanced operations on fractions, permutations/combinatorics, and geometry), and fostered the courtly literary circle that produced Kavirajamarga (c. 850 CE, authored by Srivijaya with Amoghavarsha's participation)—the earliest surviving classic on poetics, rhetoric, and cultural geography in the Kannada language, paving the way for tenth-century Kannada masters Pampa and Ponna.

Key Epigraphic & Literary Landmarks of the Era

9. The three dynasties ended on different timelines

Rather than exhausting each other in a simultaneous collapse, the three imperial houses ended on completely different schedules and through distinct regional processes. First, in the Deccan, after Krishna III's death in 967 CE and Paramara ruler Siyaka II's sack of Manyakheta in 972 CE, the last Rashtrakuta monarch Karka II was overthrown in 973 CE by the Chalukya feudatory Tailapa II, who founded the Western (Later) Chalukyas of Kalyani. Second, across northern and central India during the tenth and early eleventh centuries, the Gurjara-Pratihara empire gradually devolved as former mahasamantas and allies—the Chandellas of Jejakabhukti, Paramaras of Malwa, Chahamanas of Shakambhari, Chaulukyas of Gujarat, and Kalachuris of Tripuri—established sovereign kingdoms, culminating in Mahmud of Ghazni's raid on Kannauj (1018 CE) and the later rise of the Gahadavalas. Third, in the east, the Pala dynasty endured longest: reviving under Mahipala I (late 10th–early 11th c. CE, who restored monuments at Nalanda and Bodh Gaya and faced Rajendra Chola's Gangetic expedition of c. 1022–23 CE) and again under Ramapala (late 11th–early 12th c. CE), who mobilized a wide coalition of forest and regional samantas to recover northern Bengal (Varendra) from the powerful Kaivarta rebellion led by Divya, Rudoka, and Bhima—an epic recovery celebrated in Sandhyakaranandin's double-entendre (shlesha) Sanskrit poem Ramacharita—before Vijayasena's Sena dynasty superseded Pala rule in mid-twelfth-century Bengal.

10. The struggle explains reach, not one final winner

Evaluating two centuries of Pala–Pratihara–Rashtrakuta interaction solely by asking "Who finally won Kannauj?" misses its real historical significance. The Gurjara-Pratiharas held Kannauj longest across the ninth century; the Rashtrakutas repeatedly proved capable of defeating both northern rivals in bold trans-Vindhyan expeditions before returning to Manyakheta; and the Palas endured longest as a ruling house in Bengal and Bihar while linking eastern India to Tibet and maritime Southeast Asia. Above all, all three polities demonstrated how early-medieval Indian empires combined regional ecological bases, negotiated samanta alliances, cross-tradition patronage, and cosmopolitan-plus-vernacular culture—laying the direct political and cultural foundations of medieval Bengal, North India, and the Deccan.

11. Practice Questions: Applying Chronology, Epigraphy, and Patronage

1. With reference to the Khalimpur copper-plate inscription of Dharmapala, consider the following statements:
   1. It states that the prakritis made Gopala king to put an end to matsyanyaya (lawlessness / 'law of the fishes') in Bengal.
   2. Although Dharmapala bore the Buddhist title Paramasaugata, the charter records a grant of villages to support a Vaishnava temple of Nanna-Narayana.
   3. It proves that universal adult suffrage with secret paper ballots operated across eighth-century Bengal.
   Which of the statements given above are correct?
   (A) 1 and 2 only    (B) 2 and 3 only    (C) 1 and 3 only    (D) 1, 2 and 3
   Answer: A
   Explanation: Statements 1 and 2 are directly verified in the Khalimpur plate. Statement 3 is anachronistic: prakritis referred to influential regional leaders/constituencies negotiating behind Gopala, not modern universal adult voting!
2. Arrange the following milestones of the Tripartite Struggle in correct chronological sequence:
   1. Rashtrakuta ruler Dhruva's northern expedition defeating Vatsaraja and Dharmapala
   2. Dharmapala installing Chakrayudha at Kannauj, followed by Nagabhata II's victory and Govinda III's northern sweep
   3. Mihira Bhoja and Mahendrapala I's ninth-century consolidation of Pratihara rule at Kannauj
   4. Rashtrakuta ruler Indra III's early tenth-century raid on Kannauj (Mahodaya)
   Select the correct sequence:
   (A) 1 – 2 – 3 – 4    (B) 3 – 1 – 4 – 2    (C) 2 – 4 – 1 – 3    (D) 4 – 3 – 2 – 1
   Answer: A
   Explanation: Dhruva intervened first against Vatsaraja and Dharmapala (c. 780s CE) → Dharmapala installed Chakrayudha, reversed by Nagabhata II and Govinda III (c. 793–814 CE) → Mihira Bhoja & Mahendrapala I consolidated 9th-century Kannauj (c. 836–910 CE) → Indra III raided Kannauj around 915–918 CE.
3. Devapala's Nalanda copper-plate inscription records the grant of five villages for maintaining a Buddhist monastery at Nalanda at the diplomatic request of:
   (A) Tang Emperor Taizong of China
   (B) Balaputradeva, the Sailendra monarch of Suvarnadvipa (Sumatra / Srivijaya)
   (C) Caliph Harun al-Rashid of Baghdad
   (D) Pulakeshin II of Vatapi
   Answer: B
   Explanation: Devapala's Nalanda charter attests maritime Buddhist diplomacy between Pala Bengal–Bihar and the Sailendra dynasty of Suvarnadvipa (Sumatra/Java) under Balaputradeva.
4. With reference to the Rashtrakuta monarch Amoghavarsha I (Nripatunga, r. c. 814–878 CE), consider the following statements:
   1. He developed Manyakheta (Malkhed) as the premier Rashtrakuta capital.
   2. His court is closely associated with Kavirajamarga, the earliest surviving treatise on poetics in Kannada, as well as the Jain mathematician Mahaviracharya (author of Ganitasarasamgraha).
   3. He spent all sixty-four years of his reign living permanently inside Kannauj.
   Which of the statements given above are correct?
   (A) 1 and 2 only    (B) 2 and 3 only    (C) 1 and 3 only    (D) 1, 2 and 3
   Answer: A
   Explanation: Amoghavarsha I built Manyakheta and fostered Kannada and Sanskrit/Jain scholarship (Kavirajamarga, Jinasena, Mahaviracharya); unlike Dhruva or Govinda III, he focused on Deccan consolidation and culture rather than occupying Kannauj (Statement 3 is false).
5. Which ruler commissioned the monolithic rock-cut Kailasa Temple (Cave 16) at Ellora, excavated top-down out of a living basalt cliff?
   (A) Gopala    (B) Mihira Bhoja    (C) Rashtrakuta Krishna I    (D) Mahendrapala I
   Answer: C
   Explanation: Dantidurga's uncle and successor Krishna I (r. c. 756–773 CE) commissioned the celebrated monolithic Kailasa (Kailasanatha) temple at Ellora.
6. The ninth-century Arab traveller Sulaiman referred to an Indian monarch as Balhara, praising his empire's hospitality toward Arab Muslim (Tajika) merchants along western coastal ports. Which dynasty was he describing?
   (A) The Rashtrakutas (from their royal title Vallabharaja)
   (B) The Karkotas of Kashmir
   (C) The Varmans of Kamarupa
   (D) The Bhaumakaras of Odisha
   Answer: A
   Explanation: Arabic Balhara rendered Prakrit/Sanskrit Vallabharaja, the signature imperial title inherited by the Rashtrakutas from the Chalukyas.
7. The celebrated Sanskrit dramatist and literary critic Rajashekhara—author of the Prakrit play Karpuramanjari and Kavyamimamsa—served as royal preceptor/court poet under which Gurjara-Pratihara rulers at Kannauj?
   (A) Mahendrapala I and Mahipala I
   (B) Gopala and Dharmapala
   (C) Dantidurga and Krishna I
   (D) Tailapa II and Vikramaditya VI
   Answer: A
   Explanation: Rajashekhara served at the imperial Pratihara court of Kannauj as guru to Mahendrapala I and continued under his successor Mahipala I.
8. Sandhyakaranandin's Sanskrit poem Ramacharita—composed in double-entendre (shlesha) verses—is a primary historical source for which late eleventh-century eastern Indian event?
   (A) Harshavardhana's Prayaga assembly of 643 CE
   (B) Pala monarch Ramapala's mobilization of regional samantas to recover Varendra (northern Bengal) from the Kaivarta rebellion
   (C) Tailapa II's overthrow of Rashtrakuta Karka II in 973 CE
   (D) Pulakeshin II's victory on the Narmada
   Answer: B
   Explanation: Each verse of Sandhyakaranandin's Ramacharita simultaneously narrates Lord Rama's recovery of Sita and Pala king Ramapala's coalition campaign recovering Varendra from Kaivarta ruler Bhima.

12. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)