Note 60 — BHINMÁL.

The inscriptions which follow throw a certain amount of light on the history of Bhinmál during and after the Solaṅki period. The two earliest Appendix III. Bhinmál. History. in date (Nos. 1 and 2) which are probably of the tenth century, give no historical details. Nos. 3 and 4 show that between a.d. 1057 and 1067 Bhinmál was ruled by the Mahárájádhirája Kṛishṇarája of the Paramára race. This is a valuable confirmation of Rájput tradition, according to which60 the Paramára Rája of Ábu was followed by the prince of Śrímála, when he aided Múlarája against Graharipu (c. 990 a.d.) and the Paramáras remained paramount in this region until the beginning of the thirteenth century.61 The title of Mahárájádhirája meant much less at this period than it meant before the Valabhi kings had cheapened it. Still it shows that Kṛishṇarája’s rank was considerably higher than that of a mere feudatory chieftain. Inscription No. 3 gives the names of Kṛishṇarája’s father Dhaṁdhuka and of his grandfather Devarája. The first of these two names occurs in the main line of Ábu as the successor of Dhúmarája the first Paramára sovereign.62 According to Rájput tradition the Paramáras were at one time supreme in Marásthalí and held all the nine castles of the Waste. But in the historical period their chief possessions in Márwád lay about Ábu and Chandrávati, though we have a glimpse of another branch maintaining itself at Kerálu near Bádmer.63 The Paramára chiefs of Ábu are constantly referred to in the Solaṅki annals, and during the golden age of the Solaṅki monarchy (a.d. 1094–1174) they were the vassals of that power, and their Bhinmál branch, if it was ever a distinct chiefship, probably followed the fortunes of the main line, though the Bhinmál inscriptions give us no facts for this long period. The next item of information is given by Inscription 5, which is dated in the Saṁvat year 1239 (a.d. 1183) in the reign of the Maháraul Śrí Jayatasíha-deva. This name is of special interest, as it can hardly be doubted that we have here to do with that “Jaitsí Parmár” of Ábu whose daughter’s beauty caused the fatal feud between “Bhíma Solaṅki” of Aṇahilaváḍa and Prithiráj Chohán of Delhi.64 The title of Mahâraul is to be noted as indicating the decline of the family from the great days of Kṛishṇarája.