| Battle of Sondani | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Hunnic wars | |||||||
 The defeat of the Huna emperor Mihirakula by King Yashodharman at Sondani in 528 CE (early 20th century illustration). | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Alchon Huns | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Mihirakula (POW) | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Heavy | Unknown | ||||||
The Battle of Sondani was a large military encounter fought in 528 CE, between the Alchon Hun emperor Mihirakula and a confederation of Indian rulers led by king Yashodharman of Malwa.
The Alchon Huns under their able leader Toramana invaded the mainland of the Indian subcontinent. The Huns extensively weakened the Gupta Empire by their devastating raids. Toramana was finally vanquished with certainty by an Indian ruler of the Aulikara dynasty of Malwa, after nearly 20 years in India. According to the Rīsthal stone-slab inscription, discovered in 1983, King Prakashadharma defeated Toramana in 515 CE. [1] [2] [3] The First Hunnic War thus ended with a Hunnic defeat, and Hunnic troops apparently retreated to the area of Punjab. [1]
Mihirakula, the eldest son and successor of Toramana, again invaded India. He was even crueler and caused more destruction than his predecessor. Yashodharman, the ruler of Malwa and the son of King Prakashadharma, created an alliance with the other Indian rulers to defeat the Huns.
A confederacy of Indian rulers led by Yashodharman, and possibly even supported by the Gupta emperor Narasimhagupta, decisively defeated the Hunnic armies at Sondani in 528 CE. [ citation needed ]
This resulted in the loss of Alchon possessions in the Punjab and north India by 542. The Sondani inscription in Sondani, near Mandsaur, records the submission by the Hunas, and claims that Yasodharman had rescued the earth from rude and cruel kings, [4] [Note 1] and that he "had bent the head of Mihirakula". [1] In a part of the Sondani inscription Yasodharman thus praises himself for having defeated king Mihirakula: [5]
He (Yasodharman) to whose two feet respect was paid, with complimentary presents of the flowers from the lock of hair on the top of (his) head, by even that (famous) king Mihirakula, whose forehead was pained through being bent low down by the strength of (his) arm in (the act of compelling) obeisance
The Gupta Empire emperor Narasimhagupta is also credited in helping repulse Mihirakula, after the latter had conquered most of India, according to the reports of Chinese monk Xuanzang. [7] [8]
In a fanciful account, Xuanzang, who wrote a century later in 630 CE, reported that Mihirakula had conquered all India except for an island where the king of Magadha named Baladitya (who could be Gupta ruler Narasimhagupta Baladitya) took refuge, but that was finally captured by the Indian king. He later spared Mihirakula's life on the intercession of his mother, as she perceived the Hun ruler "as a man of remarkable beauty and vast wisdom". [8] Mihirakula is then said to have returned to Kashmir to retake the throne. [9] [10] : 168
After the war was over, Yashodharman conquered vast territories and established a short-lived empire.
In the Mandsaur pillar inscription, Yashodharman claims he vanquished his enemies and now controls the territory from the neighbourhood of the (river) Lauhitya (Brahmaputra River) to the "Western Ocean" (Western Indian Ocean), and from the Himalayas to mountain Mahendra. [11] [12]
Yashodharman thus conquered vast territories from the Hunas and the Guptas, [13] although his short-lived empire would ultimately disintegrate between c. 530-540 CE. [12]
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire on the Indian subcontinent which existed from the early 4th century CE to early 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period has been considered as the Golden Age of India by historians, although this characterisation has been disputed by some other historians. The ruling dynasty of the empire was founded by Gupta and the most notable rulers of the dynasty were Chandragupta I, Samudragupta, Chandragupta II, Kumaragupta I and Skandagupta. The 4th-century CE Sanskrit poet Kalidasa credits the Guptas with having conquered about twenty-one kingdoms, both in and outside India, including the kingdoms of Parasikas, the Hunas, the Kambojas, tribes located in the west and east Oxus valleys, the Kinnaras, Kiratas, and others.
Mandsaur is a city and a municipality in Mandsaur district located on the border of Mewar and Malwa regions of Madhya Pradesh, a state in Central India. It is the administrative headquarters of Mandsaur District. The ancient Pashupatinath Temple is located in Mandsaur.
Yashodharman was a ruler of Malwa, in Central India, during the early part of the 6th century. He probably belonged to the Second Aulikara dynasty. He conquered much of the Indian subcontinent between c. 530-540 AD according to Mandsaur pillar inscription.
Vishnugupta Candraditya was one of the lesser-known kings of the Gupta Dynasty. He is generally considered to be the last recognized king of the Gupta Empire. His reign lasted 10 years, from 540 to 550 CE. From the fragment of his clay sealing discovered at Nalanda during the excavations of 1927–28, it is revealed that he was the son of Kumaragupta III and the grandson of Narasimhagupta.
Mihirakula, sometimes referred to as Mihiragula or Mahiragula, was the second and last Alchon Hun king of northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent between 502 and 530 CE. He was a son of and successor to Toramana of Huna heritage. His father ruled the Indian part of the Hephthalite Empire. Mihirakula ruled from his capital of Sagala.
The Malavas or Malwas were an ancient Indian tribe. Modern scholars identify them with the Mallian people (Malloi) who were settled in the Punjab region at the time of Alexander's invasion in the 4th century BCE. Later, the Malavas migrated southwards to present-day Rajasthan, and ultimately to Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Their power gradually declined as a result of defeats against the Western Satraps, the Gupta emperor Samudragupta, and the Chalukya emperor Pulakeshin II.
Toramana also called Toramana Shahi Jauvla was a king of the Alchon Huns who ruled in northern India in the late 5th and the early 6th century CE. Toramana consolidated the Alchon power in Punjab, and conquered northern and central India including Eran in Madhya Pradesh. Toramana used the title "Great King of Kings", equivalent to "Emperor", in his inscriptions, such as the Eran boar inscription.
NarasimhaguptaBaladitya was the Gupta Emperor from 495 to 530 CE. He was son of Purugupta and probably the successor of Budhagupta.
Budhagupta was a Gupta emperor and the successor of Kumaragupta II. He was the son of Purugupta and was succeeded by Narasimhagupta.
The Aulikaras, also referred to as Aulikara dynasty or Olikara dynasty, were an ancient Indian clan from the Maurya era, that emerged into a kingdom between the 4th-century CE and 6th-century CE. They were based in the Malwa (Malawa) region of central India near Mandsaur, with their power center near what is now western Madhya Pradesh, southeastern Rajasthan and northeastern Gujarat. Two royal houses belonging to this clan ruled over the present-day western Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh state from c. 350 CE to 550 CE, much of it as feudatories of the Gupta Empire.
Hunas or Huna was the name given by the ancient Indians to a group of Central Asian tribes who, via the Khyber Pass, entered the Indian subcontinent at the end of the 5th or early 6th century. The Hunas occupied areas as far south as Eran and Kausambi, greatly weakening the Gupta Empire. The Hunas were ultimately defeated by a coalition of Indian princes that included an Indian king Yasodharman and the Gupta emperor, Narasimhagupta. They defeated a Huna army and their ruler Mihirakula in 528 CE and drove them out of India. The Guptas are thought to have played only a minor role in this campaign.
Kumaragupta III was a later Gupta Emperor. He succeeded his father Narasimhagupta in about 530 CE.
Bhanugupta was one of the lesser known kings of the Gupta dynasty. He is only known from an inscription in Eran, and a mention in the Manjushri-mula-kalpa.
The Alchon Huns, also known as the Alkhan, Alchono, Alxon, Alkhon, Alakhana, and Walxon, were a nomadic people who established states in Central Asia and South Asia during the 4th and 6th centuries CE. They were first mentioned as being located in Paropamisus, and later expanded south-east, into the Punjab and Central India, as far as Eran and Kausambi. The Alchon invasion of the Indian subcontinent eradicated the Kidarite Huns who had preceded them by about a century, and contributed to the fall of the Gupta Empire, in a sense bringing an end to Classical India.
Sondani, also Sondhni, is a small village at a distance of about 4 km from Mandsaur situated on Mahu-Nimach Highway towards Mahu.
The Mandasor Pillar Inscriptions of Yashodharman are a set of Sanskrit inscriptions from early 6th-century discovered at an archaeological site at the village of Sondani (सोंधनी), about 4 kilometers south of Mandsaur (Mandasor) in northwestern Madhya Pradesh, India. These record the victory of Aulikara king Yasodharman over the Swastik Mihirakula. According to Richard Salomon, these are notable for "their outstanding literary, calligraphic and historical value". The Mandasor inscription praises Yasodharman, describes him as having rescued the earth from "rude and cruel kings of the Kali age, who delight in viciousness".
The Rīsthal inscription is a stone-slab inscription which was discovered in 1983 in the area of Rīsthal near Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh, India.
The Second Gonanda dynasty, was a Kashmiri Hindu dynasty. According to Kalhana, this dynasty ruled Kashmir just before the Karkotas.
The Eran boar inscription of Toramana, is a stone inscription found in Eran in the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is 8 lines of Sanskrit, the first three of which are in meter and the rest in prose, written in a North Indian script. It is carved on the neck of a freestanding 11 feet (3.4 m) high red sandstone Varaha statue, a zoomorphic iconography of Vishnu avatar, and dated to the 6th century. The inscription names king Toramana, ruler of the Alchon Huns, as ruling over Malwa and records that a Dhanyavishnu is dedicating a stone temple to Narayana (Vishnu).
The Second Aulikara dynasty was a royal dynasty that ruled over the Malwa plateau, and at its peak under Yashodharman Vishnuvardhana controlled a vast area, consisting of almost all of Northern India and parts of Deccan plateau. It was the second royal house of the Aulikara clan.