Bhoja ( 1010–1055 CE) was the Paramara king of Malwa region in central India. He ruled from Dhara (modern Dhar), and fought wars with nearly all his neighbours in attempts to extend his kingdom, with varying degrees of success. At its zenith, his empire extended from Chittor in the north to upper Konkan in the south, and from the Sabarmati River in the west to Vidisha in the east.
Bhoja was one of the most celebrated kings in Indian history for his patronage of scholars. After his death, he was featured in several legends as a righteous scholar-king. The body of legends clustered around him is comparable to that of the Emperor Vikramaditya.
He is best known as a patron of arts, literature, and sciences. The establishment of the Bhoj Shala, a centre for Sanskrit studies, is attributed to him. He was a polymath, and several books covering a wide range of topics are attributed to him. He is also said to have constructed a large number of Shiva temples, although Bhojeshwar Temple in Bhojpur (a city founded by him) is the only surviving temple that can be ascribed to him with certainty.
Early life Bhoja's father and predecessor was Sindhuraja. According to Bhoja-Prabandha, his mother's name was Savitri. Bhoja's reputation as a scholar-king suggests that he was well-educated as a child. The Bhoja-Prabandha states that he was educated by his guardians as well as other learned scholars.
According to Bhoja-Prabandha, early in his life, Bhoja suffered from intense headaches. Two Brahmin surgeons from Ujjain made him unconscious using an anaesthetic powder called moha-churna, opened his cranial bone, removed a tumor, and then made him regain his consciousness by administering another powder called sanjivani.
Legend of persecution by Munja
According to Tilaka-Manjari, composed by Bhoja's contemporary Dhanapala, Bhoja's feet had auspicious birthmarks indicating that he was fit to be a king. His uncle Munja (and his father's predecessor) loved him greatly, and appointed him as the king.
However, several later legendary accounts state that Munja was initially jealous of Bhoja, and tried to prevent him from becoming a king. For example, the 14th century Prabandha-Chintamani states that during the reign of Munja, an astrologer prophesied Bhoja's long reign. Munja, who wanted his own son to become the king, ordered Bhoja's killing. Bhoja was appointed as the king by the royal ministers after Munja's death. According to a Gujarati legend documented in Rasmala, Munja ordered Bhoja's murder, but later appointed him as the crown prince.
Bhoja-Prabandha states that Munja ordered one Vatsaraja to kill Bhoja at the Mahamaya temple in Bhuvaneshvari forest. On hearing Bhoja's cultured manner of talking, Vatsaraja and his men abandoned the murder plan. They faked Bhoja's death, and presented to Munja a fake head and a verse from Bhoja. The verse described how great kings like Mandhata, Rama and Yudhishthira died leaving behind all their property; it then sarcastically added that Munja would be the only one whom the earthly possessions would follow. The verse moved Munja to tears, and made him realize his mistake. When he learned that Bhoja was still alive, he invited Bhoja to back to his court. To repent for his sin, he also went on a pilgrimage to Dharmaranya, where he established a town called Munjapuram. The sarcastic verse, purportedly written by Bhoja to Munja, also appears as an antonymous extract in Sharngadhara-paddhati (1363 CE).
These stories of Bhoja's persecution by Munja are essentially mythical. This legend is not found in the works composed by the contemporaries of Munja, Sindhuraja and Bhoja. For example, the Nava-sahasanka-charita makes no mention of this story. The legend appears to be the poetic imagination of later composers. Ain-i-Akbari also contains a variation of this account, but completely distorts the legend, naming Munja as the one who was persecuted by Bhoja. This account is also completely unreliable from a historical point of view.
Anointment
Some literary works suggest that Bhoja succeeded his uncle Munja as the Paramara king. These works include Tilaka-Manjari, Prabandha-Chintamani, and Rasmala. However, several other works as well as epigraphic evidence indicate that Bhoja succeeded his father Sindhuraja. Padmagupta, the court poet of Sindhuraja and Bhoja, also supports this fact. According to Bhoja-Prabandha, Munja left the Paramara administration in hands of Sindhuraja before departing on a military expedition. Munja unexpectedly died in this campaign, and as a result, Sindhuraja succeeded him as the king. Sindhuraja's court poet Padmagupta, in his Nava-Sahasanka-Charita, states that Munja "placed the world in Sindhuraja's hands" before leaving for Ambika's town. This indicates that he left the administration in Sindhuraja's hands before leaving for his fatal expedition against Tailapa II. Udaipur Prashasti inscription seems to confirm this.
Period of reign
The Modasa copper plates (1010–11 CE) are the earliest historical record of Bhoja's reign. The Chintamani-Sarnika (1055 CE) was composed by Bhoja's court poet Dasabala. An inscription of Bhoja's successor Jayasimha I is also dated 1055 CE. Thus, 1055 CE can be taken as the last year of Bhoja's reign. Based on these evidences, scholars such as Pratipal Bhatia assign Bhoja's reign to 1010–1055 CE.
However, some scholars assign the beginning of Bhoja's reign variously between 1000 CE and 1010 CE, based on their interpretations of inscriptions and legendary texts. For example, Merutunga's Prabandha-Chintamani states that Bhoja ruled for 55 years, 7 months and 3 days. Based on this, scholars such as D. C. Ganguly and K. C. Jain assign Bhoja's reign to 1000–1055 CE. However, as K. M. Munshi states, dates are "the weakest point in Merutunga's narratives". A. K. Warder, who dismisses Merutunga as "completely unreliable" and his narratives as "essentially fiction", believes there is no evidence that Bhoja's reign began much earlier than 1010 CE.
Names and titles
In the Paramara inscriptions, Bhoja is mentioned as Bhoja-deva. In some modern north Indian languages such as Hindi, he is also known as "Bhoj" (because of schwa deletion). Bhoja's inscriptions mention his titles as Parama-bhattaraka, Maharajadhiraja and Parameshvara. Ganaratna Mahodadhi (1140 CE), a work on grammar by Vardhamana, suggests that "Tribhuvan Narayana" or "Triloka Narayana" ("Lord of the three worlds") was also a title of Bhoja. This is corroborated by epigraphic evidence: the Shiva temple ascribed to Bhoja in the Chittor fort has an idol which was named "Bhojasvamindeva" as well as "Tribhuvan Narayanadeva".
Military career
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While Bhoja became famous as a benevolent king and a patron of arts and culture, he was also renowned as a warrior. He inherited a kingdom centered around the Malwa region, and made several attempts to expand it with varying results. The Udaipur Prashasti inscription of Bhoja's brother compares Bhoja to the legendary king Prithu, and states that he "ruled the earth from Kailasha to Malaya hills and up to the mountains of the setting and the rising sun". This is an obvious exaggeration: historical evidence indicates that Bhoja's empire extended from Chittor in the north to upper Konkan in the south, and from the Sabarmati River in the west to Vidisha in the east.
Several legends mention conflicts between the ruler of Malwa and the Chaulukyas, during the reign of the Chaulukya kings Vallabha-raja and Durlabha-raja. Vallabha is said to have died of smallpox during an expedition against the Paramaras. This incident may have happened during the early part of Bhoja's reign, or during the reign of his father Sindhuraja. Vallabha's successor Durlabha is said to have repulsed an attack by a confederacy that included the ruler of Malwa, but modern historians doubt the authenticity of this legend.
Bhoja's first military aggression appears to be his invasion of the Lata region (in present-day Gujarat), around 1018 CE. Bhoja subjugated the Chalukyas of Lata, whose ruler Kirtiraja may have served as his feudatory for a brief period. Bhoja's invasion of Lata brought him close to the Shilahara kingdom of northern Konkana, which was located to the south of Lata. Bhoja invaded and captured Konkana sometime between 1018 and 1020 CE, during the reign of the Shilahara king Arikesari. He celebrated this victory in a big way by making generous donations to Brahmins. His 1020 CE inscription states that he organized a Konkana-Grahana Vijaya Parva ("Konkan Victory Festival"). The Shilaharas probably continued to administer Konkana as Bhoja's vassals. By the end of his reign, Bhoja had lost this territory to the Chalukyas of Kalyani.
Sometime before 1019 CE, Bhoja formed an alliance against the Chalukyas of Kalyani with Rajendra Chola and Gangeyadeva Kalachuri. At this time, Jayasimha II was the Chalukya king. The triple alliance engaged the Chalukyas at their northern and southern frontiers simultaneously. The extent of Bhoja's success in this campaign is not certain, as both Chalukya and Paramara panegyrics claimed victory. Historian D. C. Ganguly believes that Bhoja achieved some early victories against the Chalukyas, but was ultimately defeated. Others, including D. B. Diskalkar and H. C. Ray, believe that Bhoja was defeated by Jayasimha after some early successes, but ultimately emerged victorious against the Chalukyas after 1028 CE. According to Georg Bühler, the struggle probably ended with some advantage for Bhoja, which might have been exaggerated into a great victory by the Paramara poets.
The Udaipur Prashasti states that Bhoja defeated a ruler named Indraratha. Modern historians identify this king with Indranatha, the Somavamshi king of Kalinga. This king was defeated by Rajendra Chola: Bhoja may have played a secondary role in the Chola campaign as part of an alliance.