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).
Date528
Location
Sondani
24°04′19″N 75°04′10″E / 24.071955°N 75.069404°E / 24.071955; 75.069404
Sondani is located in Madhya Pradesh
Sondani
Sondani (Madhya Pradesh)
Sondani is located in India
Sondani
Sondani (India)
Result Victory of the Indian rulers
Belligerents
Alchon Huns

Indian kingdoms

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.

Background

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.

Result

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.

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

— Sondani pillar inscription[4][6]

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 

Victory pillar of Yashodharman at Sondani, Mandsaur.

Aftermath

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]

References

  1. ↑ "The earth betook itself (for succour), when it was afflicted by kings of the present age, who manifested pride; who were cruel through want of proper training; who,from delusion, transgressed the path of good conduct; (and) who were destitute of virtuous delights " from "Sondhni pillars: where Punjabis met with their Waterloo 1500 years ago". Punjab Monitor. Amritsar: Bhai Nand Lal Foundation. 27 April 2013. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  1. 1 2 3 Hans T. Bakker (26 November 2016). Monuments of Hope, Gloom, and Glory in the Age of the Hunnic Wars: 50 years that changed India (484 - 534). 24th Gonda Lecture. Amsterdam. doi:10.5281/zenodo.377032. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  2. ↑ Hans Bakker (16 July 2014). The World of the Skandapurāṇa. Leiden: BRILL. p. 34. ISBN 978-90-04-27714-4.
  3. ↑ N. K. Ojha (2001). The Aulikaras of Central India: history and inscriptions. Chandigarh: Arun Pub. House. pp. 48–50. ISBN 978-81-85212-78-4.
  4. 1 2 "Sondhni pillars: where Punjabis met with their Waterloo 1500 years ago". Punjab Monitor. Amritsar: Bhai Nand Lal Foundation. 27 April 2013. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  5. ↑ "Coin Cabinet of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna". Archived from the original on 2019-11-01. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  6. ↑ John Faithfull Fleet (1888). John Faithfull Fleet (ed.). Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum: Inscriptions of the early Gupta kings and their successors. Vol. 3. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Print. pp. 147–148. OCLC 69001098. Archived from the original on 2015-07-01.
  7. ↑ Kailash Chand Jain (31 December 1972). Malwa Through The Ages. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 249. ISBN 978-81-208-0824-9.
  8. 1 2 Abraham Eraly (2011). The First Spring: The Golden Age of India. New Delhi: Penguin Books India. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-670-08478-4.
  9. ↑ Ashvini Agrawal (1989). Rise and Fall of the Imperial Guptas. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 245. ISBN 978-81-208-0592-7.
  10. ↑ Jason Neelis (19 November 2010). Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. Leiden: BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-18159-5.
  11. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Vol 3 p.145
  12. 1 2 Foreign Influence on Ancient India by Krishna Chandra Sagar p.216
  13. ↑ Tribal Culture, Faith, History And Literature, Narayan Singh Rao, Mittal Publications, 2006 p.18
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