Caliphate campaigns in India
| Umayyad campaigns in India | |||||||||
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| Part of the Muslim conquests | |||||||||
 Indian Kannauj triangle map |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Chalukya dynasty Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty |
 Umayyad Caliphate
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Nagabhata I Vikramaditya II Bappa Rawal |
Junayd ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Murri Tamim ibn Zaid al-Utbi† Al Hakam ibn Awana† |
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In the first half of the 8th century CE, a series of battles took place between the Umayyad Caliphate and the Indian kings to the east of the Indus river.
Subsequent to the Arab conquest of Sindh in 712 CE in what is today Pakistan, Arab armies engaged kings further east of the Indus. Between 724 and 810 CE, a series of battles took place between the Arabs and the north Indian Emperor Nagabhata I of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty, the south Indian Emperor Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty, and other small Indian kingdoms. In the north, Nagabhata of the Pratihara Dynasty defeated a major Arab expedition in Malwa. From the South, Vikramaditya II sent his general Pulakesi, who defeated the Arabs in Gujarat. Later in 776 CE, a naval expedition by the Arabs was defeated by the Saindhava naval fleet.
The Arab defeats led to an end of their eastward expansion, and later manifested in the overthrow of Arab rulers in Sindh itself and the establishment of indigenous Muslim Rajput dynasties (Soomras and Sammas) there.
After the reign of Emperor Harshavardhana, by the early 8th century, North India was divided into several kingdoms, small and large. The Northwest was controlled by the Kashmir-based Karkota dynasty, and the Hindu Shahis based in Kabul. Kanauj, the de facto capital of North India was held by Yashovarman, Northeast India was held by the Pala dynasty, and South India by the powerful Chalukyas. Western India was dominated by the Rai dynasty of Sindh, and several kingdoms of Gurjara clans, based at Bhinmal (Bhillamala), Mandor, Nandol-Broach (Nandipuri-Bharuch) and Ujjain. The last of these clans, who called themselves Pratiharas were to be the eventually dominating force. Altogether, the combined region of southern Rajasthan and northern Gujarat was called Gurjaratra (Gurjara country), before it got renamed to Rajputana in later medieval times. The Kathiawar peninsula was controlled by several small kingdoms dominated by Maitrakas at Vallabhi.
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Wikipedia