Person · Chandela king
Vidyādhara Chandela
Also known as Vidyadhara, Vidyadhara of Khajuraho, Vidyadhara Chandella
The Chandela king under whom Khajurāho reached its height and, by most attributions, the patron of the Kandariya Mahādeva. He twice faced Mahmūd of Ghazni without decisive defeat, and Ghaznavid chroniclers name him among the most formidable Indian rulers of his day.
- Date
- r. c. 1003 – 1035
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Tradition
- Chandela inscriptions; Ghaznavid chronicles
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
Building at Khajurāho more or less stops after him. The Chandelas held on at Kālinjar and Ajaygarh for another two centuries, but the temple site was left standing in scrub, which is why so much of it survived to be found again in 1838.
Connections (2)
- PatronageKhajuraho
Khajurāho reaches its height under Vidyādhara, who is generally credited with the Kandariya Mahādeva around 1030. Building largely stops after his reign; the Chandelas withdrew to their forts and the temple site was left in scrub, which is the reason so much of it was still standing when a British officer came across it in 1838.
- Imperial administration ofKālinjar Fort
Kālinjar and Ajaygarh were the Chandela strongholds and Vidyādhara's refuge when Mahmūd of Ghazni came twice into Bundelkhand. The dynasty's temples stand in the open at Khajurāho and its power sat on these two rocks — the building and the defending done seventy kilometres apart. Kālinjar held out against Mahmūd twice and against Sher Shah Sūri four centuries later, who died beneath its walls in 1545 when a rocket burst in his own magazine.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Vidyadhara (Chandela ruler)”. The subject’s own writings where they survive, and the standard biographical literature.
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