Battle of Sondani

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 king of the Aulikaras 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.{{cite book|author=Hans Bakker|title=The World of the Skandapurāṇa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6p2XCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA34|date=16 July 2014|publisher=BRILL|location=Leiden|isbn=978-90-04-27714-4|pages=34}}{{cite book|author=N. K. Ojha|title=The Aulikaras of Central India: history and inscriptions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qlZuAAAAMAAJ|year=2001|publisher=Arun Pub. House|location=Chandigarh|isbn=978-81-85212-78-4|pages=48–50}} The First Hunnic War thus ended with a Hunnic defeat, and their troops apparently retreated to the area of Mahasaptsindhu.{{cite conference |title=Monuments of Hope, Gloom, and Glory in the Age of the Hunnic Wars: 50 years that changed India (484 - 534) |author=Hans T. Bakker |date=26 November 2016 |location=Amsterdam |conference =24th Gonda Lecture |url=https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/2016/11/monuments-of-hope-gloom-and-glory |doi=10.5281/zenodo.377032 |access-date=8 July 2018}}

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.{{Cn|date=May 2024}}

A confederacy of Indian rulers led by Yashodharman, and possibly even supported by the Gupta King Narasimhagupta, decisively defeated the Hunnic armies at Sondani in 528 CE. {{cn|date=March 2024}}

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,{{cite news |url=http://www.punjabmonitor.com/2013/04/sondhni-pillars-where-punjabis-met-with.html |title=Sondhni pillars: where Punjabis met with their Waterloo 1500 years ago |work=Punjab Monitor |location=Amritsar |publisher=Bhai Nand Lal Foundation |date=27 April 2013 |access-date=8 July 2018}}"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 {{cite news |url=http://www.punjabmonitor.com/2013/04/sondhni-pillars-where-punjabis-met-with.html |title=Sondhni pillars: where Punjabis met with their Waterloo 1500 years ago |work=Punjab Monitor |location=Amritsar |publisher=Bhai Nand Lal Foundation |date=27 April 2013 |access-date=8 July 2018}} and that he "had bent the head of Mihirakula". In a part of the Sondani inscription Yasodharman thus praises himself for having defeated king Mihirakula:{{Cite web |url=http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase9?language=en |title=Coin Cabinet of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna |access-date=2021-02-11 |archive-date=2019-11-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101061621/http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase9?language=en |url-status=dead }}

{{quote|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{{cite book|author=John Faithfull Fleet|editor=John Faithfull Fleet|title=Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum: Inscriptions of the early Gupta kings and their successors|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HON9OAAACAAJ|volume=3|year=1888|oclc=69001098|publisher=Office of the Superintendent of Government Print|location=Calcutta|pages=147–148|archive-url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.108395/2015.108395.Corpus-Inscriptionum-Indicarum-Vol3-inscriptions-Of-The-Early-Gupta-Kings_djvu.txt|archive-date=2015-07-01}}}}

The Gupta King Narasimhagupta is also credited in helping repulse Mihirakula, after the latter had conquered most of India, according to the reports of Chinese monk Xuanzang.{{cite book|author=Kailash Chand Jain|title=Malwa Through The Ages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_3O7q7cU7k0C&pg=PA249|date=31 December 1972|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|location=Delhi|isbn=978-81-208-0824-9|page=249}}{{cite book|author=Abraham Eraly|title=The First Spring: The Golden Age of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=te1sqTzTxD8C|year=2011|publisher=Penguin Books India|location=New Delhi|isbn=978-0-670-08478-4|page=48 |language=en}}

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". Mihirakula is then said to have returned to Kashmir to retake the throne.{{cite book|author=Ashvini Agrawal|title=Rise and Fall of the Imperial Guptas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hRjC5IaJ2zcC&pg=PA245|year=1989|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|location=Delhi|isbn=978-81-208-0592-7|pages=245}}{{cite book|author=Jason Neelis|title=Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GB-JV2eOr2UC|date=19 November 2010|publisher=BRILL|location=Leiden|isbn=978-90-04-18159-5}}{{rp|168}} File:Sondani victory pillar of Yashodharman.jpg.]]

{{Main|Aulikara Empire}}

After the war was over, Yashodharman conquered vast territories and established a short-lived empire.{{Cn|date=May 2024}}

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.Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Vol 3 [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.358795 p.145]Foreign Influence on Ancient India by Krishna Chandra Sagar [https://books.google.com/books?id=0UA4rkm9MgkC&pg=PA216 p.216]

Yashodharman thus conquered vast territories from the Hunas and the Guptas,Tribal Culture, Faith, History And Literature, Narayan Singh Rao, Mittal Publications, 2006 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Pplg_F0VyVEC&pg=PA18 p.18] although his short-lived empire would ultimately disintegrate between c. 530-540 CE.

• First battle of Eran
• Second battle of Eran

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Category:History of Malwa

Category:528

Category:6th century in India

Category:520s conflicts

Category:Aulikara dynasty

Category:Alchon Huns

Category:Battles involving the Gupta Empire

Category:Military history of India

Category:Battles involving the Huns