A note on the Kharaparas mentioned in the Nabhinandana-jinoddhara-prabandha

Summary

A note on the Kharaparas mentioned in the Nabhinandana‑jinoddhara‑prabandha re‑examines the identity of the Kharaparas, a group mentioned in a Jain narrative describing Ala‑ud‑din Khalji’s reign. Previous scholars had equated them with Mongol raiders who troubled north India in the early fourteenth century. Sant Lal Katare argues instead that the Kharaparas—or Kharaparikas—were a local tribal people from the Damoh, Tikamgarh and Panna regions of present‑day Madhya Pradesh. He notes that the Allahabad Pillar inscription of Samudragupta already lists the Kharaparikas among tributary peoples and that three inscriptions from Batihagadh refer to Kharapara armies commanded by Julachi, a governor under Sultan Mahmud. These records place the Kharaparas within the polity of central India and date them to the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. By reviewing the sequence of wars between the Delhi sultans and the Candella rulers of Mahoba and Kalinjar, the author shows that Ala‑ud‑din Khalji’s campaign around 1309 targeted these tribal mercenaries, who were later recruited into Muhammad bin Tughluq’s army. The article dismisses conjectures that the term refers to Mongols and emphasises that misidentification stems from ignoring regional epigraphy. It concludes that the Kharaparas were indigenous warriors who periodically allied with or opposed larger powers depending on circumstances.