He ruled the present-day Gujarat and surrounding areas for a short period, from his capital Anahilapataka (modern Patan).
[1] The 14th century chronicler Merutunga also repeats this claim in his Theravali, but describes Ajayapala as a son of Kumarapala in his Prabandha-Chintamani.
[3] The later Jain chroniclers such as Jayasimha Suri, Rajashekhara[4] and Jinamandana repeat the claim that Ajayapala was a nephew of Kumarapala.
According to Jayasimha Suri's account, Kumarapala wanted to appoint either his nephew Ajayapala or his daughter's son Pratapamalla as his successor.
[4] This account does not appear to be true, as it has not been mentioned in the writings on the earlier Jain chroniclers, such as Prabhachandra and Merutunga.
The 13th century text Kirti-Kaumudi states that the king of Jangala-desha (that is, Sapadalaksha) had to give a gold pavilion and some elephants to Ajayapala as a punishment.
[2] Based on these statements, historians Asoke Majumdar and Dasharatha Sharma theorize that Ajayapala defeated Someshvara, and extracted tribute from him.
[2][8] Historian R. B. Singh, on the other hand, theorizes that the supposed 'tribute' was merely a gift sent by Someshvara to Ajayapala's on latter's ascension to the throne; the event was exaggerated into a claim of victory by the Gujarat poets.
The 14th century chronicler Merutunga states that a Pratihara named Vayajaladeva stabbed Ajayapala to death.
[12] According to the Prabandha Kośa, he was killed by an agent of his wife and son with an iron knife or scissors due to his dictatorial rule.
The Devapattana prashasti inscription of the Chaulukya general Sridhara boasts that Ajayapala caused the tree of the Vedic religion to grow again.
Someshvara claims that Kumara healed the battle wounds of Ajayapala with prayers to Shiva, and refused to accept gifts of jewels from the king.
This claim does not appear to be historically correct: these Jain authors probably painted Ajayapala in a negative light, because he did not support Jainism as much as Kumarapala did.
[1] The 14th century chronicler Merutunga was the earliest Jain writer to present Ajayapala in a negative light.