The kingdom reached its zenith under his grandson Govindachandra who annexed some of the Kalachuri territories, warded off Ghaznavid raids, and also fought the Palas.

The kingdom completely ceased to exist when Jayachandra's successors were defeated by the Delhi Sultanate Mamluk dynasty ruler Iltutmish (r. 1211–1236).

[4] The Gahadavala inscriptions state that Yashovigraha "seized the earth and made her fond of the king's sceptre (or justice)".

Rudolf Hoernlé once proposed that the Gahadavalas were an offshoot of the Pala dynasty of Gauda, but this theory has been totally rejected now.

[12] Yet another theory identifies Chandradeva as Chand Rai, a "keeper of elephants" according to the medieval Muslim historian Salman.

[9] C. V. Vaidya and R. C. Majumdar, who connected the Gahadavalas to the Rashtrakutas, speculated that the dynastic name might have derived from "Gawarmad", a place-name mentioned in a 1076 CE Kannada language inscription.

Their fanciful legend claims that Yayati's son acquired the title grahavāra after defeating the evil planet (graha) Saturn.

The 1090 CE Chandrawati inscription of Chandradeva states that he protected the sacred places of Kashi (Varanasi), Kushika (Kannauj), Uttara Koshala (the area around Ayodhya) and Indrasthaniyaka.

[21][22] However, historical evidence suggests that Delhi was under the control of the Chahamanas since Vigraharaja IV (r. c. 1150-1164 CE), and before that under the Tomara sovereigns.

Rahin (or Rahan) village in Etawah district is the furthest point in the north-west where the Gahadavala inscriptions have been discovered.

[24] However, according to Al-Biruni, most of the Kanyakubja city was in ruins by 1030 CE, nearly half a century before the dynasty's founder Chandradeva ascended the throne.

[25][24] A verse in the 1104 CE Basahi inscription of Madanapala states that his father Chandradeva had made Kanyakubja his capital.

[24] The writings of the Muslim chroniclers such as Ali ibn al-Athir, Minhaj-i-Siraj, and Hasan Nizami consistently describe Jayachandra as the "Rai of Banaras" (ruler of Varanasi), and make no reference to Kannauj (Kanyakubja) in their description of the Gahadavalas.

[28] By the last quarter of the 11th century, the north-central India was a troubled territory as a result of Ghaznavid raids and the lack of a strong imperial power.

In these times of chaos, the first Gahadavala king Chandradeva brought stability to the region by establishing a strong government.

The 1104 CE Bashai (or Basahi) inscription of his son Madanapala declares that he saved the distressed earth after the deaths of the Paramara Bhoja and the Kalachuri Karna.

[31] Chandradeva's inscriptions indicate that he also tried to expand his kingdom in the east, but the Pala chronicle Ramacharitam suggests that his plan was foiled by Ramapala's feudatory Bhimayashas.

Diwan-i-Salman by the contemporary Muslim historian Salman states that Malhi was imprisoned by the Ghaznavids, and released only after the payment of a ransom.

The Pala-Gahadavala conflict halted for a few decades as a result of his marriage with Kumaradevi, a relative of the Pala monarch Ramapala.

Such a long gap is unusual for the dynasty, and may indicate troubled times arising out of an external invasion or a war of succession after Govindachandra's death.

[42] His focus on guarding the western frontiers against the Ghaznavids may have led to the neglect of the kingdom's eastern border, which later resulted in a Sena invasion.

[43] Jayachandra, the last powerful king of the dynasty, faced a Ghurid invasion under Muhammad of Ghor and his slave commander Qutbuddin Aibak.

According to the contemporary Muslim historian Hasan Nizami, the Ghurids then sacked Varanasi, where they destroyed a large number of temples.

A 1237 inscription issued during the reign of one Adakkamalla of Gahadavala family was found in Nagod State (present-day Satna district of Madhya Pradesh).

[52] The rulers of the Manda feudal estate, who described themselves as Rathore, traced their ancestry to Jayachandra's alleged brother Manikyachandra (Manik Chand).

[17] The records of the Bundela rulers of the Orchha State trace their ancestry to the solar dynasty through Hemkaran alias Pancham Singh, a Gahadavala (Gaharwar) chief of Varanasi.

[54] Henry Miers Elliot, based on the testimony of a "Mohammedan historian", believed that the Bundelas of Orchha descended from a Gahadavala ("Gaharwar Rajput") and his Khangar concubine.

[55] The Gahadavalas controlled their territory through semi-independent feudatory chiefs, whose various titles included Rāṇaka, Mahānāyaka, Mahārāja and Rāja.

[63] Jayachandra's court poet Bhatta Kedar wrote a eulogy titled Jaichand Prakash (c. 1168) on his life, but the work is now lost.