Jaya-chandra (IAST: Jayacandra, r. 21 June 1170– 1194 CE) was a king from the Gahadavala dynasty of northern India.
The last powerful king of his dynasty, he was defeated and killed in 1194 CE, in a battle near Yamuna against a Ghurid army led by Muhammad of Ghor.
[2] Jayachandra inherited his grandfather Govindachandra's royal titles:[2] Ashva-pati Nara-pati Gaja-pati Rajatrayadhipati ("leader of three forces: the cavalry, the infantry and the elephant corps"[3]) and Vividha-vidya-vichara-vachaspati ("patron of different branches of learning").
[4] Jayachandra's inscriptions praise him using the conventional grandiloquent terms, but do not mention any concrete achievement of the king.
The records of his neighbouring Hindu kings (Paramara, Chahamana, Chandela and Kalachuri) do not mention any conflict with him either.
[7] According to Ibn Asir's Kamil ut-Tawarikh, Jayachandra was "the greatest king of India and possessed the largest territory",[8] and his army had a million soldiers and 700 elephants.
[9] The Hindu accounts (such as Prithviraj Raso and Vidyapati's Purusha-Pariksha) claim that Jayachandra defeated the Ghurids multiple times.
[10] The Ghurid ruler Muhammad of Ghor had defeated the Chahamana king Prithviraja III in 1192 CE.
According to Hasan Nizami's 13th century text Taj-ul-Maasir, he decided to attack the Gahadavala kingdom after taking control of Ajmer, Delhi and Kol.
[12] [13][14] According to the 16th century historian Firishta, Jayachandra was seated on an elephant when Qutb al-Din killed him with an arrow.
According to the text, Jayachandra ("Jaichand") was a cousin of the Chahamana king Prithviraja III ("Prithviraj Chauhan").
This claim is directly contradicted by the more reliable contemporary text Prithviraja Vijaya, according to which Prithviraj's mother had nothing to do with the Tomaras.
[23] Although historians dispute the account in Prithviraj Raso, the name "Jaichand" became synonymous with the word "traitor" in Hindu folklore.
[27] According to the 1167 CE Kamauli inscription, as a prince, Jayachandra was initiated as a worshipper of Krishna by the Vaishnavite guru Praharaja-Sharman.
[28] Nevertheless, after ascending the throne, Jayachandra assumed the dynasty's traditional title Parama-Maheshvara ("devotee of Shiva").