Raja Bhoj was born in the Malwa Rajput dynasty in today’s Ujjain on the auspicious day of Vasant Panchami, he was the son of King Sindhu Raj and was the 11the descendant of emperor Vikram Aditya, his birth marked the starting of the era of the glory of the Malwa Kingdom and the entire Kingdom was celebrating his birth as if any deity has incarnated in their Kingdom. Priest in the royal court of King Sindhu Raj made a prophecy that this child Bhoj in his Kingship would take the Malwa Kingdom to such height of glory, grandeur, and radiance whose precedent will not be found in the past and would set a benchmark for the forthcoming rulers in all aspects of social, political and economic issues. At the time of his birth, he was found to have a Brain Tumor but during those days medical science and ancient medicines were so advanced and effective that soon his childhood problem of Brain Tumor was cured. At the age of just 8 years, he completed all his studies of Gurukul, and this left everybody including his parents and teachers astounded. We will discuss his studies and life at Gurukul in detail in our next part, Raja Bhoj was the staunch devotee of Lord Shiva and for 3 years he worshipped Lord Shiva continuously, this impressed Lord Shiva and then he came in front of him and blessed Bhoj by saying that

Oh Bhoj, People will always Cherish and adore you for your courage, valiance, grits and intellect, proficiency, and wisdom

Lord Shiva

Raja Bhoj was very different from other Hindu Kings and when he got the crown of Malwa his age at that time was just 15, he realized the importance and necessity of integration of India as a single entity and therefore decided to launch a campaign for the expansion of Malwa Kingdom so that entire India can be brought under the umbrella of his empire which would guarantee safety and protection of India from the outsiders and would also culminate in the prosperity of India which would have no parallels in the world. The geographical location of Malwa was such that it was located in central India so it is vulnerable for attack from all directions, but this geographical location of Malwa paved the way for their Conquest of India due to the brilliance, farsightedness, and optimism of Raja Bhoj, he at first sent letters to all the Kings asking them to become his protectorate but all those naive Hindu Kings rejected the idea of one India as they were unable to foresee the Islamic hurricane which was approaching India very quickly from the Arabs and therefore the war became inevitable. Raja Bhoj then in the span of 8 years conquered a large territory of India, his empire stretches from Chittor in the north to Kerala in the south and from Sabarmati in the west to Orrisa in the east, he accomplished his mission for one India and for that he had to fight a lot of battles.

The most famous battles and prominent victories he had during his course of the conquest of India were, defeating the Chalukya of the west and killed Chalukya king Kalyani as he was opposing the integration of India, crushing the King Gangadev of kalchuri Kingdom in the south who attacked Malwa’s capital, Dhar and after this battle, the famous catchphrase “Kaha Raja Bhoj Kaha Gangu Teli” emerged which were used by people to mock Gangadev, beating the King Indradut of Orrisa which was considered as the powerful kingdom, conquering Lata Nagar by subduing King Kirti, won all the large swathes of Konkan and Mumbai region by defeating all-local chieftains and Kings, captured entire northern part of India including Bihar, won the city of Gwalior by triumphing over King kirtimaan, he also had a fierce battle with different clans of Rajputana and won them one by one, he also captured the renowned fort of Chitrakut and thus this fort was always shielded from all the invasions in his regime. He defeated the afghans and Arabs in the battle of Kandahar with an Army of 10,000 which took place beyond the Indus river.

Raja Bhoj’s back to back victory has metamorphosized the political situation of India, majority of India was now under the Bhagwa flag of Raja Bhoj, but still many kings have enmity for him as he has acquired new political stature in India, he has now become an emperor from a king and therefore in a very short span of time he has achieved a great milestone not only for himself but for his Malwa dynasty, but now the task and responsibilities on his shoulder had also increased with becoming of the emperor of India just like Samrat Vikram Aditya and he very obediently and dutifully abide all the obligations of Emperor, one day a Minister from Rajputana asked him what was behind his purposefulness of capturing entire India, the answer given by Raja Bhoj was so soothing, righteous and exceptional that everybody in the courtyard started raising the slogan “Long live Raja Bhoj, Immortal Raja Bhoj”. He said

When I took the Charge of Malwa as a King and saw that India was divided into 57 small Kingdoms, this terrified and upset me a lot that I vowed for the Integration of India, I was able to sense the clouds of uncertainty looming on divided India so I asked all the Kings to come together with me to form a vast empire but everybody opposed me especially Kings of Gujarat, kanauj, Rajputana and thus this left me to fight a war and we won battle after battle which eventually resulted in the achievement of my goal of India’s Integration

Raja Bhoj, Emperor of India

In the holy city of Ujjain, the coronation of Raja Bhoj as an emperor of India occurred in the presence of 108 Priest of high prestige who came from different corners of India to attend and became a witness of this historic ceremony of India’s emperor, in the Malwa dynasty this was happening for the second time that someone from their family became the Emperor after Great Vikram Aditya, the sound “Long live Raja Bhoj” was echoing in entire India and in that coronation, Raja Bhoj addressed the minister, priest, and public in the ceremony with such a warm and gracious words and gesture that it touched everybody’s heart, his speech depicted that even after acquiring seat of Emperor he had no trace of megalomania, egotism, and arrogance, the teeming crowd listened to him rapturously

I have become emperor of India only due to the grace, blessings, and bestowments of Lord Shiva and Goddess Saraswati, now entire India is beneath the Bhagwa flag and my idea of one India has turned into a reality for which I was thriving since the last 8 years, I announce that India will now have one more name as Hindustan.

Raja Bhoj, Emperor of India

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