The Pratiharas who first had their capital at Bhinmal gained prominence during the rule of:

Correct — B. The Gurjara-Pratiharas rose to prominence under Nagabhatta I, who ruled in the eighth century with his seat at Bhinmal, also written Bhillamala, in what is now southern Rajasthan.

His standing rests on defence rather than conquest: he checked the Arab advance out of Sindh in the decades after the conquest of 712 CE, and the dynasty was remembered for it long afterwards.

His successors shifted the centre of Pratihara power to Kannauj, where they fought the tripartite struggle. The ruler named is option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Kanishka — Kanishka was a Kushana emperor of the second century CE, centuries earlier and from an entirely different dynasty. He is placed here only because the name is famous.
• (c)
  Devpala — The paper spells him Devpala. Devapala was a Pala ruler of eastern India and a rival of the Pratiharas in the contest for Kannauj, so he belongs on the other side of that struggle.
• (d)
  Nagarjuna — Nagarjuna is a Buddhist philosopher of the Madhyamaka school, not a ruler at all. The near-identical opening syllables to Nagabhatta are the whole trap.

The Gurjara-Pratiharas were one of three powers in the tripartite struggle for Kannauj, alongside the Palas of the east and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan. Their earliest recorded centre was Bhinmal in Rajasthan, and Nagabhatta I is the ruler with whom the dynasty enters serious history.

Under Mihira Bhoja the empire reached its greatest extent, with Kannauj as capital. It broke up in the tenth century, and former feudatories such as the Chandelas, Paramaras and Chahamanas became independent kingdoms.

Key facts

• Nagabhatta I is the ruler under whom the Pratiharas gained prominence, with the early capital at Bhinmal in Rajasthan.
• He is remembered for resisting Arab expansion from Sindh in the eighth century.
• The Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas fought the tripartite struggle for control of Kannauj.
• Mihira Bhoja is the Pratihara ruler under whom the empire was at its largest, ruling from Kannauj.

Common traps

• Nagabhatta and Nagarjuna differ by a few letters and belong to different worlds, one a king and one a philosopher.
• Devapala is Pala, not Pratihara, so a question about Pratihara rulers cannot be answered with a Pala name.
• Bhinmal is in Rajasthan, not Gujarat, even though the Gurjara element of the dynasty's name pulls students towards Gujarat.

No directly related past PYQ was found.