Introduction
Jayapala was the ruler of the Brahman Hindu Shahi dynastyfrom 964 to 1001 CE.
His kingdom stretched from Laghman to Kashmir and Sirhind to Multan, with Peshawar being in the center. He was the son of Maharaja Hutpal and the father of Maharaja Anandapala. Epithets from the Bari Kot inscriptions record his full title as "Parama Bhattaraka Maharajadhiraja Sri Jayapaladeva".
History
Maharaja Jayapala is known successfully defending his kingdom against the Ghaznavids in the modern-day eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan region his entire life, until finally being defeated in Peshawar due to a snowstorm. Maharaja Jayapala saw a danger in the consolidation of the Ghaznavids and invaded their capital city of Ghazni both in the reign of Sebuktigin and in that of his son Mahmud, which initiated the Muslim Ghaznavid and Hindu Shahi struggles. Sebuk Tigin, however, was defeated, and he was forced to pay an indemnity to Jayapala. Maharaja Jayapala stopped receiving tribute and took to the battlefield once more. Maharaja Jayapala, however, lost control of the entire region between the Kabul Valley and Khyber Pass.
Before his struggle began Maharaja Jayapala had raised a small army of Punjabis. When Jayapala went to the Punjab region, his army was raised of 10,000 horsemen and an smaller host of foot soldiers. According to Firishta:
The two armies having met on the confines of Lumghan, the Maharaja ascended a hill to view the forces of Sabuktigin, which appeared in extent like the boundless ocean, and in numbers like the ants or the locusts of the wilderness. However, Jayapala considered himself as a wolf about to attack a flock of sheep: calling, therefore, his chiefs together, he encouraged them to glory, and issued to each his commands. His soldiers, though few in number, were divided into squadrons of five hundred men each, which were directed to attack successively, one particular point of the Mooslim line, so that it might continually have to encounter fresh troops.
However, the army was hopeless in battle against the eastern forces, particularly against the Punjabis. In the year 1001, soon after Sultan Mahmud came to power and was occupied with the Qarakhanids north of the Hindu Kush, Maharaja Jayapala attacked Ghazni once more and upon suffered his first defeat by the powerful numerous Ghaznavid forces, near present-day Peshawar.After the Battle of Peshawar, the Maharaja planned in his last day's further attacks but eventually died from an illness.
Succession
Maharaja Jayapala was succeeded by his son Maharaja Anandapala, who along with other succeeding generations of the Shahiya dynasty took part in various campaigns against the advancing Ghaznvids for decades successfully keeping them from crossing the Indus.