Govinda was succeeded on the throne by Amoghavarsha circa AD 814, when he was barely fifteen years old. The Sanjan plates state that early in his reign he faced rebellion of samantas, sachivas and bandhavas and the resulting anarchy nearly tore apart the empire. In his hour of peril, he received support from Arya Patalamalla, that is Karka I of the Lata branch of the Rashtrakutas. Karka was the son of Indra, the loyal brother of Govinda, who was the founder of the Lata branch. It is stated that Karka put Amoghavarsha on the throne after defeating an alliance of rebellious customs officials (saulikas) and district officers (rashtrakutas) who captured amongst themselves whatever areas they could. It would appear that Amoghavarsha was dethroned for a while and the rebels had the upper-hand; the Sanjan plates relate this using an appropriate simile: the sun having set, the moon and the stars came out in the sky.

Prominent among the rebels were the Vengi ruler Vijayaditya as also the Ganga ruler in the south. The records of Vijayaditya’s successors state that sword in hand Vijaya fought day and night for twelve years 108 battles with the Gangas and the Rattas (Rashtrakutas) and that he erected the same number of Siva temples called Narendrasvaras (some of these temples are cited in later Eastern Chalukya epigraphs). The twelve years of strife could be the time when Vijaya’s rival Bhima Saluki was ruling with Govinda’s support. Vijaya must have driven out Bhima and then went on annexing parts of the Rashtrakuta territories. Amoghavarsha and his cousin Karka rose to the challenge and are stated to have burnt the rebels like thorns. According to the Surat plates of Karka, Amogha was back on his throne by 821. Considering that Amogha’s Nausari plates of 816 do not refer to this help from Karka, it is presumed that the fight for the restoration took place between the years 816 to 821.

During the entire 64 years of his reign, Amogha faced rebellions and uprisings from one feudatory or the other.

Amogha’s preoccupations with wars and rebel­lions near home was almost total and in this light it is difficult to understand the Sirur (856) inscription stating that the rulers of Vanga, Anga, Magadha, Malwa and Vengi worshipped him. Vengi was close by and Malwa was handled by the Lata branch of the family, but there was no scope for Amogha to intervene in the north Indian states of Vanga, Anga and Magadha. The only contact Amogha had with the North was when his son Krishna II married the daughter of Kokkala I, a Chedi princess.

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Actually, by nature, Amogha preferred religion and literature to war, and a verse in the Sanjan plates (AD 871) says that he wanted to abdicate the throne many times.

Jinasena, the Jaina author of repute, was his guru. In the religious work, Adipurana as also in Parsvabhyudaya, Jinasena wished a long life to the king. Epigraphs praise Amogha as the builder of the city of Manyakheta, which had a beautiful palace and a tank. His daughter, Sankha, was married to the Pallava ruler Nandivarman III of Kanchi and their son Nripatunga was named after him.