Chandela

The Chandelas were a Rajput dynasty who ruled Jejakabhukti, the historic Bundelkhand of central India, from the early ninth to the fourteenth century. Founded by Nannuka around 831 as a small chiefdom centered on Khajuraho, the family began as feudatories of the Gurjara-Pratiharas before Yashovarman made it virtually independent and Dhanga raised it to sovereign power.

Its kings built the Hindu and Jain temples of Khajuraho and forts including Kalinjar and Mahoba. Raids by the Ghaznavids and Ghurids weakened the kingdom; Prithviraj Chauhan sacked Mahoba around 1183, and in 1202 Qutb al-Din Aibak invaded and received the surrender of the last powerful king Paramardi.

Reduced to minor chiefs, the later Chandelas lost ground to the Bundelas and Baghelas; Hammiravarman, ruling from about 1288 to 1311, no longer used the imperial title. A branch kept Kalinjar until its ruler fell fighting Sher Shah Suri in 1545.