Simraungarh
Nānyadeva, of a Karnataka family, established himself in Mithilā at the end of the eleventh century with a capital at Simraungarh, on what is now the Nepal–Bihar border. The fortified site is extensive and has been only partly investigated.
The dynasty held the Terai and the north Bihar plain, negotiating between the Senas, the Gāhaḍavālas and later the Delhi Sultanate, and its long survival in that position is itself an achievement.
Learning
Mithilā under the Karṇāṭas and their successors became one of the principal centres of Sanskrit scholarship in India — particularly in Nyāya logic, and in dharmaśāstra, where Caṇḍeśvara's works of the fourteenth century were composed under this house. The tradition continued under the Oinwars who followed them.
The dynasty fell to Ghiyath al-Din Tughlaq's campaign in 1324. Simraungarh was destroyed, and Mithilā passed to the Oinwar family as tributaries of Delhi.
Further reading
- Bakker, Hans T. The World of the Skandapurana. Brill, 2014
- Gordon, Stewart. The Marathas 1600-1818. Cambridge University Press, 1993
- Jackson, Peter. The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History. Cambridge University Press, 1999
- Nath, Vijay. Puranas and Acculturation. Munshiram Manoharlal, 2001
- Richards, John F. The Mughal Empire. Cambridge University Press, 1993
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.