Northern India

From the 8th to the 10th century, three dynasties contested for control of northern India: the Gurjara Pratiharas of Malwa, the Palas of Bengal, and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan. During this period, Indian rulers in spite for internal struggle, were able to avert the Islamic conquest of India, for example: In Battle of Rajasthan, alliance of Gurjar Emperor Nagabhata I of the Pratihara Dynasty with the south Indian Emperor Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty and many small kingdoms defeated armies of Umayyad Caliphate, thus maintaining kingdom of Hindu rulers till the end of millennium in India

The Sena dynasty would later assume control of the Pala Empire, and the Gurjara Pratiharas fragmented into various states. These were the first of the Rajput states, a series of kingdoms which managed to survive in some form for almost a millennium, until Indian independence from the British. The first recorded Rajput kingdoms emerged in Rajasthan in the 6th century, and small Rajput dynasties later ruled much of northern India. One Gurjar^[111][112] Rajput of the Chauhan clan, Prithvi Raj Chauhan, was known for bloody conflicts against the advancing Islamic sultanates. The Shahi dynasty ruled portions of eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, and Kashmir from the mid-7th century to the early 11th century.