was appointed as the king by the royal ministers after Munja's death. According to a Gujarati legend documented in Rasmala, Munja ordered Bhoja's murder, but later appointed him as the crown prince. Bhoja-Prabandha states that Munja ordered one Vatsaraja to kill Bhoja at the Mahamaya temple in Bhuvaneshvari forest. On hearing Bhoja's cultured manner of talking, Vatsaraja and his men abandoned the murder plan. They faked Bhoja's death, and presented to Munja a fake head and a verse from Bhoja. The verse described how great kings like Mandhata, Rama and Yudhishthira died leaving behind all their property; it then sarcastically added that Munja would be the only one whom the earthly possessions would follow. The verse moved Munja to tears, and made him realize his mistake. When he learned that Bhoja was still alive, he invited Bhoja to back to his court. To repent for his sin, he also went on a pilgrimage to Dharmaranya, where he established a town called Munjapuram. The sarcastic verse, purportedly written by Bhoja to Munja, also appears as an antonymous extract in Sharngadhara-paddhati (1363 CE). These stories of Bhoja's persecution by Munja are essentially mythical. This legend is not found in the works composed by the contemporaries of Munja, Sindhuraja and Bhoja. For example, the Nava-sahasanka-charita makes no mention of this story. The legend appears to be the poetic imagination of later composers. Ain-i-Akbari also contains a variation of this account, but completely distorts the legend, naming Munja as the one who was persecuted by Bhoja. This account is also completely unreliable from a historical point of view. Anointment Some literary works suggest that Bhoja succeeded his uncle Munja as the Paramara king. These works include Tilaka-Manjari, Prabandha-Chintamani, and Rasmala. However, several other works as well as epigraphic evidence indicate that Bhoja succeeded his father Sindhuraja. Padmagupta, the court poet of Sindhuraja and Bhoja, also supports this fact. According to Bhoja-Prabandha, Munja left the Paramara administration in hands of Sindhuraja before departing on a military expedition. Munja unexpectedly died in this campaign, and as a result, Sindhuraja succeeded him as the king. Sindhuraja's court poet Padmagupta, in his Nava-Sahasanka-Charita, states that Munja "placed the world in Sindhuraja's hands" before leaving for Ambika's town. This indicates that he left the administration in Sindhuraja's hands before leaving for his fatal expedition against Tailapa II. Udaipur Prashasti inscription seems to confirm this. Period of reign The Modasa