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... ... .a* ... ... Digitized by Google CHAP. IV.] KASHMIR AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 259 Thanks to Kaihana and his translator, the English reader is furnished with some interesting facts of the history of Kashmir. The episode of Mitrigupta is one of the most interesting on record. He is said to have been a courtier and a poet of the court of Vikra- maditya the Great, and that great emperor bestowed on him the kingdom of Kashmir as a reward for his merit We do not know how the poet administered a kingdom ; but when he heard of his patron's death, he abdicated in grief and retired as a religious mendi- cant to Benares. Pravara Sena, nephew of the previous king, succeeded Matrigupta, and the poet before his departure extol- led in verses a wonderful bridge which the new king made on the Vitasti. Pravara Sena became a power- ful king, extended his conquest as far as Saurdshtra, and it is said defeated Siladitya I, the successor of Vikramaditya, and brought away from Ujjaytni the throne which Vikramiditya had probably taken away as a trophy. Here we have a confirmation of the statement of Houen Tsang that Siladitya I succeeded Vikram&ditya the Great The next great king was the renowned Lalitaditya whose long reign of 36 years began in 697 A. D. He extended his conquests far and wide, and subdued Yasovarman the king of Kanouj, and Bhavabhtiti the most renowned dramatist of India after Kalidisa fol- lowed the conqueror from Kanouj. Lalitadtiya then Digitized by Google 26o PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. proceeded with his conquests further east and south, and is said to have subdued Kalinga, Gour and even Karnata, and then " crossed the sea, passing from one island to another." We do not know how much of this is fact, and how much is due to the poet's imagina- tion. He returned towards his country, crossing the Vindhya and coming through Avanti. He built nu- merous edifices, and is said to have lost his life in attempting to cross the Himalayas to conquer the unknown north, Lalitaditya was the contemporary, not only of Bha- vabhuti the poet, but of Muhammad Kasin the Ma- hommedan conqueror of Sind. We are told that Lalitaditya defeated the Turashkas and also 44 the wily king of Sindhu." This may have been the successor of Kasim who held Sind down to 750 A. D. Bajraditya who reigned from 734 to 741 A.D., 44 had many females in his zenana, sold many people to the Mlechchas, and introduced their evil habits." The powerful Jayapira reigned 31 years from 745 to 776 A.D., and employed learned men to collect toge- ther Patanjali's Great Commentary on PAnini. He is also said to have gone to Paundravardhana, the pos- session of Jayanta king of Gour, in disguise, and to have married the princess Kalydnadevi, daughter of Jayanta, A restless conqueror, he penetrated into Ne- pal, and was beaten and imprisoned, but escaped. Jay- apira trusted his Kayastha ministers and financiers, and Digitized by Google CHAP. IV.] KASHMIR AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 26 1 the Bnihman historian narrates that a Brihman's curse killed him ! Avantivarman commenced a new dynasty in 855 AD., and reigned till 883 A.D. Great floods caused much injury in his reign, and we are told that Suyyu, a benefactor of his country, cleared a passage for the water of the Vitasti, and also opened out canals to take out the superfluous water. Sindhu flowed to the left, Vitastd to the right, and were made to meet at Vainyasvamin. After thus diverting the course of the rivers, he raised a great embankment as a protection against the waters of the Mah&padma lake, and joined the lake also with the Vitas ta. Avantivarman was the first Vaishnava king that we read of. His successor Sankaravarman was a great conqueror, and extended his conquests to Gujrat, but disgusted the Brahmans of his country by trusting to his Kayastha financiers. Surendravati and two other queens perished with him on tJte pyre, 902 A.D. This is one of the earliest instances of that barbarous rite. Sugandha, a dissolute queen, reigned for two years, 904 to 906 A.D., by the help of the Tantris and the Ekangas, probably two religious sects. But she was soon deposed and the Tantris set up one king after another, according as they were bribed and courted. We now read of a succession of worthless and dissolute kings, of whom Kshemagupta (950 to 958 A.D.,) was Digitized 262 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. about the most shameless and dissolute. His son Abhimanyu, a blameless prince, reigned for fourteen years, after which his mother Didda (the widow of Kshemagupta), commenced her long reign of twenty- three years (980 to 1003 A.D.,) after successively mur- dering three infant kings. When these scenes were disgracing the court of Kashmir, a great enemy was nigh. Mahmud of Ghuzni had commenced his invasions before Didda's reign had come to a close. Her successor Kshemapati sent succour to the Shah king against the Turashka invader Hammira (Mah- mud ?) but in vain. The terrible invader defeated the army, consisting of Kashmirians and Rajputs, and an- nexed the " Shahirajya." Another expedition was sent out, but the army fled back to their country before the conquering Moslems. Ananta, after a long reign of thirty-five years, abdi- cated in favour of his son Ranaditya, a prince of disso- lute habits. He, too, had a long reign of twenty-six years, and died in 1089 A.D. His son Utkarsha suc- ceeded him, but was soon deposed by his abler brother, Harsha. There was a great deal of civil war in this reign, which ended in the defeat of the king. He re- tired as a hermit, but was traced out and killed. The secluded position of Kashmir enabled the king- dom to maintain its independence for nearly four centuries after the reign of Harsha, but there is little in its annals to interest the reader. The country was at Digitized by Google CHAP. IV.] KASHMIR AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 263 last invaded and conquered by the Mahommedans in the reign of the emperor Akbar. We now turn to the history of Southern India. We have seen that Southern India was conquered by the Aryans in the Rationalistic Age after the tenth century B. C. ; that the great Andhara kingdom was founded in the Deccan in that Age, and that some of the Sutra schools of learning and laws were founded there. After the Christian Era the Andhras extended their power over Magadha and Northern India, and for centuries held the supreme power in India. When the Andhras and the Guptas fell, the Valabhis became the masters of Gujrat and Western India, and they were succeeded by the Rajputs. In the meantime the Chalukyas, a Rajput tribe, became a great power in the Deccan when the Valab- his rose in Gujrat, and held sway over the whole of the country between the Nurbudda and the Krish- na rivers. The rule of the Chalukyas in the Deccan commenced about the close of 5th century A.D., and continued to the close of the 12th century,*.*., to the time when Northern India was conquered by the Ma- hommedans. The western branch of the Chalukyas held sway in the Konkan and the Maharashtra country and had their capital at Kalyan; while the eastern branch of the same race ruled over Eastern Deccan and had their capital at Rajamandri, near the mouths of the Godavarl river. Sir Walter Elliot published lists Digitized by Google 264 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. of the kings of the two houses in 1858, and the lists have since been copied by other writers. CHALUKVA DYNASTIES. Western Branch. Capital— Kalyan. 1. Jaya Sinha Vijayaditya I. 470 A- I). 2. Raja Sinha, Vishnu Vardhana. 3. Vijayaditya II. 4. Pulakesin I. 5. Kritti Varma I. 6. Mangalisa ... 567 7. Satyasraya Pulakesin II. 609 (Contemporary of Siladitya II. and of Houen Tsang). 8. Amara. 9. Aditya. 10. Vikram&ditya I. 11. Vinayaditya ... 680 12. Vijayaditya III 695 13. Vikramaditya II 733 14. Kritti Varma II. 15. Kritti Varma III 799 16. Tailapal. 17. Bhima Raja. 18. Kritti Varma IV. 19. Vijayaditya IV. 20. Vikramaditya III or Tailapa II (Restored the monarchy after usur- pation by Ratta Kula) 973 21. Satyasraya II 997 22. Vikramaditya IV 1008 (?) 23. Jaya Sinha ... 1018 (?) Eastern Branch. Capital— Rajamandri. 1. Vishnu Vardhana II. 605 2. Jaya Sinha I. 3. Indra Raja. 4. Vishnu Vardhana III. 5. Manga Yuva Raja. 6. Jaya Sinha II. "\ 7. Kokkili. brothers 8. Vishnu Vardhana IV. J 9. Vijayaditya I. 10. Vishnu Vardhana V. 11. Narendra Mrigaraja. 12. Vishnu Vardhana VI. 13. Vijayaditya II. (conquered Kalinga). 14. Chalukya Bhima I. 15. Vijayaditya III. 16. Amma Raja. 17. Vijayaditya IV. 18. Talapa (usurper). 19. Vijayaditya V. 20. YuddhaMalla. 21. Raja Bhima II. 22. Amma Raja II. 23. Dhanarnava (interregnum of twenty-seven years). 24. Kritti Varma. 25. Vimaladitya. 26. Raja Narendra. Digitized by Google CHAP. IV.] KASHMIR AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 265 CH ALU KYA DY N ASTI ES. — Continued. Eastern Branch. Capital— Rajamandri. — Contd* 27. Rajendra Chola. 28. Vikrama Deva Chola. 29. Raja Raja Chola (viceroy for one year). 30. Vira Deva Chola 1079 to 1135 (After this the country fell under the sway of the Kakatya dynasty of Warangal). Western Branch. Capital— Kalyan.— Contd. 24. Somesvara I ... 1040 (?) 25. Somesvara II 1099 26. Vikramaditya V 1076 27. Somesvara III 11 27 28. Jagadeka ... 1138 29. Tailapa III ... 1 1 50 3. Somesvara IV 1182 (Dethroned by Bijala of the Kala Churya line. The southern part of the dominions fell under the Bellala dynasty of Mysore). A list of kings conveys no ideas of a people's history to the reader, and, unfortunately, we are able to supply little more about the Chalukyas than the foregoing lists.