The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c13.75

v1.c13.75

I have already described the violent death of this king in the land of Uraśā. For sometime the Kashmiri army was in great risk of being overwhelmed by its enemies; but thanks to the prudence of Sukharāja and other ministers it was led home in safety. The king's death was concealed, and “by means of cords which made his head bend down and rise like that of a puppet, they caused him to return the greeting of the feudatories who had come to do homage.” When the army reached Bolyāsaka within Kashmir, the funeral rites of the king was performed. Three of his queens, including Surendravatī and a clever and grateful Velāvitta (?) named Jayasiṁha, followed the king to death. Kalhaṇa tells us that, “struck by the curse of the people,” the king had lost during his lifetime 20 or 30 children without (previous) illness. But before his death he entrusted his surviving minor son Gopālavarman to the care of his mother, queen Sugandhā, the daughter of the illustrious Siṁharāja, “the ruler of the northern region.”³ The ministers respected the wish of the dying king, and placed Gopālavarman on the throne under the guardianship of his mother. The widowed queen soon “became very dissolute through sensual enjoyments” and fell in love with the *mantri* Prabhākaradeva. The only important incident of this reign is a successful expedition undertaken by this minister against the *Śāhis* of Udabhāṇḍapura. The war resulted in the defeat and dethronement of the reigning *Śāhi*, possibly Sāmand (Sāmanta). After placing on the throne Lalliya's son Toramāṇa-Kamaluka (Kamalū), the minister returned to Śrīnagara in triumph.¹ Flushed with victory, he grew arrogant and began to cause "the humiliation of brave men." For sometime he plundered the wealth of the State in his post of *Koṣādhyakṣa*, and when the young king, "by degrees realising the state of things, insisted on an examination of the treasury-chests," the minister ascribed all that was missing to the treasury to expenses in the *Sāhi* war. Finding the king unconvinced, and realising the danger of his position, he, with the assistance of his relative Rāmadeva took adequate steps, so that the young prince "fell into a hot fever and died after a rule of two years" (904 A.D.).² Then Gopālavarman's supposititious brother Saṁkaṭa, "who had been picked up from the highway," obtained the throne. But he too died after a reign of ten days. Thereupon, Sugandhā herself assumed the royal power "at the bidding of the subjects." She built the town of Gopālapura (mod. Gaurīpur, 75°3′ long 33°57′ lat.?), the Gopālamaṭha, the temple of Gopālakeśava, and also a town after her name "for the increase of religion." During this reign we hear for the first time of the *Ekāṅgas* and the *Tantrins*. The former appear to have been a body organised in military fashion but employed chiefly for police duties and can probably be compared with the '*pattan Niẓāmat*,' which was maintained in Kashmir until a few years ago, or the *gendarmes* of Continental Europe.³ The *Tantrins* were a body of foot-soldiers who probably derived their designation from their tribal name, and owed their close organisation to ethnic affinities.⁴