The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c14.149.1

v1.c14.149.1

I have already referred to the phantom successors of Nānyadeva (c. 1097 A.D.), who for about 200 years held Tirhut and claimed a nominal suzerainty over the valley of Nepal. The Vaṁśāvalis by transferring their contemporary Malla kings of the Valley into the "indefinitely elastic past," treat these Karṇāṭakas as the real rulers of Nepal. Thus Anantamalla for whom we have dates ranging from 1280 to 1307 A. D. is made a contemporary of Nānyadeva, while the latter himself is transferred to *Śaka* 811 (*c.* A.D. 889). According to the chronicles of Wright and Bhagwanlal, Harideva was the last direct descendant of Nānyadeva to rule in Nepal.¹ But we have already seen that two sets of kings ruled continuously and separately in Nepal and Tirhut during this period. In the Katmandu inscription of Pratāpa (malladeva) the name of Harisiṁha comes last in the list of 6 successors of Nānyadeva.² The same inscription calls him *Karṇāṭa-cūḍāmaṇi*, "the crest-jewel of Karṇāṭa." Caṇḍeśvara, the author of *Kṛtya-ratnākara* and *Kṛtya-cintāmaṇi*, who was a minister of Harisiṁha, designates his master as *Karṇāṭa-vaṁśodbhava* and *Karṇāṭādhipa*.³ Thus we can readily reject the assumption of the local Vaṁśāvalī, which try to connect him with the indigenous dynasties of the Nepal valley. The foundations for such statements of the local historians however may lie in the fact that Harisiṁha may have tried to pose as the legitimate heir of Nepalese sovereigns after his conquest of the Valley.