History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c14.s1.1

v1.c14.s1.1

Sir V. Smith observes at page 373-4 of his Early history of India (3rd Edn.) under Kashmir "during his (Śankarwarma's) reign, the last of the Turki Shahiya kings, the descendants of Kanishka, was overthrown by the Brahmin Lalliya. The Turki Shahiya kings had ruled in Kabul until the capture of that city by the Arab general Yakub-i-Lais in A. D. 870." We have already shown that the last dynasty overthrown by Mahmud of Ghazni at Kabul was a Brahmin dynasty, the mention of whose king Trilochanpāla has already come in Kashmir history. We have here to inquire: was the first dynasty Turki in origin and descended from Kanishka? Smith's observations are plainly based on Alberuni as interpreted by Stein in his Rājatarangiṇī, Note I, Vol. II p. 336 "Shahi of Udabhānda." Let us first see what Alberuni states (Vol. II, p. 10 trans, by Sachau).