History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c22.s1.20

v1.c22.s1.20

This Śivadeva married a daughter of a Maukhari king and a grand-daughter of Ādityasena, the Gupta king of Magadha. This shows that the Nepal Lichhavi dynasty was related to the ruling Kshatriya families in India. His son Jayadeva came to the throne between 145 and 153 H. S. in the latter of which year his long interesting inscription is dated. The first portion of it gives the pedigree of the Lichhavis and assigns them to the solar line. With regard to this claim we will add a separate note. But the Lichhavis were then in the eighth century A. D. certainly treated as solar line Kshatriyas; and this king himself married a daughter of Harshadeva king of Assam. Who ruled after Jayadeva we do not know. But the Vamśāvalis of Nepal give the chronology of early Nepal kings in such a different manner that it is not possible to give a connected line without the corroboration of inscriptions. It is, therefore, not possible to say when this line of Lichhavi kings ended. A new Rajput dynasty was certainly founded in the 9th century and with that two new towns viz. Kirtipura and Bhaktapura or Bhātgaon as it is now called were founded and also a new era called the Nepali era dating from Oct. 879 A. D. (Śaka 801) was founded by this new dynasty. When this new dynasty came to power is also not certain; but certain it is that it is not the first king of this line who founded the era. Dr. Wright mentions in the history of the preceding dynasty towards the end that a Brahmin who was considered an incarnation of Śankarāchārya came to visit the country to see how the rules and customs established by Śankarāchārya were observed. This fact we will discuss at length in our next volume to which it pertains. We may generally state that the Lichhavi line of kings came to end sometime between 759 A. D. the date of Jayadeva's long inscription and 879 A. D. the starting date of the Nepali era.