The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c19.58

c19.58

queen Didda who actually reigned for a long while in the latter half of the tenth century A.D.¹ She is one of the extremely few queens who regularly occupied a throne in ancient India. But even in Kashmîr ambitious women had generally to content themselves with power behind the scenes. Once a royal lady, Sugandhâ, wielded actual power for two years (904--906 A.D.). Anxious to perpetuate her influence, she planned the elevation of one of her own creatures to the throne. To achieve her purpose she summoned an assembly of feudal chiefs, ministers, Tantrins and Ekângas. But dissensions arose and two civil wars followed in the course of which Sugandhâ herself was put to death.²