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| The Gupta Kings of medieval Kashmir and adjoining areas (948 CE – 1003 CE) | | |  Nikhil Gupta
Even though Kashmir has beautiful river Jhelum (also called as Vitasta) and many other rivers and rivulets the medieval people of Kashmir who were mostly from Buddhism or sanatana Hindu faith till about 14th century CE (common era) had huge reverence for the holy river Ganga . The Kashmiri kings including the Gupta kings of Kashmir ( 948 – 1003 CE ) had their ashes after funeral submitted in the holy lap of the river Ganga flowing far away from the beautiful valley of Kashmir. In fact the medieval Kashmiri Kings had made an arrangement at Gaya (Bihar) for the exemption of payment of tax for such a purpose. The regularity of traffic between Kashmir and a sanatan Hindu religious site in lower Gangetic plains of India demonstrates the deep connection of Kashmir with gangetic India. One specific example is the submission of the funeral ashes of medieval kashmiri King Kshemagupta in the holy river Ganga in 10th century CE . It is mentiuoned that Kardamaraja son of Minister Phalguna went to immerse ashes of kashmiri King Kshemagupta and his sati wife Chandralekha in the river Ganga. There was thus intimate relation of kashmir being part of India with religious teerthas.
Before we dabble into history of medieval Kashmir particularly of 10th century CE , let us understand one thing that there are no primary sources except one piece of literature i.e. Rajatarangini written by Kalhana in about 12th century CE. Kalhana wasn’t a Brahmin or Pandit but most probably Kshatriya of Prabhu surname. It is ironical that most of the historians have just copied Kalhana’s words regarding the Gupta Kings of medieval Kashmir without applying their own mind or without any corroborative evidences . He is very sarcastic and dismissive on Kings and Queens , Brahmins and even Kayasthas . At one place when a King married his daughter with Brahmin priest of a Temple made by Didda Rani, wife of King Kshemagupta, Kalhana despises it as in his view the daughter of a king should have married either a king or a prince. Thus he indirectly considers King above Brahmin class and since Kalhana himself was of Prabhu surname most scholars consider him to be of kshatriya or kayastha caste and it is common knowledge that Sanskrit was open for dwijas who could be from kshatriya, brahmin, vaisya and kayastha caste . Also there was no pre existing language in Kashmir that Sanskrit could replace and thus kalhana chose Sanskrit as a medium. Kalhana attacks the kayasthas as a class for robbing the subjects by taking the bribes, extracting heavy taxation even in drought and embezzling the treasury funds of the king on kashmir’s throne. He also hates them for their sycophancy, intrigue, debauchery and immoral lifestyle. Kalhana fills the political space of Kashmir with King who is constantly under threat of revolt from Tantrins and unruly landed elements called as Damaras who often took to arms and joined rebels or enemy forces. Kalhana also detests the organized bodies of brahmins as a class that shamelessly sat on hunger strikes against the king and kalhana calls them as insecure knaves and even cowards . Finally Kalhana mentions with contempt about the dissolute kashmiri kings who are shown engaged in the vices of wine , women and wealth. But question arises can we blindly trust what Kalhana Prabhu mentioned in Rajatarangini? Kalhana’s blind faith in mythological epics, puranas, legendary and fictional events, explaining away deaths by witchcraft and magic has been challenged by various intelligent authors as against those who just blindly copied what Kalhana mentions about the Kings of Kashmir and particularly about the Gupta kings of Kashmir giving undue weightage to the Queens and not the Gupta Kings who actually went to the battlefields, crushed the rebels, strengthened the army, built the temples and strengthened the forts such as the fort of Lohar kote in Loran in Prantosa (modern name Poonch). Even now there are ruins of Lohar Kote fort which was called as Gateway of Kashmir.
Some incredulous things mentioned by Kalhana Prabhu in Rajatarangini include mention of a King who was converted into a serpent by hungry brahmins just because King refused to feed them. He also mentions a King who could remain under water to enjoy the Naga women. Kalhana mentions when a Buddhist scholar defeated Brahmins and Panditas of Kashmir in arguments, the Nagas rolled ice from the mountains to harass Buddhists. Another incredulous mention about beating of drums by the Gods upon death of a king and yet another mention of a king who ruled for 300 years. It is clear that Rajatarangini is not historical and thus we cannot trust it blindly.
In medieval Kashmir the Sati-pratha was voluntary and mostly practiced by the royal houses particularly of the kshatriya caste and thus when King Kshemagupta of kshatriya caste died ; his wives wanted to be sati and many of his wives and concubines burned themselves after his death. King Kshemagupta’s beloved wife Didda Rani also wanted to be sati as she loved her husband too much. But whereas King Kshemagupta’s other queens became sati, she was persuaded by a courtier to not volunteer for being sati and instead take care of her infant son Abhimanyu Gupta and soon to be next Gupta king of Kashmir. Even before Didda Rani wife of King Kshemagupta, there was another Queen Sugandha Rani of Kashmir just 44 years before Didda Rani. Queen Sugandha Rani was wife of King Samkaravarman of Utpala dynasty of Kashmir and she was very competent and politically shrewd woman who temporarily concealed the fact of death of King Samkaravarman to avoid coup against his dynasty. Subsequently she revealed the fact of death of her husband and wanted to be Sati in the funeral pyre of her husband. But in this case also courtiers persuaded her against becoming sati as she had a minor son Gopalavarman to take care of. King Gopalavarman ruled from 902-904 CE and rather died quite early and the Queen Sugandha Rani was accused of murder of her son. This propensity of Kalhana Prabhu, son of Champaka Prabhu , to depict kashimiri Queen mothers as killers of their sons is totally wrong and personally I reject this since in my view mothers have very sacred place in the sanatana hindu pantheon and even our country is depicted as Queen mother and mothers can’t kill their children. Even in the animal kingdom it is seen that the mothers become extra strong and powerful to save their children and case of a seemingly harmless water bird Swan is cited here where it is seen that mother Swan becomes very dangerous to all those who come near her children. Similarly mother Tigress, mother Lioness and mother Elephant, mother Wolf, mother Eagle etc become too dangerous in order to protect their children. Queen Sugandha Rani after death of her son became sovereign Queen of Kashmir for two years 904-906 CE and was later revolted against by powerful Tantrins . She was also accused of having new love affair with Prabhakaradeva and later on she was imprisoned and executed. The King or Queen of Kashmir was always under threat of revolt by powerful bodies like those of Damaras, Tantrins, Ekangas, Rajnakas etc and particularly Damaras caused trouble to almost every King of Kashmir and only King Kshemagupta was able to crush them horribly and these Damaras never dared against the line of Gupta kings of Kashmir from 950 CE onwards to 1003 CE . Thus Queen Sugandha Rani belonging to kshatriya caste voluntarily wanted to be Sati in love of her husband King Samkaravarman but was persuaded by courtiers against it for raising her child . Similarly Queen Didda Rani belonging to kshatriya caste voluntarily wanted to be Sati in love of her husband King Kshemagupta but was persuaded by courtiers against it for raising her child Abhimanyu Gupta. Interestingly Queen Didda Rani is also accused of killing, disposing her children and grand children by same Kalhana Prabhu and he has rather used the word witchcraft for killings and this is strange and Kalhana may be mentioning only metaphorically without actually meaning that Queen Mother Didda harmed her sons and grandsons. Is there any historical evidence of witchcraft? Of course, none. The irrational and unscientific allegations against Didda Rani are propagated by self-proclaimed incompetent distorians. Nowhere Kalhana substantiate this with proof. Kalhana, uses word abhichar in relation to death of the sons of the sisters of King Kshemagupta who also used to live in the royal palace since the time of the King Parvagupta, father of King Kshemagupta. But abhichar just means ill means and in some text abhichar word is used to describe second nature of women and thus abhichar can’t mean witchcraft or sorcery or magic. In the original text, just before giving the account of death of the three grandchildren, word Vyabhichar, is used to describe Didda’s nature. Word vyabhichar is used for someone who indulges in illicit sexual activity and this also can’t mean witchcraft or magic . Thus we can conclude that Queen Mother Didda never killed her sons and grandsons. In fact she loved her husband greatly and she loved her son King Abhimanyu Gupta so much that she built whole town of Abhimanyupura in name of her son in the heart of Srinagar. She also built temples in name of her son king Abhimanyugupta . She is said to have built about sixty four temples in Kashmir.
In ninth and tenth centuries CE there were large number of Guptas living in Kashmir and in adjoining areas and most of the Guptas at that time were great warriors and belonged to kshatriya caste and it is very interesting that on the basis of the kshatriya caste of Guptas of Kashmir, the kshatriya caste of the King Bhimashahi of Kabul (present Afghanistan) is decided by many authors. Bhima Shahi kingdom of Kabul, Afghanistan was a kshatriya kingdom and except one author most agree on Bhima Shahi kings to be of kshatriya caste and even give examples that the marriages of the Bhima Shahi kings were done in the kshatriya kingdoms of that time and prominently mention about King Kshemagupta of kshatriya caste with whom the grand-daughter of King Bhima of Kabul was married. The lineage of the medieval kashmiri Gupta kings start with King Parvagupta who was son of Sangramagupta and grandson of Abhinavagupta who is mentioned as divira i.e. writer as gleaned from Persian dabir i.e. writer of merit. The Guptas of medieval Kashmir had nothing to do with merchants or business class. The ruling kshatriya Gupta caste of Kashmir was very different from merchant communities of mahajans /agarwals /khatris and also different from Brahmins and Pandits. It is interesting that business in Kashmir was dominated by the merchant khatri caste and in Maharajgunj area of Srinagar there was a market established in 1860 CE by settling khatri merchants from Punjab and they were granted permanent citizenship for conducting business smoothly. The region of Kashmir came under diarchy of British and Dogra Rajputs after Sikhs were defeated around 1850 CE by British and a state of Jammu and Kashmir was carved and permanent British Residents posted in both Jammu and Kashmir. Before 19th century CE there was no Rajput rule in Kashmir region and Kashmir was ruled by her own kshatriya communities till about 14th century CE . Coming back to the Gupta kings lineage of Kashmir ( 948 CE – 1003 CE ) – Abhinava Gupta to Sangrama Gupta to King Parva Gupta Deva to King Kshema Gupta Deva to King Abhimanyu Gupta Deva to King Nandi Gupta Deva to King Tribhuvana Gupta Deva to King Bhima Gupta Deva to Queen Didda Deva . King Parvagupta had killed the previous King of Kashmir and was known to be a ferocious man and thus when he sat on throne on first day of his being King of Kashmir; large number of Ekangas, Mantrins, Kayasthas, Tantrins came and bowed to him as they feared his ferocity . After him King Kshemagupta sat on throne of Kashmir and he was a great warrior and hunter and vide Kalhana Prabhu he was too much fond of wine, women and hunting though we cannot trust Kalhana blindly. But hunting he was really fond of and his favourite weapon was “KUNTALA” a long strong spear and while firmly seated on horseback King Kshemagupta would go on huntings in wild forests of Kashmir and hunt wild animals with his favourite weapon Kuntala. King Kshemagupta had three big achievements viz .1) He totally destroyed the power of the rebel Damaras and killed main Damara rebel Sangrama who was hiding in the Buddhist Jyendra Vihara. King Kshemagupta is often accused of destroying Buddhist Jyendra Vihara and making his own Temple with the ruins but we should understand that He had to destroy Damara power. These Damaras or Lavanyas (modern surname Lun or Lone still surviving in Kashmir) caused great trouble to kashmiri kings after the Gupta Kings in period of King Samgramaraja to King Utkarsa (1003-1089 AD). Thus it proves that the kshatriya Kshemagupta rightly destroyed the damara power and his descendants ( 958 CE – 1003 CE )ruled without fear from damaras. 2) King Kshemagupta hugely extended the Kashmir kingdom and his influence was felt from Kashmir, Rajapuri (modern Rajouri), Prantosa (modern Poonch), Kabul (Afghansitan), mountain regions of Jammu and areas of Himachal in Chamba- Bhaderwah area. 3) King Kshemagupta built excellent relation with Khasa rulers of Prantosa and strengthened the Lohar Kote fort and this proved highly beneficial to his successor Sangramaraja who along with Kashmiri army successfully defeated Mehmud Gaznavi in 1015 CE and 1023 CE and thus in whole of India the Kashmir was the only place where Gaznavi faced defeat at the hands of Kashmiri Hindu army and this was largely due to the Gupta kings of Kashmir who strengthened the army and strengthened the forts particularly gateway of Kashmir Fort of Lohar Kote. After King Kshemagupta his sons ruled Kashmir and lastly his wife ruled who over-lived her sons and grandsons but as explained above they may have died due to natural causes and Didda Rani out of her love and to continue her husband King Kshemagupta’s kingdom, she ruled till 1003 CE and thus ended the Gupta kingdom of medieval Kashmir.
The Gupta kings of Kashmir built many Temples in Kashmir. King Parvagupta built atleast two temples - Parvagupteshwara Temple on the right bank of river Jhelum near 6th bridge and a temple of Yashkaraswamin. King Kshemagupta built atleast three temples – he destroyed Buddhist Jyendra Vihara and made his temple Kshemagaurishvara, another temple dedicated to God Varaha in Varahamula (modern Baramulla) and third temple in village of Bumazuv (Matan in Srinagar) and this last temple was Bhimakesava Temple built by King Bhima Shahi of Kabul. Lastly Gupta kingdom’s Didda Rani built sixty four temples. Thus the Gupta kings built many temples at various places in Kashmir but it is very difficult to trace them as Kashmir saw huge destruction of sanatan hindu Temples after 14th century CE.
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