King Lalitaditya Muktapida of Kashmir, one of the biggest empires in world history !

King Lalitaditya Muktapida of Kashmir,  one of the biggest empires in world history ! 

      
     His empire was huge, almost twice the size of Mughals but it didn’t lasted long. Karkota empire collapsed just two years after Lalitaditya’s death. Yashodharma was one such king of central India who had made a huge empire but it collapsed soon after him. In the north, Lalitaditya defeated Arab general Momin of Bukhara and in the south he had friendly relations with Rashtrakuta Queen Ratta(most historian identify this queen as queen Bhavangana, mother of Dantidurga).

Historians believe that Lalitaditya was a friend or perhaps a tributary of Tang empire of China, but after the battle of Talas(year 751 A.D.), Tang empire lost its control over central Asia. This gave Lalitaditya an opportunity to move north and control the whole silk road.

He tasted victory everywhere he went. He also defeated Momin of Bukhara then and spread his empire near the banks of Caspian sea. Before that he defeated Daradas(Most likely gen. Makarsimha of Gilgit) and then Tibbets with the help of Chinese.

Historians consider this fact that he had defeated Yashovarman of Kannauj in a fierce battle. Yashovarman at that time was the overlord of whole central India, from Kannauj to Kalinga. So after his defeat the whole central India easly fell under Lalitaditya. It is said that Great Kashmiri scholar ‘Abhinavagupta’s’ ancestors shifted from Kannauj to Kashmir after Lalitaditya’s invitation.

Then he marched south and signed friendship treaties with Rashtrakutas and Kokanas. Yhen he marched towards Gujarat and and defeated King of Lata(Kathiyawad region) and then he moved to Rajputana and it’s a belief that he must have met the Legendary “Bappa Rawal” of Mewar during his rRjasthan expedition.

It is also a belief that Bappa Rawal took help of Kashmir’s army when he reached Ghazni and defeated Salim. Lalitaditya, Bappa Rawal, Nagbhatt of Ujjain and Chalukya of Gujarat fought against the Invading Arab forces at the same time in different places. There are proofs that they(especially the last three) were in a pact against Arabs. It is possible that Lalitaditya was instrumental in this. It is possible that he was leading Indian attack against Arabs.

Karkota empire didn’t last long and didn’t have any written records of it accept Rajtarangini. New book of Tang talks about Lalitaditya(Mu-to-pi in Chinese) but Tibetan records don’t. May be because they were defeated by him or may be because of any other reason.

Personally in my view: We need more information about him. Al-baruni writes in his book that Momin, governor of Bukhara was defeated by Kashmiri king Mutthai. Mutthai is identified as Muktapida(real name of Lalitaditya). Possibly his expedition over pamir region is true but may be he didn’t control it. May be he went, won and left for next target. He ruled till 760 A.D., and if he had marched towards the Pamir region it must happened after 751 A.D. He had only 9 years to conquer the north, he went to Bukhara, defeated Momin, then defeated other Arabs and then launched another expedition towards north.

His desperate expeditions shows that he was the most powerful man of that region but didn’t have full control over the land of Turks. Finally he refused his minister’s advice to return to Parihaspura(his capital) and died in expedition.

After him Kavalyapeeda became king but resigned after one year and became a saint. Then Vajraditya, the younger son of Lalitaditya succeeded the throne and during his time Governor of Sindh raided Kashmir and collected lot of booty from Vajraditya who surrendered in front of him. This actually shows that power of Karkota empire was vanished in just few years after Lalitaditya’s death.

Lalitaditya’s great grandson Jayapeeda(Jayaditya) later tried to regain the power of Karkota Dynasty. He also avenged Kashmir by defeating Sindh. He also defeated Nepal and married daughter of King of Bangaal. But after him, Karkota empire kept sinking down and down.

I believe we should tell these historical events to our young generations. We can remove few chapter which only praise different Mughal kings one after another and replace them with these events. And not only in NCERT or ISC-ICSE books but in all boards. I studied in Indian education board and my medieval history book had praise for Ghaznavi, Ghoris, Khiljis and Mughals. Nothing for Indians, everything for Invaders.

Santoshkumar B Pandey at 12.05pm.