Lalitaditya Muktapida belonged to the Karkota dynasty, which ruled Kashmir from the seventh to the ninth century. He was the youngest son of King Durlabhaka (Pratapaditya). Our main source is the Rajatarangini, the verse chronicle of Kashmir's kings written by the poet-historian Kalhana in the twelfth century, about four hundred years after Lalitaditya. Kalhana devotes a large part of his fourth book to him and clearly regards him as the greatest of the valley's kings.
Kalhana gives Lalitaditya more space than almost any other king in the <em>Rajatarangini</em>, and describes him as a world-conqueror who rarely rested in his capital — while also recording his faults.Summary of Kalhana, Rajatarangini, Book IV
Kalhana's own chronology for this period is known to be off by several decades. Most modern historians place the reign around 724–760 CE, drawing on Chinese records to correct it.
Conquests — history and legend
The best-attested of his wars is against Yashovarman, the king of Kanyakubja (Kannauj) and patron of the poet Bhavabhuti. Kalhana says that Lalitaditya defeated him, and that Yashovarman — once the patron of the poets Bhavabhuti and Vakpati — was reduced to singing the victor's praises. Kashmir's power extended over the Punjab and parts of the Ganga plain.
Kalhana then describes a sweeping digvijaya — to the eastern sea, down to the south, through Dvaraka and back across the mountains to the lands of the Tukharas and the Tibetans. Historians generally read this world-conquest as poetic exaggeration in the classical mould, though campaigns against Tibetan and Central Asian powers to the north are plausible.
An embassy to the Tang
Chinese annals record that a king of Kashmir named Muduobi — usually identified with Muktapida — sent an envoy to the Tang court around 733 CE, seeking an alliance against the Tibetans, who were then contesting the passes of the western Himalaya with China. This record is one of the main anchors for dating his reign.
Martand and Parihasapura
Lalitaditya was a great builder. His best-known work is the Martand Sun Temple near Anantnag, on a high plateau with the mountains behind it: a grand temple to Surya in a large courtyard enclosed by a colonnade of small cells, combining Kashmiri, Gandharan and Gupta elements. Its ruins are still impressive.
He also founded a new city, Parihasapura, near Srinagar, filled with temples to Vishnu, a great Buddhist stupa and monastery, and huge metal images. His minister Chankuna, a Buddhist from Tukhara country, built a stupa and vihara there. The king also undertook irrigation works along the Jhelum.
Faults and an uncertain end
Kalhana does not hide his hero's flaws. He tells of an order given in drunkenness to burn Parihasapura, which ministers wisely ignored, and of the treacherous killing of a king of Gauda who had come to Kashmir under a promise of safety, after which the Gauda king's followers made a famous suicidal attack on a temple. As for his death, Kalhana reports several stories: that he perished in the snows of the far north on campaign, or that he ended his own life; the truth was already unknown.
How they are remembered
Lalitaditya's reign was the high point of Kashmir as a political power, and the Karkota age saw Kashmir become one of India's great centres of Sanskrit learning, art and Shaiva thought. The Martand temple was destroyed in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century under Sultan Sikandar, but its ruins remain a protected monument and a symbol of Kashmir's ancient heritage. The Ekatmata Stotra names him among the heroes of Bharat, beside Krishnadevaraya.
Ekatmata Stotra · Stanza 23
Named in Stanza 23 of the Ekatmata Stotra — those who held the line against invasion.
लाचित्-भास्करवर्मा च यशोधर्मा नृपोत्तमः।
कृष्णदेवश्च ललितादित्यो वीराः प्रकीर्तिताः॥
Sources: Wikipedia: Lalitaditya Muktapida · Wikipedia: Martand Sun Temple · Wikipedia: Rajatarangini. Written afresh for The Hindu Book; corrections welcome at [email protected].
