04-21-2010, 10:08 PM
Quote:Yes, as Shri GSub/Kaushal stated Maharaja LalitAditya of the KarkoTaka
dynasty defeated the turushkas and wrested the regions of central
Asian that were under their control (not Turkey for heaven's sake). My
brother and I attempted a fairly detailed analysis based on the
original text of KalhANa's, reconstructing the actual extant of LAs
empire and feel that it was genuinely large and at least larger than
what Stein makes of it. I think the translation of the rAjatarangini
by Shri Pandit, Nehru's relative is a little more accurate one and is
useful in this regard for those not wanting to delve into the
sanskrit original. In any case I will post my condensed
reconstruction of the history of LA once I find it on one of my old
CDROMs.
Briefly (of the top of my head), when he came to power he found
Kashmir drawn into the conflict of the Central Asian circuit. He faced
invasion from the Tibetans expanding into the Zingkiang region under
Khri ngyan tsongpa. He entered into an alliance with the Chinas
against the Tibetans but the Chinese failed to deliver him any aid. So
he single handed demolished the Tibetan army near Ladakh and put and
end to their aspirations of westward expansions. He then smashed a
Darada army in the west-location not exactly known. After this he
conducted a series of campaigns in inner India crushing yashovarmA
king of much of northern India, and treacherously overcame the Kings
of Bengal. He also reduced Orissa and the surrounding territory to
vassalage. Then in a successful alliance with the Chinas he routed the
Arab chief Ma'moun who invaded from the northwest. He inflicted two
independent defeats on the Arabs thereafter and one in alliance with
the shahi king in Gandhara. Finally he said to have defeated the
'Tocharians' in an invasion of centra Asia where he appointed his
agent Shri Mangala who seized Kunduz and established an Indian colony
there. He then was confronted with China- Tuergish turk confedration
which he successfuly defeated, grabbing Turkic and Chinese territory
in Central Asia probably right upto the four Garrisons region (Not
Bejing). This is supported by several Indic names appearing here well
after fall of the Karkotakas. Finally he is said to have been murdered
in an internal power struggle with local feudal lords in Kashmir. In
the Turkic campaign he captured a Turk called Sengun who loyally
served him and even helped him build a temple of Nrisimha.
One unsubstantiated statement in the Kashmirian histories is the claim
that he defeated the Queen of Karnataka! We have very little data to
verify what this actually means (any suggestions are welcome).
_Aravind
PS Shri Sitaram Goel is one of the few who gave LA his due- no doubt
we have a 'Kashmir problem' if so many Indians are unaware of him.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianCivi...ssage/7954