02-08-2010, 07:15 AM
Quote:The Wiki page on Lalitaditya claims that his kingdom extended until the borders of Turkey. I explored a bit on this topic and do not find any source which backs this claim. Can anyone throw light on this?
Sorry didn't see this before.
I am not sure about the veracity of that claim but from what I remember he conquered several Central Asian states & Tibet.
Here is one of the older posts made by Bodhi about him:
Quote:What Rajeev has not mentioned in the above superb article are a few facts of history.
RC Majumdar in Ancient India describes how the boundaries of Lalitaditya Karkota of Kashmir included Tibet.
Oft forgotten and ignored fact remains the immensely significant contribution of Lalitaditya in checking the Islamic expansion. For more than five decades in mid 700s, Lalitaditya had effective control over all the western passes of Himalayas - all the way from Afghanistan, Northern Iran, Turkey, baltistan, dardistan, other central Asian procinces in west and with tibet in the east.
His control over these routes is what must have effectively stopped the arabic/islamic expansion towards North, and even china. Rajtarangiri pays tributes to him, and describes in detail how the center of power in India shifted with Lalitaditya gaining control over a vast kingdom - from central asia in west and tibet-bhutan-assam in east and most of aryavarta till Vindhya in south.
But for this great warrior of India, who knows, chinese would be a muslim group of countries today. chinese were very weak and disunited at that very time. All Islam needed was physical access to them.
Imagine how Lalitaditya aborted a Chairman Mao-hammad-ze-dong before he was conceived!
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Centuries later, Mugals (esp Shahajahan), with claims of Mongol bloodline in them, had sent armies towards Tibet and at least conquered the mountains of Leh/Laddakh from Tibetan control.
http://www.india-forum.com/forums/index....entry80106
And from HH:
Quote:Countercase: lalitAditya the great kArkoTaka monarch inducted many central Asian tribes into the army for the defence of the land against Moslems after enmasse converting them to the Hindu fold. The Rajput clans known as agnikula have descended from central Asian converts to the Hindu fold and were some of the greatest defenders of the Dharma against the Moslem violence.
http://www.india-forum.com/forums/index....#entry5312
But note that this agnikula legend only applies to certain Rajput clans & even then I am not sure about whether its believable.