Chankuna

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Chankuna (चणकुण) was Prime Minister of Kashmira King Lalitaditya.

Variants

• Cankuna
• Caṅkuṇa (Tsiang-kiun or Tegin)
• Changkuna

Clan of Chankuna

• Takhar

History

Bhim Singh Dahiya writes that another Jat, named Chankuna (चणकुण), of Tokhara clan, was chief minister of Lalitaditya. Why all these Jats were holding predominant positions unless the rulers themselves were Jats of Lohar and other clans?

Rajatarangini tells us that Another of his ministers named Tuskhārashchangkuna raised a vihara named Changkuna, a stupa high as the mind of a king, and a golden image of Buddha. Ishānadevi, wife of the minister just named, caused a canal to be dug, whose waters were clear and beneficial to the healthy as to the sick. (Book IV,p.72)

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Rajatarangini writes that The prime minister Changkuna built in another place a vihara with a chaitya; and Ishanachandra the physician and brother to the wife of Changkuna, having obtained wealth through the favor of Takshaka, built a Vihara. The king Lalitaditya further caused a permanent asylum for the poor to be built at Parihasapura, to which he presented one lac and one plates filled with food. He also caused a town to be built in a barren place that thirsty men might find water, there. He invited prudent men from other countries, and brought Changkuna brother of Kangkanavarsha, an alchemist, from Bhuskhara. The king exchanged with this man a statue of Buddha which he brought from Magadha for certain jewels of mysterious properties. This statue Changkuna placed in the monastery which he built, and can be seen to this day, surrounded by iron railings. (Book IV,p.73)

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Rajatarangini tells that ....Didda, among the wives of kings and Sussalā, among the wives of ministers, reached the utmost perfection of virtue by setting up various religious establishments. Sussalā built the matha of Shrichankuna of stone which till then had existed only in name. Book VIII (i),p.216

Relations between Kanauj and Kashmir

Buddha Prakash mentions .... This communication shows that, up to 733, the relations between Kanauj and Kashmira were good and they even collaborated in checking the Tibetans. But Lalitaditya Muktapida was cast in a different mould. He was pushing and aggressive and intolerant of rivals. Besides this, some of the Turki Sahi princes, menaced by Yashovarman in the North-West, took refuge in Kashmira and rose to high positions there. One of them Caṅkuṇa ( Tsiang-kiun or Tegin), seems to have instigated Lalitaditya to march against Yashovarman and put an end to his supremacy in the Panjab and the North-West. On his advice Lalitaditya led an expedition against Yashovarman, Kalhana says that Cankuna played a leading part in this campaign. Starting in the rainy season, he somehow negotiated the flooded rivers of the Panjab and reached the doab of the Ganga and the Yamuna (Rajatarangini, IV, p.132). After prolonged hostilities parleys of peace started but broke down on the ticklish question of the precedence of names in the preamble to the treaty. Hence fighting flared up, Yashovarman was defeated and “the land of Kanauj from the bank of the Yamuna to that of the Kalika (Kali Nadi) was so much in the power of Lalitaditya as the courtyard of his palace” (Rajatarangini, IV, p.145) The result of the victory was that Panjab, Jullundur and Kangra were wrested by Lalitaditya and given over to his attendants, probably the Turki Shahi princes. So the outcome of the conflict between Kashmira and Kanauj was the establishment of the Turki Shahis over the Panjab.

Lalitaditya was for the time being the paramount sovereign of India. But the pressure of the Tibetans mounted and they conquered Baltistan in 744. The Tibetan prince LJan-tsa-lha-bdon,who is probably Shalya of the Rajatarangini, led an army of 8,00,003 against Kashmira whereupon Lalitaditya committed suicide in discomfiture. (K.K.Datta Shastri, ‘A Note on Rajatarangini/Vishveshvaranand Indological Journal, Vol.III (Sept. 1965) p. 243). After him came a succession of weak kings. Hence the Turki Sahis became dominant in the Panjab.

References

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