Kamaluka
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Kamaluka (895-921) was a king of Hindu Shahi Dynasty.
Variants
- Kamaluka (कमलुक)
- Kamalavarman
- Kamalaka (कमलक) (country) [1]
History
Nothing definite is known about the reign of the Hindu Shahi ruler Kamaluka, except that he was succeeded by his son, Bhimadeva. Concurrent to his reign, the Saffarids rapidly lost their power to the Samanids[2] and sometime after 913 CE, the power vacuum led to the rise of a friendly power in the Ghazna province, the Lawik dynasty, which flourished until 962 CE and engaged in marital ties with the Hindu Shahis.[3] There are various unsubstantiated speculations regarding the end date of Kamaluka's reign, ranging from 900 to 950. Some have argued for the early 900s, in an attempt to squeeze Bhimadeva closer to the establishment of the dynasty, since he had minted coins of the Samanta series; Raman found the argument to lack basis, since the coins of the Samanta series would be minted by Mahmud of Ghazni as late as the early 11th century.[4]
Buddha Prakash mentions
Buddha Prakash[5] mentions ....[p.136]: After Lalliya, Samantadeva (सामन्त देव) ascended the Sahi throne at Ohind. His coins, they are elephant and lion type but mostly of the bull and horseman type, have been found at Sultanpur, Sunet, Joner and Kapalmochan in East Panjab, on the one hand, and near Rostow in the Yaroslavi province, Gniezdovo in the Smolensk province, Tatarski Tolkish in the Kazan province, now in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Denissy in the Poltava province, Vaabina in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, Obrzicho in Poland and Chivaz near Taskent, in the U.S.S.R. and eastern Europe, on the other. The discovery of his coins over such a wide stretch of territory from East Punjab to Poland shows that [p.137]: under him his kingdom had acquired considerable importance. Yaqubi states that, from the ninth century, Kabul was visited by tradesmen for the so-called mirobalan which was very much valued by the medical practitioners of medieval times. Trade in this as well as other commodities seems to have carried the coins of Samantadeva far abroad (A.A. Bykov, ‘Finds of Indian Medieval Coins in East Europe', Journal of the Numismatic Society of India, Vol. XXVII (1965) part II, pp. 146-156).
Thus it is clear that Samantadeva consolidated the Shahi Kingdom on the frontier so firmly as to make it a centre of economic progress and commercial prosperity. But soon internal troubles queered the pitch for him. A son of Lalliya, Toramana, advanced his claim to the throne and sought the help of Kashmira in support of it. Kashmira was keen to resuscitate her influence over the frontier state of the Shahis which was shaken when Lalliya overthrew Laghturman and befriended the Pratiharas of Kanauj who had acquired hegemony over the Panjab. Hence she took the occasion by the forelock and her minister, Prabhakaradeva, led an army against Ohind, overthrew Samantadeva and installed Toramana under the name Kamaluka or Kamalavarman (Rajatarangini, 232-233).
The new ruler issued the copper coins with peacock with outspread wings to left on the obverse and lion to right and the legend Sri Kamara on the obverse. It may also be that he issued the bull and horseman type of silver coins with the Iranian legend Shri Khudavayakaḥ , corresponding to Xvatāvaya, for circulation in the Iranian world. This revolution changed the balance of power on the frontier and brought the Shahis and Kashmira together against the Pratiharas.
External links
References
- ↑ Rajatarangini (Book V,p.122)
- ↑ Rehman, Abdur (January 1976). The Last Two Dynasties of the Sahis: An analysis of their history, archaeology, coinage and palaeography (Thesis). Australian National University. p.117
- ↑ Rehman 1976, p. 118-119.
- ↑ Rehman 1976, p. 120.
- ↑ Buddha Prakash: Evolution of Heroic Tradition in Ancient Panjab, XI. The Era of Consolidation and Expansion, pp.136-
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