Karka

Karka Raja (812 AD) was king of Lateshvara.

Variants

• Raja Karka
• Karka Raja
• Karkaraja
• Karka II
• Karka I

Raja Karka (812 AD) of Lateshwara

Alexander Cunningham while describing Balabhi mentions of Karka Raja of Lateshwara.

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[p.317]: The ruins of the famous city of Balabhi were dis-covered by Tod near Bhaonagar, on the eastern side of the peninsula of Gujarat. In an inscription of the fifth century the country is called " the beautiful kingdom of Valabhadra," but in the local histories and traditions of the people, it is generally known as Balabhi. This also was the name in the time of Hwen Thsang, who calls the kingdom Fa-la-pi, or Balabhi. In ancient times, however, the peninsula of Gujarat was only known as Surashtra, and under this name it is mentioned in the Mahabharata and in the Puranas. It is called Surashtrene by Ptolemy and the author of the ' Periplus ;' and its people are most probably intended by Pliny under the corrupt name of Suarataratae, or Varetatae, for which I would propose to read Suratae.

The change in the name of the country is alluded to in an inscription, dated in the Saka year 734, or A.D. 812, of Raja Karka, whose remote ancestor Govinda is said to have been the ornament of the Saurashtra kingdom, " which lost its appellation of Sau-rajya from the ruin that had fallen upon it." Karka's father is called Raja of Lateswara, which at once identifies his kingdom with Balabhi, as Hwen Thsang notes that Balabhi was also called Pe-Lo-lo, or northern Lara, which is the common pronunciation of the Sanskrit Lata. As Karka was only the fifth in descent from Govinda, the name of Saurajya or Saurashtra could not have been restored by these representatives of the old family before the middle of the seventh century. From a comparison of all the data I conclude that the old name of Saurashtra was lost in A.D. 319, when the successors of the Sah kings were sup-

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[p.318]: planted by the Vallabhas, and the capital changed from Junagarh to Valabhi. The establishment of the Balabhi era, which dates from A.D. 319, is said by Abu Rihan to mark the period of the extinction of the Gupta race, whose coins are found in considerable numbers in Gujarat. This date may therefore be accepted with some certainty as that of the establishment of the Balabhi dynasty, and most probably also as that of the foundation of their city of Balabhi.

According to the native histories and local traditions Balabhi was attacked and destroyed in the Samvat year 580, which is equivalent to A.D. 523, if in the Vikrama era, or A.D. 658, if in the Saka era. Colonel Tod has adopted the former; but as Hwen Thsang visited Balabhi in A.D. 640, the date must clearly be referred to the later era of Saka. If the statement is correct, we may refer the capture of Balabhi to Raja Govinda of the Baroda copper-plate inscription, who is recorded to have re-established the old family, as well as the old name of the former kingdom of Saurashtra. As he was the great-grandfather of the grandfather of Karka Raja, who was reigning in A.D. 812, his own accession must have taken place in the third quarter of the seventh century, that is, between A.D. 650 and 675, which agrees with the actual date of A.D. 658, assigned by the native historians for the destruction of Balabhi, and the extinction of the Balabhi sovereignty in the peninsula of Gujarat.

Karka (r.972–991 CE)

Karka (ruled 972–991 CE) succeeded his uncle Kottigga Amoghavarsha to the Rashtrakuta throne. By this time the once great Rashtrakuta empire was declining and the weaknesses created by the earlier plunder of Manyakheta by Paramara King Siyaka II exposed the Rashtrakutas to further depredation who did not survive for long. During this time of confusion, Chalukya Tailapa II declared independence and killed Karka II, capturing the Rashtrakuta capital Manyakheta.

Karka II was a son of Nirupama, a Rashtrakuta prince who was the younger brother of Khottiga, the Rashtrakuta monarch.