Khudarayaka
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Khudarayaka was Governor of the Kabul Valley in Hindu Shahi Dynasty.
Variants
- Khudavayakaḥ corresponding to Xvatāvaya
History
It is unknown what arrangements Ya'qub made for the governance of Kabul after his victory and imprisonment of the then ruler; we only have Tarikh-i Sistan noting that Kabul was under an unnamed Ya'qub governor as late as 878/879.[1]
It is speculated that this governor was some blood relation of Samanta who was favourably inclined to Islam and went on to take the title of Khudarayaka (Small King) as ascertainable from a series of coins.[2] As has been the case with previous rulers, there is a lack of information including about his actual name, course of rule and eventual fate.[3] The unavailability of his coins in or around Gandhara points to his lack of control over the region, which did not come into contact with Ya'qub's expeditions and were likely held by Samanta's relatives.[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
- ↑ The Last Two Dynasties of The Shāhis. 1976. p. 105.
- ↑ The Last Two Dynasties of The Shāhis. 1976. p. 105-106
- ↑ The Last Two Dynasties of The Shāhis. 1976. p. 106.
- ↑ The Last Two Dynasties of The Shāhis. 1976. p. 106.
- ↑ Buddha Prakash: Evolution of Heroic Tradition in Ancient Panjab, XI. The Era of Consolidation and Expansion, pp.136-137
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