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Utpala
In the Karkota family, Lalitapida had a concubine, a daughter of a
Kalyapala (IV.678).
Her son was Chippatajayapida. The young Chippatajayapida was
advised by his maternal uncle Utpalaka or Utpala (IV.679).
Eventually the Karkota dynasty ended and a grandson of Utpala
became king.
Kutumbi
After the Utpala dynasty, a Yashaskara became king (V.469). He was
a great-grandson of a Viradeva, a Kutumbi (V.469). Here maybe
Kutumbi = kunabi (as in kurmis of UP and Kunbi of
Gujarat/Maharastra). He was the son of a treasurer of Karkota
Shamkaravarman.
Kalhana describes Shamkaravarman (883-902) thus (Stein's trans.): "This [king], who did not speak the
language of the gods but used vulgar speech fit for drunkards, showed that he was descended from a family of spirit-distillers". This refers to the fact that the power had passed to the brothers of a queen, who was born in a family of spirit-distillers.
Divira
After a young son of Yashaskara, Pravaragupta, a Divira
(clerk), became king. His son Kshemagupta married Didda, daughter
of Simharaja of Lohara. After ruling indirectly and directly, Didda
(980-1003 CE) placed Samgramaraja, son of her brother on the
throne, starting the Lohara dynasty.
Lohara
The Lohara family was founded by a Nara of Darvabhisara
(IV.712). He was a vyavahari (perhaps merchant) who along with
others who owned villages like him had set up little kingdoms
during the last days of Karkotas. The Loharas ruled for many
generations. The author Kalhana was a son of a minister of Harsha
of this family.
Damar and others
After Loharas, a Damara family ruled. Then a general
Ramchandra became king. His daughter Kota Rani married Tibetan
Rinchan, who became Muslim.
Cashmere is an archaic spelling of Kashmir, and in some
countries it is still spelled this way.
Modern Background
Creation - Prior to the creation of the princely state,
Kashmir was ruled by the Durrani Empire, until it was annexed by
Sikhs led by Ranjit Singh. During Sikh rule, Jammu was a tributary
of the Sikh Empire.
After the death of the Raja of Jammu, Kishore Singh, in
1822, his son Gulab Singh was recognised by the Sikhs as his heir.
He then, initially under the Sikhs, began expanding his
kingdom.
As Raja of Jammu, Gulab Singh conquered Bhadarwah after a
slight resistance and then annexed Kishtwar after the minister,
Wazir Lakhpat, quarrelled with the ruler and sought the assistance
of Gulab Singh, the Raja of Kishtwar surrendered without fighting
when Gulab Singh's forces arrived. The conquest of Kishtwar meant
that Singh had now gained control of two of the roads which led
into Ladakh which then led to this conquest of that territory.
Although there were huge difficulties, due to the mountains and
glaciers, the Dogras under Gulab Singh's officer, Zorawar Singh
conquered the whole of Ladakh in two
campaigns.
A few years later, in 1840, General Zorawar Singh invaded
Baltistan, captured the Raja of Skardu, who had sided with the
Ladakhis, and annexed his country. The following year (1841)
Zorawar Singh, while invading Tibet, was overtaken by winter, and,
being attacked when his troops were disabled by cold, perished with
nearly all his army. Whether it was policy or whether it was
accident, by 1840 Gulab Singh had encircled
Kashmir.
In the winter of 1845 war broke out between the British and
the Sikhs. Gulab Singh remained neutral until the battle of Sobraon
in 1846, when he appeared as a useful mediator and the trusted
adviser of Sir Henry Lawrence. Two treaties were concluded. By the
first the State of Lahore handed over to the British, as equivalent
to an indemnity of one crore rupees, the hill countries between the
rivers Beas and the Indus; by the second the British made over to
Gulab Singh for 75 lakh rupees all the hilly or mountainous country
situated to the east of the Indus and west of the
Ravi.
Not long afterwards the Hunza Raja, attacked Gilgit territory.
Nathu Shah on behalf of Gulab Singh responded by leading a force to
attack the Hunza valley; he and his force were destroyed, and
Gilgit fort fell into the hands of the Hunza Raja, along with
Punial, Yasin, and Darel. The Maharaja then sent two columns, one
from Astor and one from Baltistan, and after some fighting Gilgit
fort was recovered. In 1852 the Dogra troops were annihilated by
Gaur Rahman of Yasin, and for eight years the Indus formed the
boundary of the Maharaja's territories.
Gulab Singh died in 1857; and when his successor, Ranbir Singh, had
recovered from the strain caused by the Indian Rebellion, in which
he had loyally sided with the British, he was determined to recover
Gilgit and to expand to the frontier. In 1860 a force under Devi
Singh crossed the Indus, and advanced on Gaur Rahman's strong fort
at Gilgit. Gaur Rahman had died just before the arrival of the
Dogras. The fort was taken and held by the Maharajas of Jammu and
Kashmir until 1947.
Ranbir Singh although tolerant of other creeds lacked his father's
strong will and determination, and his control over the State
officials was weak. The latter part of his life was darkened by the
dreadful famine in Kashmir, 1877-9; and in September, 1885, he was
succeeded: by his eldest son, Maharaja Pratap Singh,
G.C.S.I
Geography - The area of the state extended from 32° 17′ to 36° 58′
N. and from 73° 26′ to 80° 30′ E.[2]. Jammu was the southern most
part of the state and was adjacent to the Punjab districts of
Jhelum, Gujrat, Sialkot, and Gurdaspur. There is just a fringe of
level land along the Punjab frontier, bordered by a plinth of low
hilly country sparsely wooded, broken, and irregular. This is known
as the Kandi, the home of the Chibs and the Dogras. To travel north
a range of mountains, 8,000 feet (2,400 m) high, must be climbed.
This is a temperate country with forests of oak, rhododendron, and
chestnut, and higher up of deodar and pine, a country of beautiful
uplands, such as Bbadarwah and Kishtwar, drained by the deep gorge
of the Chenab river. The steps of the Himalayan range known as the
Pir Panjal lead to the second storey; on which rests the exquisite
valley of Kashmir, drained by the Jhelum
river.
Up steeper flights of the Himalayas led to Astore and Baltistan on
the north and to Ladakh on the east, a tract drained by the river
Indus. In the back premises, faraway to the north-west, lies
Gilgit, west and north of the Indus, the whole area shadowed by a
wall of giant mountains which run east from the Kilik or Mintaka
passes of the Hindu Kush, leading to the Pamirs and the Chinese
dominions past Rakaposhi (25,561 ft), along the Muztagh range past
K2 (Godwin Austen, 28,265 feet), Gasherbrum and Masherbrum (28,100
and 28,561 feet (8,705 m) respectively) to the Karakoram range
which merges in the Kunlun Mountains. Westward of the northern
angle above Hunza-Nagar the mighty maze of mountains and glaciers
trends a little south of east along the Hindu Kush range bordering
Chitral, and so on into the limits of Kafiristan and Afghan
territory.
In 1947 the Indian Independence Act was passed, this meant that
British India would be divided into two independent states, the
Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India. According to the Act,
"the suzerainty of His Majesty over the Indian States lapses, and
with it, all treaties and agreements in force at the date of the
passing of this Act between His Majesty and the rulers of Indian
States", so each of the princely states would be free to join India
or Pakistan or to remain independent. Most of the princes acceded
to either of the two nations.
Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu - By the early 19th century,
the Kashmir valley had passed from the control of the Durrani
Empire of Afghanistan, and four centuries of Muslim rule under the
Mughals and the Afghans, to the conquering Sikh armies. Earlier, in
1780, after the death of Ranjit Deo, the Raja of Jammu, the kingdom
of Jammu (to the south of the Kashmir valley) was captured by the
Sikhs under Ranjit Singh of Lahore and afterwards, until 1846,
became a tributary to the Sikh power.[6] Ranjit Deo's grandnephew,
Gulab Singh, subsequently sought service at the court of Ranjit
Singh, distinguished himself in later campaigns, especially the
annexation of the Kashmir valley by the Sikhs army in 1819, and,
for his services, was created Raja of Jammu in 1820. With the help
of his officer, Zorawar Singh, Gulab Singh soon captured Ladakh and
Baltistan, regions to the east and north-east of
Jammu.
British era - In 1845, the First Anglo-Sikh War broke out, and
Gulab Singh "contrived to hold himself aloof till the battle of
Sobraon (1846), when he appeared as a useful mediator and the
trusted advisor of Sir Henry Lawrence. Two treaties were concluded.
By the first the State of Lahore (i.e. West Punjab) handed over to
the British, as equivalent for (rupees) one crore of indemnity, the
hill countries between Beas and Indus; by the second the British
made over to Gulab Singh for (Rupees) 75 lakhs all the hilly or
mountainous country situated to the east of Indus and west of Ravi"
(i.e. the Vale of Kashmir). Soon after Gulab Singh's death in 1857,
his son, Ranbir Singh, added the emirates of Hunza, Gilgit and
Nagar to the kingdom.
The Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu (as it was then called) was
constituted between 1820 and 1858 and was "somewhat artificial in
composition and it did not develop a fully coherent identity,
partly as a result of its disparate origins and partly as a result
of the autocratic rule which it experienced on the fringes of
Empire." It combined disparate regions, religions, and ethnicities:
to the east, Ladakh was ethnically and culturally Tibetan and its
inhabitants practised Buddhism; to the south, Jammu had a mixed
population of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs; in the heavily populated
central Kashmir valley, the population was overwhelmingly Sunni
Muslim, however, there was also a small but influential Hindu
minority, the Kashmiri brahmins or pandits; to the northeast,
sparsely populated Baltistan had a population ethnically related to
Ladakh, but which practised Shi'a Islam; to the north, also
sparsely populated, Gilgit Agency, was an area of diverse, mostly
Shi'a groups; and, to the west, Punch was Muslim, but of different
ethnicity than the Kashmir valley. After the Indian Rebellion of
1857, in which Kashmir sided with the British, and the subsequent
assumption of direct rule by Great Britain, the princely state of
Kashmir came under the paramountcy of the British
Crown.
Kashmir did not, however, come into the Maharaja's hands without
fighting Imam-ud-din, the Sikh governor, aided by the restless
Bambas from the Jhelum valley, routed Gulab Singh's troops on the
outskirts of Srinagar, killing Wazir Lakhpat. Owing, however, to
the mediation of Sir Henry Lawrence, Imam-ud-din desisted from
opposition and Kashmir passed without further disturbances to the
new ruler. At Astor and Gilgit the Dogra troops relieved the Sikhs,
Nathu Shah, the Sikh commander, taking service under Gulab
Singh
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