The last fight of Bhikshachara

01The pretender

Bhikshachara was a child when Harsha fell in 1101. Smuggled out of Kashmir, he grew up in exile, at one point at the court of the Paramaras in Malwa. With the help of Damara barons he invaded the valley more than once and in 1120 held Srinagar for some months, driving out Sussala, before losing it again. After Sussala was murdered in 1128, he kept up the fight against Sussala’s son Jayasimha.

02Kalhana’s tribute

Kalhana, who disliked disorder and the Damaras who fed it, still writes of Bhikshachara’s last stand with admiration. Cornered with a few companions, he refused to surrender and fought until he was cut down. With his death the strongest rival claim to the throne was gone, and Jayasimha, though troubled by revolts for years more, was able to give Kashmir a measure of peace; it was in his reign that Kalhana completed the Rajatarangini in 1149–50.

Person · 12th century CE; Rajatarangini 1148–1150 CEKalhanaKalhana, son of Champaka, minister to King Harsha of Kashmir, wrote the Rajatarangini (‘River of Kings’) in 1148–1150 CE: about 7,800 verses in eight tarangas tracing the kings of Kashmir from the earliest times to his own day.Read →