JAYAPIDA

Like his grand-father, Jayapida is also credited with great conquest and is believed to have reached as far as Nepal. But modern historians believe that Kalhan Pandit while describing the exploits of Jayapida, has exaggerated some of his feats as there is no contemporary evidence in support of his details.

The King was a scholar and patronized men of art and letters.Most of his countries were scholars of repute and are still remembered for their works like Kuttanimata and Kashikavrti (Commentary on Paninis grammer).

Building activity received a great impetus and new cities and towns were laid by king and his queens. But the closing years of his rule, as related by Kalhan, were full of turmoil as the king ,in order to amass wealth, squeezed his subjects.Cultivators and Brahmans were tyrannized and even deprived of their share of the produce from the land. A large number of people migrated and took refuge in neighbouring states.Ultimately, his rule came to an end when he sustained injuries with a golden pole of the canopy which tumbled down and struck the king. Most of the rulers of Karkota dynasty who succeeded Jayapida to the throne of Kashmir proved mere weaklings and there was desolation all round.The welfare of common man,”whose daily toil provided the economic and social basis to the entire fabric of society” was ignored. To put up the prince of their choice on the throne of Kashmir was the one all-absorbing pre-occupation of the nobles and the courtiers, particularly when Cippata Jayaapda ascended the throne and was guided in his young age by his maternal uncles. One of the maternal uncles named Utpala and his Sukhavarman master minded the accession and the dethronement of a number of puppet kings resulting in great stress and strain in the kingdom. After the death of Sukhavarman, his son Avantivarman with the help of Sura managed his accession to throne of Kashmir and thereby laid the foundation of the rule of a new dynasty called as Utpala dynasty