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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
32
BUDDHISM IN KASHMIR Towards the end of her sinful life Diddā was able to place her nephew Samgrāmarāja on the throne of Kashmir. He sent a large army to help Sāhi Trilocanapāla (VII. 47-8) but to no effect, as the Sāhis were completely routed by the Turuskas under Hammira. From now on the Sāhi princes took shelter in the Kashmir court and acquired great influence during the reign of Ananta, the grandson of Samgrāmarāja (VII. 146 f.). One of the Sāhi refugees was Rudrapāla, who become the righthand man of king Ananta. He fought against the Daradas and defeated them (VII. 175, 375). At this time an epidemic carried away Rudrapāla and many of the Sāhi princes (VII. 178). After Ananta, his son Kalasa came to the throne. He also had four princes of the Sāhi family as his best companions' (VII. 274) of whom Vijjā was the most trusted and favoured. Towards the end of his life he destroyed the copper-image of Sūrya and appropriated without fear the brass images of the vihāras (VII. 696).
Harsa (1089-1101) Kalasa's son was Utkarsa, who was followed by his son Harsa, a highly gifted prince and a master of all branches of learning (VII. 610). He is called by Kalhana a Turuska and said to have supported the Turuska merceneries (VII, 1095, 1149). Being a Turuşka he was a mleccha by faith, as otherwise he could not have destroyed the Hindu and Buddhist temples. Kalhana writes that “divine images of gold, silver and other materials were rolled about even on the roads, which were covered with nightsoil (VII. 1093). He spared from spoliation only the temple of Raņasvāmin and Mārtanda and spared the two colossal statues of Buddha
1 Vijjā calls himself a Rājaputra, VII. 325, 368.
2 See Stein, I, p353 n. Tāranātha (p. 128) speaks of one Śriharşadeva as having propagated Mleccha faith but he is of an earlier date, being a contemporary of Dignāga.
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