Didda begins her regency

A child king and a queen exercising power

When Ksemagupta died in 958, his son Abhimanyu was still a child. Didda, the boy’s mother, exercised royal power as guardian. This began a long period during which she governed through the reigns of younger male members of the family before taking the throne in her own name.

Didda’s marriage connected the Kashmiri court with Lohara. Kalhana’s account of her career is detailed, but often hostile in its descriptions of character and conduct. The political events in that account need to be separated from the chronicler’s moral judgments, especially where stories about a woman’s authority are intertwined with accusations about sexuality or supernatural acts.

Ministers, rival claimants and rebellion

Kalhana describes an early conflict with the minister Phalguna, whom Didda drove into exile. Another confrontation involved Mahiman and Patala, grandees connected through their mothers to the family of Parvagupta. Their resistance threatened the queen’s position. According to the narrative, she survived partly by persuading or paying important supporters to abandon the opposition.

Yasodhara, a military commander whose support had become important, then attracted Didda’s suspicion. When she attempted to remove him, rebellion resumed and she was besieged in her palace. The minister Naravahana and other supporters helped her survive the crisis.

The chronicle reports severe reprisals against captured opponents and their families. These should not be omitted from a history of Didda simply because her success as a woman ruler attracts admiration. Equally, the report remains a claim transmitted through Kalhana’s narrative, rather than a judicially established account with independently documented victim totals.

The insecurity of office

Naravahana’s service did not secure his position indefinitely. Kalhana describes his loss of favour and death by suicide. Further conflict with powerful landed groups, known as Damaras, contributed to Phalguna’s return.

The sequence illustrates how unstable court relationships could be. A minister could move from indispensable ally to suspected rival, while a former opponent could be recalled when circumstances changed. Describing the period only as a succession of kings would miss the people and alliances through which royal power was exercised.

Abhimanyu’s death and the grandson kings

Abhimanyu died in 972. Nandigupta succeeded him, followed by Tribhuvanagupta and Bhimagupta. Didda continued to dominate the court through these short reigns. Kalhana connects this period with foundations intended to preserve the memory of Didda and her family, including the Diddamatha.

The chronicle also accuses Didda of causing the deaths of her grandsons. Some episodes are explained through witchcraft. Such an explanation cannot be accepted as a historical mechanism. The account should be reported as the chronicler’s accusation, with the distinction between a recorded succession and an alleged means of death kept clear.

From regent to sovereign

By 980 or 981, Didda ruled in her own name. Her regency and her subsequent reign are related but distinct phases: during the first, male relatives formally occupied the throne; during the second, she was the reigning monarch.

The transition is treated separately in this library because it changes the formal structure of authority. It also allows the violence and instability of the regency to be examined without reducing the whole of Didda’s career to either praise or condemnation.