Sussala returns to power

Restoration without a settled peace

Sussala recovered Srinagar in May 1121 after defeating the forces sent against him during Bhikshachara’s short reign. His return restored possession of the palace, but it did not reunite the political forces of the Valley. Bhikshachara survived, neighbouring rulers continued to offer support, and the Damaras who controlled local strongholds changed sides as circumstances altered.

The second reign lasted until Sussala’s assassination in 1128. Its history includes repeated sieges, the burning of the Chakradhara sanctuary, a deadly bridge collapse, the destruction of much of Srinagar and a famine. These events affected households, religious institutions, food supplies and routes of movement, not only the king and his rivals.

Kalhana provides the principal connected account. His narrative is especially detailed for the crises of 1121–1123 and the king’s final conspiracy. It does not provide an equally full record for every intervening month or year. This article preserves that unevenness instead of filling gaps with invented events or dates.

A returning ruler and a surviving rival

After regaining the capital, Sussala appointed Nalla, son of Vatta, to Kheri and Harshamitra to command the army. Kalhana says he broke up the throne that Bhikshachara had occupied and distributed it to servants. The episode presents restoration as an intensely personal repudiation of the rival’s rule.

Bhikshachara, meanwhile, received assistance in Somapala’s territory. Bimba, previously described as changing sides, died while seeking help from Vismaya. Stein notes that the sequence implies another change of allegiance by Bimba, but the narrative does not fully explain that transition. It should not be silently smoothed into an uninterrupted loyalty.

Prithvihara attacked Shurapura, defeated the royal officer there and brought Bhikshachara back into the Valley. He gained supporters in Madavarajya and defeated Harshamitra near Vijayeshvara. People from nearby towns and villages fled towards the Chakradhara sanctuary, taking children, animals, grain and household property with them. Royal soldiers also sought refuge there.

The burning of Chakradhara in 1121

The refugees gathered within the sanctuary’s courtyard, protected by wooden ramparts and gates. Bhikshachara’s forces surrounded them. Kalhana attributes the setting of the fire to a Damara named Janakaraja, who wanted to kill a personal enemy called Karpura sheltering inside.

The ensuing account describes people trapped by flames, smoke and frightened animals. Some who escaped were killed by the surrounding forces. The narrative places the burning on the twelfth day of the bright half of Shravana. It belongs to the renewed fighting after the restoration in 1121; no exact modern calendar date is assigned here.

Kalhana treats the burning as a major crime and assigns responsibility to Bhikshachara’s side, while identifying Janakaraja as the person who set the fire. The account supplies no dependable numerical death toll. Its claim that households across thousands of settlements were emptied conveys the scale of loss as the chronicler understood it, rather than a verified count of affected villages.

The victims included people seeking safety with their families and possessions. The presence of soldiers does not erase the civilian refuge described in the text. Nor should the episode be reduced to the destruction of a building: the killing of people inside and outside the enclosure is central to the account.

Stein associated the sanctuary with the Tsakdar plateau near Vijayeshvara. His nineteenth-century observations included possible traces of an enclosure, but he expressed uncertainty about their interpretation. They are not a modern excavation confirming every feature of the narrative.

Retaliation and the renewal of distrust

Bhikshachara proceeded to Vijayaksetra and killed Nageshvara, whom the chronicle identifies with the betrayal of his father. Sussala advanced, appointed Simba commander and regained ground. Janakaraja died near Avantipura. Bodies remaining at Chakradhara were disposed of in the river or cremated within the ruined enclosure.

The fighting continued elsewhere. During an encounter in Ashvayuja at Manimusha, heavy rain contributed to a royal defeat. Kalhana now praises Bhikshachara’s endurance and ability to protect his followers, markedly altering the portrait of the ineffectual ruler found in the preceding reign. That change deserves attention rather than being omitted to keep either side uniformly heroic or villainous.

An untimely snowfall later disadvantaged Bhikshachara’s forces, and he withdrew again with Prithvihara. The relief did not produce reconciliation. Sussala drove Mallakoshtha into exile, imprisoned Ananda, and executed Simba with his younger brothers Simha and Thakkanasimha. These were reprisals against men who had served the royal cause as well as people suspected of disloyalty.

Prajji received the Gate office, and his brother Sujji received the rajasthana office, translated by Stein as chief justice. Kalhana connects the king’s growing dependence on newcomers and longstanding personal followers with renewed fear among other officers. Victory in the field repeatedly failed to create dependable political support.

The return of war in 1122

Bhikshachara and Prithvihara returned in Magha, encouraged by Mallakoshtha and others. Stein places this lunar month approximately in January–February 1122 and notes the unusual early passage across the mountains. His suggestion of favourable conditions is an explanation of the report, not a recovered weather record.

Sussala moved to the Navamatha, which the river partly enclosed. During Chaitra, fighting reached the capital again. The king later advanced against Prithvihara near Vijayaksetra, while other royal officers confronted Mallakoshtha. Manujeshvara, Prithvihara’s brother, defeated Sujji and entered part of Srinagar, burning houses before withdrawing towards the Kshiptika.

Believing the city had been taken, Sussala brought his forces back. Their retreat led to a disaster at the Gambhira, the lower course of the Vishoka identified by Stein with the Vesau near its confluence with the Vitasta. The bridge failed under the press of the troops.

The bridge collapse and Silla’s resistance

Kalhana dates the collapse to the sixth day of the dark half of Jyeshtha in 1122. Many soldiers drowned. Sussala himself fell into the river and escaped with difficulty. The chronicle’s expressions for the scale of the losses are not an audited casualty total, and its description of the small surviving royal party should not be converted into an exact percentage of the army.

Troops left behind were led from Vijayeshvara towards Devasarasa by Silla, identified as Vijaya’s mother. Prithvihara attacked and killed her, dispersed the force and installed Tikka in her seat. The episode records a woman exercising military leadership during a royal retreat, rather than appearing only through marriage or mourning.

Stein identifies her son with the powerful Vijaya previously associated with Devasarasa. The narrative does not supply a complete biography of Silla, her age or the formal title under which she commanded. Those gaps should remain visible. Her leadership and death are sufficient grounds for a separate historical topic without embellishing them with invented speeches or exploits.

Other royal troops were captured or killed, and some ministers escaped across the mountains. Prithvihara and Bhikshachara then gathered forces for another siege of Srinagar. The collapse had therefore weakened both the returning army and the wider royal position.

Sieges, regional allies and the struggle for Lahara

Sussala held the city with officers and contingents from several regions. Kalhana names men associated with Champa, Vallapura and the Takka territory, alongside Kashmiri supporters. Prajji and Sujji became especially important, sharing revenue and military responsibility with the king. These alliances cannot be mapped neatly onto modern national identities.

A major attack across the Mahasarit led to fighting around Gopadri. Bhikshachara helped his troops withdraw from the hill, while Mallakoshtha’s arriving force threatened the king. Prajji and Sujji intervened. The encounter is dated to the eighth day of the dark half of Ashadha in the 1122 sequence.

Yashoraja returned from exile and received high honours and military responsibility. The king also promoted Panchachandra, a surviving son of Gargachandra, against Mallakoshtha. Panchachandra was still under the guardianship of his mother Chudda, whose household attracted former supporters of his father.

The conflict damaged the city repeatedly. Mallakoshtha had the empty palace near the Sadashiva temple burned, and Prithvihara’s forces burned houses along the Vitasta. Royal operations in Lahara drove Mallakoshtha towards the Darad country, while Chudda and her son gained influence locally. Men also drowned during a royal crossing of the Sindhu when the inflated skins used for passage failed.

Chudda’s death and another collapse of alliances

After the summer operations in Lahara, fighting shifted again towards Shamala. In Pausha, Prithvihara sent Tikka against Chudda. Kalhana describes her resisting with her own forces and royal troops before she was killed. The precise location is obscured by a textual problem noted by Stein.

The episode follows the summer and autumn campaigning of 1122. Pausha crosses the boundary of modern calendar years in many conversions, so it would be misleading to supply a precise month and day without checking the relevant calendar. Chudda’s death belongs to that winter sequence, with the conversion left open here.

Yashoraja subsequently deserted after being insulted by the king, taking a substantial force with him. Sussala returned to the city in Magha and increasingly relied on Prajji. Mallakoshtha also returned after learning of Chudda’s death. The political gains made earlier in Lahara had not ended the rebellion.

The great fire of Srinagar in 1123

Kalhana introduces Laukika 4199, corresponding to 1123–1124, as a year of exceptional suffering. The Damaras besieged Srinagar again in spring. He records heat, earthquakes and violent storms, but gives no measurements from which a modern earthquake magnitude or weather reconstruction could be derived.

Yashoraja died during the fighting. One account describes his own men mistaking him for an enemy because of similar armour and horses. Kalhana also records a report that the Damaras deliberately killed him because they feared his ability to secure the throne for Bhikshachara. These are alternative explanations, not two independently established parts of the same killing.

On the twelfth day of the bright half of Jyeshtha, a fire began in Kasthila during a major battle. The chronicle attributes an initial house fire to the Damaras, but is uncertain whether wind or lightning explains the larger conflagration. The flames spread across the built-up city.

Homes, markets, monasteries and temples were destroyed. People removed bathing structures and boat bridges to escape the fire’s spread. Kalhana singles out a large Buddha image standing blackened after the loss of its surrounding building. The vivid description records the destruction of a city shared by different religious institutions, not only a royal military position.

Royal soldiers scattered to protect their quarters. Sussala, isolated with a reduced following, nevertheless survived the day’s fighting. The chronicle’s admiration for his courage should not obscure the loss experienced by inhabitants whose houses, stores and places of worship had burned.

Famine and the exhaustion of households

The destruction of food stores was followed by famine. Kalhana links the shortage to several pressures operating together: households had spent their savings during the prolonged conflict, homes had burned, Damaras seized produce outside the city, and roads were obstructed. A fire became a wider subsistence crisis because supplies and movement were already insecure.

People who depended on payments from the royal household also suffered when those payments ceased. Further fires broke out among surviving buildings as starving people searched for food. The account describes deaths and extreme hunger but does not provide the information needed for a reliable population loss estimate.

Stein explains the importance of grain collected as revenue and stored in Srinagar. His note helps interpret why the destruction of concentrated stocks could be so damaging, but its comparison with later practices is not a complete medieval budget or a survey of every household’s food supply.

The famine is part of the history of the war itself. It should not be presented as an unrelated natural disaster, nor reduced to the ruler’s emotional response. The recorded seizure of produce, disruption of routes and exhaustion of savings place civilian survival at the centre of the crisis.

Meghamanjari’s death and Jayasimha’s coronation

During these hardships, the chief queen Meghamanjari died while travelling towards Kashmir to join Sussala. The place is given as Phullapura, which Stein could not securely locate. Kalhana describes the king’s grief and records deaths among members of her household. His praise of their fatal acts of devotion should not be repeated as an instruction or an ideal of loyalty.

Sussala summoned his son Jayasimha from Lohara and met him at Varahamula. The prince entered a severely damaged Srinagar. His father had him crowned on the first day of Ashadha in the 1123 sequence, but retained control of government. This earlier coronation must be distinguished from Jayasimha’s assumption of sole rule after Sussala’s death in 1128.

Kalhana associates the coronation with the easing of the blockade and other troubles, followed by improved supplies in Shravana. The sequence does not establish that the ceremony itself caused the change. The account gives no basis for dismissing the role of renewed produce and altered military conditions.

The relationship between father and son deteriorated after accusations against Jayasimha. Sussala ordered him placed under restraint, and the prince remained subject to surveillance. The extent and continuity of his confinement require care, but the attempted transfer of royal dignity had clearly not resolved the problem of succession.

Recovery in the field and the Utpala conspiracy

Later operations brought royal successes near Kalyanapura and in Devasarasa. Tikka submitted and provided a hostage. Bhikshachara lost positions and considered leaving the Valley. Yet military recovery did not undo the prolonged losses borne by the population, which Kalhana continues to emphasise.

Utpala, associated with Tikka, became an intermediary whom Sussala trusted. The king offered rewards for the killing of Bhikshachara and Tikka and gave Utpala gifts and office. According to Kalhana, Utpala instead joined a plan against Sussala. The narrative presents private conversations involving his wife, but these remain the chronicler’s account of the conspiracy rather than independently preserved testimony.

Shringara warned the king. Sussala rejected the accusation, even as some people around him were uneasy. Kalhana explains this through fate and the collapse of a ruler’s judgment. A historical account can describe the warning and misplaced trust without accepting destiny as a demonstrated cause.

The narrative compresses parts of the later reign. It does not warrant assigning every undated negotiation or encounter to a specific month between 1124 and 1127. More precise reconstruction would require additional evidence and examination of the calendar and manuscript problems.

Assassination in 1128 and the succession

Utpala, Vyaghra and Prashastaraja attacked Sussala during an audience. The minister Tilhila was also killed, and violence and plunder followed in and around the royal residence. Some attendants resisted, while others fled. The account’s graphic details are unnecessary to establish the assassination and collapse of immediate royal protection.

Kalhana dates Sussala’s death to the new moon of Phalguna in Laukika 4203 and says he had lived fifty-five years. The year corresponds to 1128. The traditional date is retained here without claiming a fresh calculation of its exact modern equivalent.

Jayasimha received the news while his own freedom was restricted. Advisers disagreed about whether to withdraw to Lohara or resist Bhikshachara. He remained, protected key royal resources and offered an amnesty that helped attract support. The transition belongs to the next reign, but shows why Sussala’s death did not automatically restore his rival.

The second reign left a contested succession and a population damaged by repeated warfare. Its record also preserves people too easily lost in lists of kings: refugees at Chakradhara, soldiers drowned at the bridge, Silla and Chudda leading resistance, households facing famine, and inhabitants trying to survive the destruction of Srinagar. Their experiences belong in the chronology alongside accessions and battles.