Unmattavanti’s accession

Accession after Cakravarman’s death

Unmattavanti became king of Kashmir in 937 after Cakravarman was killed. He was a son of Partha, whose two periods on the throne had ended in 921 and 935. Kalhana says Sarvata and other ministers installed him. His rule lasted until 939, when illness and another succession crisis brought this phase of the Utpala dynasty towards its end.

The name is commonly interpreted as the mad Avanti, and Stein’s historical introduction repeats that interpretation. It must not be treated as a clinical diagnosis. The principal account is a hostile portrayal in the twelfth-century Rajatarangini, written roughly two centuries after his lifetime. It reports serious acts of violence while also explaining events through moral and religious judgments.

Ministers and Parvagupta’s ambitions

Kalhana opens the reign with a mocking description of ministers entertaining the king through comic bodily performances. He gives particular prominence to Parvagupta, who later became a ruler himself. In this account, personal favour at court coexisted with ambitions to take the throne.

The chronicle says Parvagupta formed a secret alliance with five leading ministers, including Bhikshata, Sarvata and Kumuda. They sealed their agreement through a sacred libation oath. Kalhana presents the alliance as part of Parvagupta’s attempt to prepare a route to power by reducing the number of royal rivals.

These are claims about motive and conspiracy within the narrative. The text does not preserve a written agreement between the ministers, and their later careers do not independently prove every detail of the earlier plot. The account nevertheless identifies a court in which powerful officeholders could support the reigning king while planning for his replacement.

Rakka and the goddess foundation

Another figure associated with the reign was Rakka, a Brahman who had lived in the household of the Damara Samgrama. Kalhana says the king noticed his courage in battle while he was serving as a foot soldier and raised him to the position of chief minister. The passage links advancement to demonstrated military service rather than simply to inherited rank.

Rakka’s story also includes a religious vision. The chronicle says he encountered the goddess Shri in the waters of Gavaksha lake and established an image in the form in which she had appeared, under the name Rakkajayadevi. The vision belongs to the religious account; it is not an independently observable event.

Stein could not securely identify the lake. He compared the name with a goddess mentioned in the Nilamata but did not establish a definite site. The notice of an image and foundation should therefore be preserved without inventing a surviving monument, a precise modern location or a contemporary record of its endowment.

The destruction of Partha’s household

Kalhana accuses Unmattavanti of turning against his own family at Parvagupta’s urging. His father Partha had lost his property and was living with his wives at the Jayendravihara, supported with food by Buddhist ascetics. The former king’s dependency contrasts with the power held by his son.

The narrative says Unmattavanti confined his younger brothers, including a boy named Sankaravarman, and caused their deaths through hunger. This younger Sankaravarman is distinct from the earlier king of the same name. The passage does not give the names or ages of all the children, or an exact date for their deaths.

Unmattavanti then sought his father’s killing. Kalhana says ministers who agreed received marks of honour, while those who refused were imprisoned. An armed group surrounded Partha at night, assaulted a wife who tried to protect him and killed him after dragging him from his lodging. The account describes an unarmed and impoverished victim, not a death in battle.

The chronicle further alleges that the king approved of the killing and that Parvagupta’s son Devagupta participated in the abuse of Partha’s body afterwards. These details form part of Kalhana’s condemnation of the court. The events belong within the reign of 937–939; the examined passages do not establish a precise year or month for Partha’s death.

Allegations of violence beyond the royal family

The chronicle’s accusations extend to women and labourers. It describes attacks on women, including pregnant women, and deliberate mutilation of labourers as expressions of the king’s cruelty. These allegations should be recorded without turning their graphic presentation into spectacle. The account supplies neither identified case records nor a verified total of victims.

Kalhana also blames oppressive officials for worsening the country’s condition after earlier plundering by Damaras. His criticism of particular officials should not be generalized into blame against an entire hereditary or social community. The passage is evidence of the chronicler’s explanation of misrule, not a comprehensive survey of administration throughout the Valley.

He condemns Brahmans who accepted land grants from the king, attributing their conduct to desire for rewards or fear. Religious patronage therefore appears here as a moral problem for its recipients as well as a royal act. The mere existence of a grant does not resolve the truth of the separate accusations against the donor.

Illness and the choice of a child successor

Kalhana says Unmattavanti suffered from a consumptive disease and presents his suffering as punishment for his conduct. The illness may be reported as part of the historical narrative, but the moral explanation is not a medical cause. The description alone is insufficient to diagnose tuberculosis or another specific disease.

As death approached, the king placed a young child called Suravarman on the throne. The chronicler alleges that women serving in the royal household had brought the child from elsewhere and falsely represented him as the king’s son. This is a disputed-parentage claim within the source, not an independently verified finding about the child’s origins.

Unmattavanti entrusted the successor to chiefs, councillors, Ekangas and Tantrins. He also feared Kamalavardhana, a military commander stationed in Madavarajya who had fought against Damaras and had become his enemy. The planned succession therefore depended on several groups whose loyalty could not simply be assumed.

Death in 939 and the crisis that followed

The king’s death is dated to Ashadha of Laukika year 4015, conventionally 939. The traditional month is retained here without an unverified Gregorian conversion. Kalhana’s claim that the subjects’ merit brought about his death belongs to the work’s moral framework and is not adopted as a factual explanation.

The child is conventionally distinguished as Suravarman II. His position soon collapsed when Kamalavardhana advanced on the capital and defeated the forces supporting him. Kalhana says the child’s mother took him away after his troops deserted him. The military victory did not immediately make Kamalavardhana king; the subsequent selection of Yasaskara belongs to the next entries.

Stein explains Kamalavardhana’s title, kampanadhipati, as a military command. Earlier interpreters had sometimes treated Kampana as a territory. That distinction matters: the passage should not be used to invent a separate kingdom or province ruled by the commander.

Coins and the limits of the surviving account

A Classical Numismatic Gallery catalogue attributes a 6.70-gram copper coin to Unmattavanti or Unmatta Varman, with an approximate date of 937–939. It describes a seated goddess and a standing royal figure, and reads an initial associated with the ruler’s name. These are the catalogue’s attribution and description; an independent reading of the specimen’s inscription has not been established here.

The coin record offers a material avenue of research alongside the literary account. It does not verify the chronicle’s descriptions of particular crimes, identify a precise minting date or establish the parentage of the successor.

Unmattavanti’s reign is remembered chiefly through Kalhana’s account of violence, court intrigue and family destruction. A careful history neither suppresses those allegations nor treats every dramatic detail as independently proven. The ministers, religious foundation, displaced royal household and contested child succession all belong to the record, alongside its considerable uncertainties.