Lohara dynasty

The Lohara dynasty ruled Kashmir and its surrounding valleys from 1003 to 1320, beginning when Queen Didda of the Khasha hill chiefs passed the throne to her nephew Samgramaraja. The family's original seat was the fortress of Loharkot in the Pir Panjal, and its early history survives chiefly through Kalhana's Rajatarangini, a court chronicle written in the twelfth century. Samgramaraja repelled several raids by Mahmud of Ghazni and sheltered the fading Hindu Shahis of Gandhara. Later kings were weaker: Ananta pawned the royal diadem to cover his debts, his son Kalasha lost authority to his own court, and Harsha's tyranny provoked revolt. The dynasty nonetheless endured for three centuries, its rulers presiding over a Kashmir famous for temples, Sanskrit learning and the pilgrimage economy of the valley. Their control contracted as the Delhi Sultanate and local chieftains pressed in, and in 1320 the last Lohara ruler, Suhadeva, was overthrown by Rinchan, a Buddhist adventurer who founded the Kashmir Sultanate. The dynasty's memory was kept alive by the very chronicles it commissioned, which remain the main source for medieval Kashmir.