Kashmir: Unraveling Crossroads in The Hindukush-Pamir Region

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Kashmir, Tibet, and China’s Tang Dynasty: Unraveling Historical Crossroads in the Hindukush-Pamir Region

By Subhash Kak

There is an interesting backstory to the links between Kashmir and rival Tibetan and Tang empires during the years before Lalitāditya’s ascension to the throne. A Kashmiri envoy was at the Tang court, and we have evidence that the Tang envoy to Kashmir in 720 reciprocated with honours to ‘King Candrāpīḍa’.

In the 8th century, Tibet was the dominant power north of the Himalayas and Tang China was jostling to increase its influence in the region. As part of a peace treaty signed between the Tang court and the Tibetans in 707, Princess Jincheng was given in marriage to the Tibetan emperor Tridé Tsuktsen (Tibetan: ཁྲི་ལྡེ་གཙུག་བཙན, r. 704–755 ce).

The princess arrived in 710 as a 12-year-old but was extremely unhappy in her marriage. In 723, she asked for asylum in Kashmir in a letter sent through two Chinese envoys saying, ‘You are friendly toward China; I wish to leave [Tibet] and surrender to you. Are you willing to accept me?’ The Kashmiri king, Tārāpīḍa, sent back a message saying, ‘Princess, do come here and we will do our utmost to attend [to your needs].’

The intermediary in this exchange was the king of Zābulistān (southern Afghanistan) and a military alliance between him and Kashmir was proposed to counter any Tibetan attack. The Tang Emperor Xuanzong approved of this plan.

The Princess’s plan for asylum in Kashmir, however, never materialized, perhaps due to Tārāpīḍa’s death shortly after he had received the secret communication. Was he killed by Tibetan agents? We don’t know. Princess Jincheng stayed on as empress consort of Tibet although she was to die young in 739 at the age of 41.

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Lalitāditya and the Tang Empire

The first few decades of the 8th century were extremely fluid in the history of the Hindukush-Pamir region. From the west, Turkic forces had made significant inroads, and the Tibetans asserted their power by occupying strategic locations in the area.

From further northeast, the Tang court tried to defend its garrisons in the Taklamakan, which were under pressure from the Tibetans, while trying to extend its western borders. Taking the Tibetans as a serious threat to its vassals in the region, the Tang court established diplomatic relations with kingdoms located in the southern Hindukush region.

This explains the friendly relations between the Tang emperor of China and Lalitāditya. It appears that Lalitāditya saw the Tibetan empire as the greater threat and formed strategic alliance with the Tang Empire.

In 733, Lalitāditya wrote to the Chinese that he, together with an ally in central India, had defeated the Tibetans in north India. He now offered military help to the Chinese to reduce the sway of Tibet in the north and supply of provisions to an army even as large as 200,000 strong.

In 737, Little Palūr (Gilgit valley) capitulated to the Tibetans. To secure their position in the Gilgit valley, the Tibetans gave Princess Khri-ma-lod in marriage to Sushilizhi, the pro-Tibetan leader of Little Palūr.

The Tang forces and Lalitāditya, with his formidable cavalry and infantry, continued to battle the Tibetans for control of the region and after three-failed attempts captured it in 747 ce.

Two years later (in 749 ce), the Tang court was visited by an envoy from Tokharistan (Bactria), with a request to renew the alliance with Kashmir for a campaign against Tibet’s ally Kashgar.

The Chinese acted on the envoy’s recommendation and sent precious gifts to Lalitāditya. The next year Kashgar was conquered by Tang general Gao Xianzhi in alliance with Lalitāditya’s forces. Considering that the Chinese approached Lalitāditya for support, this victory could be seen as an extension of Kashmir’s dominions.

The Tibetan invasion of Kashmir in 747 by Emperor Tridé Tsuktsen forced Lalitāditya to return to the Himalayas. He repelled the Tibetans, and invaded the Tarim Basin, and appears to have conquered the kingdoms of Kucha and Turfan. The Turkic kingdom of Tukharistan and the Darad kingdom in the Kishanganga valley were also invaded.

Kalhaṇa’s account speaks of Lalitāditya’s victory over a kingdom ruled by women (strī-rājya). The background to this is a mention by Xuanzang of a ‘Land of Gold’, Suvarṇagotra, that was ruled by women where the male king had no authority and all affairs were directed by the queen: ‘The men manage the wars and sow the land, that is all.’

This strīrājya mentioned appears to be the Shigar valley of Baltistan, famous for gold-washing and as temporary home of migrants arriving from the north as described in the Buddhist ‘Inquiry of Vimalaprabhā’.

Some say that the threat of advancing Muslim armies made it easy for Lalitāditya to absorb the neighbouring Turkic kingdoms and in the process he acquired their superior Sasanian and Chinese military technologies. It was this ‘modernized army’ of Lalitāditya that mounted successful attacks on the rest of India.

(Excerpted from Whispers From The Past: Art And Wisdom of Kashmir by Subhash Kak, Published by BluOne Ink)