Kings and their demesnes · The hill rajas of the Himalayan foot · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Raja of Jammu

Jammu is the hill and plain edge between the Ravi and the Chenab, with Babbapura (Babor) and Vallapura (Billawar-Basohli) in the hills above it, the same names the Rajatarangini gave in the 1120s as the lords who came and went from Kashmir's wars.

The brief asks whether Jammu is Kashmir's or the Ghurids'. The evidence we could read does not answer: a Jammu raja was a power in the Lahore country in 1181 and later accounts have him on the Ghurid side in 1186; the Persian map gave Kashmir its own record (Jagadeva) and Rajauri and Poonch. We draw Jammu with the hill rajas and mark it as not pinned.

Who he is

Name
Not known for 1 January 1200
Title
Raja of Jammu (Durgara)
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
The Jammu house of tradition (the Jamwal Rajputs) is not traceable by name in the twelfth century in the pages read.
Confidence
low

Wikipedia Muhammad of Ghor mentions only that the Khokhars were subject to the rulers of Jammu in 1181; a Persian story of a raja of Jammu helping the Ghurids at Lahore in 1186 is remembered but not checked here.

Overlord

not pinned: Kashmir under Jagadeva in name, the Ghurids of Lahore in reach; per-sheet matter

What it holds

  • Jammu town and fort
  • The foot of the Pir Panjal and the Tawi valley
  • Babbapura (Babor) and Vallapura (Billawar and Basohli)
  • The Jasrota edge toward Kathua

How it was acquired

Hereditary by tradition.

Allies and rivals

The Khokhar chiefs of the Salt Range and Jhelum-Chenab plains; Lahore; Kashmir across the passes.

How things stand that morning

A border kingship whose loyalty cannot be fixed.

Wealth

Foot-hill tolls and cattle, the Chenab-Ravi plain edge.

Military

Hill levies; no numbers.

Threats

  • Lahore

Places of note

  • Jammu: fort and town on the Tawi
  • Babbapura (Babor): Rajatarangini name
  • Vallapura (Basohli): Rajatarangini name

Where the sources disagree

  • Brief: Jammu may be coloured Kashmir's or the Ghurids'. We colour it hill_rajas with allegiance "not pinned"; this is a judgment, not a finding.

Evidence: No inscription; a stray reference in the Ghurid chronicles at second hand.

On the map: A district-level block; allegiance unpinned.

Primary sources for Hill rajas

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • The River of Kings, with Jonaraja's continuation, Kalhana; continued by Jonaraja (Kalhana 1148 to 1150; Jonaraja about 1459). Kalhana's chronicle stops in 1149, so for 1200 the witness is Jonaraja, writing three centuries later and very briefly. Read online
  • The Gopala Raja Chronicle, and the Nepalese colophons, Anonymous (chronicle); various scribes (colophons) (the chronicle about 1389; the colophons are contemporary notes of the 11th to 14th centuries). The Nepal valley in 1200 is known chiefly from dated manuscript colophons and short inscriptions, which name the reigning king with the Nepal era year, and from the Gopalarajavamsavali, a chronicle written about 1389 that lists the kings with regnal years.

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia, Muhammad of Ghor (Lahore taken 1186; Khokhars under the rulers of Jammu in 1181; no hill state named)
  2. Hutchison and Vogel, History of the Panjab Hill States, vol. 1 (Lahore 1933), archive.org full text, searched for Baijnath, Hridaya-Chandra and Muhammad Ghori

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.