Suket and Mandi

Who he is

Title

Raja of Suket (Sen line)

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

By the late family tradition the Sen rajas of Suket came from the Sena of Bengal; Mandi is a branch of Suket whose founding falls in the generations about 1200 in the Mandi tradition (unchecked). Kahlur (Bilaspur) is held by a Chandel line.

Confidence

low

Tradition only. Hutchison and Vogel vol. 2 was refused by the fetch tool.

What it holds

• The Suket valley (Sundernagar, Pangna)
• The Beas gorge at Mandi, a crossing and a salt-road place
• Kahlur, the Sutlej hill country of the Chandel line (Bilaspur)

How it was acquired

Hereditary.

Allies and rivals

Kangra to the north-west, Kullu to the north, the Simla hill thakurais to the south, the Ghurid Punjab below.

How things stand that morning

Several small hill lordships, the first of them probably already formed, outside any recorded Ghurid reach. Mandi's founding date in the tradition cannot be tested.

Wealth

Salt from Guma and Drang (later, unchecked), timber, grain, tolls on the Beas gorge.

Military

Hill levies; no numbers.

Threats

• None named

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. about 1200 (family tradition, unchecked)Mandi branches off Suket under a brother of the Suket raja.Depends on: The tradition being right. Stopped by: Not testable.

Places of note

• Mandi: Beas gorge crossing
• Sundernagar (Suket): valley of the Sen rajas

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry has "Suket" and "Mandi (the Beas gorge)" as territory with no fortress of note. That is right for the evidence: no fort of the decade is named.

Evidence: Late tradition only.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: District block; no border inside it is known for 1200.

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.