The Khasa kingdom of the Karnali

Who rules

Name

Not known by name for 1 January 1200. Nearest names: the Tibetan list gives Naga lde, bTsan phyug lde, bKra shis lde and Grags btsan lde before Grags pa lde; Tucci reads them as Nagaraja, Chapa, Chapilla and Krasicalla before Krachalla.

Title

King (raja) of the Khasa at Sinja

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

A dynasty founded by Nagaraja, who came from Khari (Ngari) and made Sinja his capital (Wikipedia, Khasa Kingdom, citing the Dullu inscription); the Dullu pillar of Prithvi Malla (Saka 1279, 1357) says the line began six generations before Krachalla.

Confidence

low

Wikipedia's Khasa Kingdom page puts Nagaraja's rise in the eleventh century (infobox) or the early twelfth (Tibetan list). The first dated king is Krachalla, whose reign Tucci and Gnyawali begin in 1207 (a reconstruction) and whose Baleshwar copper plate is dated Poush of Saka 1145 (the page says 1223; by the usual March new year that is December 1223 or January 1224). So a king who is not Krachalla, or Krachalla's father or predecessor, sits at Sinja on 1 January 1200, but no source we could read names him with a date.

What the realm holds

• the Sinja valley and the Jumla basin (the capital and the home of the Khas language)
• Humla and the Limi road to Purang
• Mugu and the high Karnali valleys
• the hill country towards Kalikot and Dullu, which is the debatable ground with the Katyuri heirs and the Magar chiefs
• the salt and wool road down the Karnali

How it was acquired

Founding by Nagaraja, eleventh or early twelfth century, traditional. The kingdom is a creation of the same age as the break-up of the Katyuri state of Kumaon and the division of Guge-Purang.

Allies and rivals

North: Purang (the Guge branch), across the Limi and Mayum passes, with whom the Khasa kings share a Tibetan list of kings. South-west: the Katyuri successor lords of Doti, Sui and Baijnath (the Northern India map's ground). South and east: Magar hill chiefs and, far off, the Nepal valley, with which the Khasa have no recorded contact before 1288.

The realm that morning

A kingdom in the making, secure in its valleys, with its king not named in any source we could read and its borders not fixed. Dullu, which later kings treat as a second capital, is not shown as a Khasa possession before the thirteenth century; we draw it as claimed.

Wealth

Grain (barley, buckwheat, millet in the lower valleys), sheep, goats and yaks, salt and wool from Tibet, and tolls on the Humla and Limi passes. Cliff and pillar inscriptions of the thirteenth century show Devanagari writing in Sinja and Dullu.

Military

Hill levies and the keepers of forts (kot, garhi). No number is known and none is given.

Threats

• The Katyuri heirs of Doti and Askot, and their rivals, on the south-western marches
• Magar and Gurung hill chiefs on the south-east
• a Tibetan or Guge move over the Limi passes, which no source shows for this winter

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. 1207 (Tucci, Gnyawali; a reconstruction)Krachalla (Grags pa lde, Kradhicalla) takes the throne.Depends on: The death or fall of the king of 1200; the date is a scholar's reading and may be wrong by years. Stopped by: If the king of 1200 is Krachalla himself, nothing happens.
2. Poush of Saka 1145, about December 1223 or January 1224 (Baleshwar copper plate)Krachalla records a victory in 'Vijayarajya' and the destruction of the city of Kantipura (taken to be Kartikeyapura, the Katyuri seat at Baijnath); he calls himself 'parama saugata'.Depends on: A successful Khasa campaign into Kumaon after the Katyuri break-up. Stopped by: Katyuri recovery or a Khasa defeat.

Places of note

• Sinja valley (Jumla), capital: Capital and centre of the Khas language.
• Dullu: Later second capital; the Prithvi Malla pillar of 1357 stands here.

Where the sources disagree

• Wikipedia's Khasa Kingdom page says there were two Khas dynasties, one at Guge and one at Jumla, and lists the same kings in two forms; we treat the Tibetan 'Ya rtse' list and the Sanskrit 'challa' kings as one dynasty at Sinja, which is how Tucci read them, and say so as a reading.
• The brief puts the Khasa Malla invasions of the valley from 1288. Wikipedia's Malla page gives 1275 to 1335 for the raids, and the Gopalarajavamsavali's first dated Khasa entry is NS 408 (1288). The campaign board has no Khasa place to compare.

Evidence: One dated copper plate (1223) and a stone pillar of 1357 listing ten kings carry the whole record; the earlier kings are known only from a Tibetan king list and Tucci's reading of it.

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

On the map: The Khasa realm in 1200 is a reading from later inscriptions: the Sinja valley and Humla are the sure part; the south and west edge is not pinned.

Primary sources for this realm

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 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.
• The Blue Annals, Go Lotsawa Zhonnu Pal ('Gos lo tsa ba gZhon nu dpal) (1476 to 1478). The fullest Tibetan account of who mattered around 1200, written three centuries later from earlier biographies and lineage records, many now lost. Read online
• Indo-Tibetica (the temples and inscriptions of western Tibet), with the Royal Genealogy of Ngari, Giuseppe Tucci (editor and translator); the genealogy by Ngawang Drakpa (Ngag dbang grags pa) (the inscriptions and temple records of the 11th to 15th centuries; Indo-Tibetica published 1932 to 1941; the genealogy about 1497). Guge, Purang and Ladakh in 1200 are among the least documented kingdoms in the atlas. Read online