Consider the following statements with reference to the Utpala dynasty of Kashmir: 1. Avantivarman, the founder, devoted his energies to the economic upliftment of his subjects. 2. Avantivarman’s period in Kashmir is known for the engineering operations under his minister Suyya, resulting in the enormous increase of grains and fall in prices. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Correct — C, Both 1 and 2. Avantivarman founded the Utpala line and ruled Kashmir from about 855 to his death on 11 June 883. Kalhana's Rajatarangini records no campaigns for his reign — the frontier districts stayed outside Kashmiri control throughout — and instead credits him with rebuilding the administration, restoring internal security and repairing the state's resources, which is statement 1. Statement 2 names the work that made the reign famous. His minister Suyya cleared the boulders that were choking the Vitasta, the river the plains call the Jhelum, raised embankments along it, and shifted its course so that the water drained properly instead of standing on the fields. Land that had been waterlogged came under the plough, and Suyya then fixed a permanent share of irrigation water for each village. The chronicle marks the result in the grain market: the price of paddy fell from 36 dinnaras to 20. Suyya's own town, Suyyapura, is the modern Sopore in north Kashmir.
- (a)1 only — Drops the engineering, which is the single achievement Kalhana dwells on longest for this reign. Suyya's work on the Vitasta and the fall in grain prices are both in the Rajatarangini.
- (b)2 only — Denies statement 1, but the two go together — the drainage works were the economic policy. Kalhana's Avantivarman is a ruler who fought no wars and spent his effort on the state's resources.
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Rejects a reign for which the source is unusually detailed. Both claims come from the same chapter of the Rajatarangini.
Kashmir is the one early Indian region with a continuous dynastic chronicle. Kalhana's Rajatarangini, written in Sanskrit verse in the twelfth century, runs from legendary beginnings down to the author's own day, and it is the reason we can name a ninth-century minister and quote a grain price. The Utpala dynasty that Avantivarman founded in 855 followed the Karkota line of Lalitaditya Muktapida. Avantivarman also founded a capital called Avantipura after himself and built two temples there, the Avantiswami for Vishnu and the Avantishvara for Shiva, whose stone ruins still stand in Pulwama district.
Assertion-style memory items on regional dynasties look forbidding, but this one is built from a single famous story that most sources tell the same way, so you can rebuild it if you remember the pairing of a king with an engineer. The trap is to read statement 1 as a claim about conquest and reject it — Avantivarman is remembered precisely for not campaigning. Two cautions on detail: Kalhana's figures for the fall in the price of paddy are reported differently across editions and summaries, so quote them as a sharp fall rather than as a fixed number; and the identification of Suyyapura with modern Sopore, though standard, rests on the name rather than on excavation.
- Avantivarman founded the Utpala dynasty of Kashmir and reigned from about 855 until his death on 11 June 883.
- The Rajatarangini records no military activity in his reign, and the frontier territories stayed outside Kashmiri control.
- His minister Suyya removed the boulders obstructing the Vitasta (Jhelum), embanked the river and altered its course, bringing waterlogged land into cultivation.
- Suyya also fixed the share of irrigation water due to each village on a permanent basis, and founded the town of Suyyapura, identified with modern Sopore.
- Avantivarman founded Avantipura and built the Avantiswami and Avantishvara temples there; their ruins survive in Pulwama district.
- Assuming a king's reputation must rest on conquest; Avantivarman's rests on drainage works.
- Crediting the engineering to Avantivarman himself rather than to Suyya, the minister the chronicle names.
- Confusing the Utpala kings of Kashmir with the Utpala or Uppala families known elsewhere in Indian dynastic lists.
As a two-statement item pairing a ruler with a named minister or public work, or as a one-line question on who wrote the Rajatarangini.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which Sanskrit chronicle is the principal source for the dynastic history of early Kashmir?
- (a)Harshacharita
- (b)Rajatarangini
- (c)Prithviraja-vijaya
- (d)Vikramankadeva-charita
Answer(b) Rajatarangini — Kalhana's twelfth-century verse chronicle of the kings of Kashmir.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The river on which Suyya carried out his drainage and embankment works in Kashmir is known in the plains by which name?
- (a)Chenab
- (b)Ravi
- (c)Jhelum
- (d)Beas
Answer(c) Jhelum — the Vitasta of Sanskrit sources, which Suyya cleared and embanked under Avantivarman.