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 LALITADITYA 125

over Kashmir, it was from Kashmir that conquerors were to go forth to extend their sway over neigh- bouring districts in the Punjab.

Lalitaditya’s reign extended from about 699 to 786. He was therefore a contemporary of Charlemagne, and preceded our own King Alfred by more than a century. Mohamed was already dead a hundred years, but his religion had not yet spread to India, The Kashmiri historians speak of Lalitaditya’s “conquering the world,” and mix up much fable with fact. But what certainly is true is that he asserted his authority over the hilly tracts of the northern Punjab, that he attacked and reduced the King of Kanauj to sub- mission, that he conquered the Tibetans, success- fully invaded Badakbshan in Central Asia, and sent embassies to Peking. 1

Though, then, he was not the “ universal monarch ” that the historian described him, and did. not “move round the earth like the sun,” or “ putting his foot on the islands as if they were stepping- stones, move quickly and without difficulty over the ocean,” he is yet the most conspicuous figure in Kashmir history, and raised his country to a pitch of glory it had never reached before or attained ‘to since. It was he who erected the temple at