Lalitaditya Muktapida

"Just as he abruptly evanesced from the scene of Kashmir’s history after such an iconic and illustrious reign, Lalitaditya, hailed as the ‘Alexander of India’ and the second Samudragupta, slowly disappeared from popular consciousness and historiography of India. The Karkota dynasty could not produce another emperor as glorious and brave as Lalitaditya and it collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions a century later, by 855 CE. Like the gigantic edifices he established have defied time and survived till date as magnificent ruins, the stories of Lalitaditya’s chivalry, his victories and his charitable works have survived, too, in local folklore and public memory. Lalitaditya Muktapida thus created a permanent niche for himself not only in the history of India, but that of Central and South Asia, positing the primacy of Kashmir as a political, spiritual, intellectual and cultural focal point that was integral to the subcontinent."