Rajataringini describes the family of chiefs of Lohara from Khasa tribe, which ruled from 1003 CE to 1320 CE. seated at a hill fortress called Loharkotta. This region was located in the valley of Loharin (marked as Loran on maps), belonging to the territory of Prunts (Parnotsa). It was a well populated, fertile mountain district formed by the valley of streams which drained the southern Pir Panjal ranges between the peak of Tatakuti and the Toamaidan pass and was situtated on a trade route connecting western Punjab and Kashmir.

Samgrāmarāja is considered as the founder of the Lohara dynasty.He repulsed several attacks of Mahmud of Ghazni against Kashmir, and he also supported ruler Trilochanapala against Muslim attacks.The reign of Samgrāmarāja between 1003 and June or July 1028 was largely characterised by the actions of those in his court, who preyed on his subjects to satisfy their own greed, and by the role of the prime minister, Tunga. The latter was a former herdsman who had become the lover of Didda and was her prime minister. He had wielded much power in working with Didda to assert her dominance over the kingdom and he continued to use that power after her death. Samgrāmarāja was afraid of him and for many years allowed him to have his way. Indeed, it was Tunga who appointed many of the corrupt officials who proceeded to extract significant amounts of wealth from the kingdom's subjects. These appointees, and their actions, made Tunga unpopular, and his age may well have contributed to his increasing inability to deal with challenges from opponents within and without the court. Samgrāmarāja quietly supported the plots to remove the minister, and eventually Tunga was murdered; however, this did little to improve matters either in the court or the country as his death caused an influx of royal favourites who were no less corrupt than those who had been appointed by him.

Samgrāmarāja's son, Harirāja, succeeded him but reigned for only 22 days before dying and being succeeded in turn by another son, Ananta. It is possible that Harirāja was killed by his mother, Shrilakhā, who may have been desirous of holding power herself but was ultimately thwarted in that scheme by those protecting her children. The period of rule by Ananta was characterised by royal profligacy; he accumulated debts so large that it necessitated the pawning of the royal diadem, although when his queen, Sūryamatī, intervened the situation was improved. She was able to settle the debts incurred by her husband by use of her own resources and she also oversaw the appointment of ministers with ability in order to stabilise the government. In 1063, she forced Ananta to abdicate in favour of their son, Kalaśa. This was probably in order to preserve the dynasty but the strategy proved not to be successful because of Kalaśa's own unsuitability. It was then arranged that Ananta was effective king even though his son held the title.

Boddhisatva during Lohara period 1

Kalaśa was king until 1089. Another weak-willed man, who involved himself in an incestuous relationship with his daughter, Kalaśa was dominated by those surrounding him at court and spent little time on matters of government until his later years. He freed himself from the effective rule of his father in 1076, causing Ananta to leave the capital along with many loyal courtiers and then laying siege to them in their new abode at Vijayesvara. On the verge of being pushed into exile, and faced with a wife who even at this stage doted on her son, Ananta committed suicide in 1081. It was after this that Kalaśa reformed his licentious ways and began to govern responsibly, as well as operating a foreign policy that improved the influence which the dynasty held over surrounding hill tribes.

Hasan and Stein agree that Harsa became king in 1089. Utkarsa was disliked and soon deposed, with a half-brother called Vijayamalla supporting Harsa and being at the forefront of the rebellion against the king. Utkarsa was in his turn imprisoned and he committed suicide.

Harsa had been a cultured man with much to offer his people but became as prone to the influence of certain favourites and as corrupt, cruel and profligate as his predecessors.

Kalhana mentions him as “he was undoubtedly the most striking figure among the later Hindu rulers of Kashmir. His many and varied attainments and the strange contrasts in his character must have greatly exercised the mind of his contemporaries ... Cruelty and kindheartedness, liberality and greed, violent selfwilledness and reckless supineness, cunning and want of thought – these and other apparently irreconcilable features in turn display themselves in Harsa’s chequered life.”

Harsa faced numerous challenges to his reign and he executed many of his relatives, some but not all of whom had been among the challengers.[22] He conducted campaigns in the east of the valley to wrest control of land back from feudatory landlords, who were known as dāmaras, and in 1101 they murdered him. Harsa's rule seemed at first to have "secured a period of consolidation and of prosperous peace it had subsequently fallen a victim to his own Nero-like propensities".

Uchchala, who was from a side-branch of the Lohara royal line, succeeded to the throne and reigned for a decade. He and his younger brother, Sussala, had been spotted by Harsa as pretenders to his crown during the unrest and in 1100 had been forced to flee. The move did them no harm as it increased their status among the dāmaras: if Harsa wanted the brothers dead then that was all the more reason to rally around them. It was as a consequence of this that Uccala was able to mount armed attacks on Harsa, as in 1101, which although initially unsuccessful did eventually achieve their aim as those closest to Harsa deserted him. The two kingdoms of Kashmir and Lohara were again split at the time of Uccala's accession, with Uccala ceding rule over Lohara to Sussala in an attempt to head off any potential challenge from his ambitious brother. The rule of Uccala was largely a victim of inherited circumstances, and in particular the fact that the power of the dāmaras which had caused the downfall of Harsa was also a strength that could now be turned on him. He was unable to stabilise the penurious kingdom, either economically or in terms of authority, although it was not due to any lack of capability on his part and he did succeed in forming an alliance with the most powerful dāmara, Gargacandra. He was, in the opinion of Hasan, an able and conscientious ruler.

Extend of Lohara Dynasty

The downfall of Uccala came in December 1111 as a result a conspiracy, and after a prior attempt by Sussala to overthrow him. Sussala was not in the vicinity at the time that Uccala was murdered but within days had attempted a hazardous winter crossing over the mountains to Srinagar. Foiled by the winter weather on this occasion, he was able a few months later to venture once more and he proceeded to take control of Kashmir from a half-brother, Salhana.He had himself taken the throne after the briefest of reigns by Radda, one of the leaders of the conspiracy against Uccala, whose rule lasted a single day. It was Gargacandra who organised the defeat of the conspirators and it was he who installed Salhana, using him as a puppet for the violent four months until the arrival of Sussala, a period which Kalhana described as a "long evil dream"

Gargacandra had again been kingmaker in allying with Sussala, whom Stein believes to have been "personally brave, but rash, cruel and inconsiderate" and whose rule was, "practically one long and disastrous struggle with the irrepressible Dāmaras and with dangerous pretenders." As part of their alliance, Gargacandra arranged the marriage of two of his daughters, one to Sussala and one to Sussala's son, Jayasimha. Having turned on Gargacandra and defeated him. Ussala was faced by other dāmaras who in the absence of the once-dominant kingmaker saw an opportunity to challenge the king. They found a potential candidate for the throne in Bhikşācara, a grandson of Harsa. and managed to install him briefly in 1120 when their numbers had swollen sufficiently in opposition to the brutally oppressive measures adopted by Sussala. The restoration of Harsa's dynastic line did not last for long: a fightback by Sussala, who had decamped in defeat from Srinagar to Lohar, resulted in the pretender being deposed around six months later, in early 1121. Thereafter, Sussala resumed his oppression and treated the wealth of his people as being his own. He also imprisoned troublesome members of his own family but, like others before him, he was unable to control the lawlessness among the feudatory chiefs. While squabbling among the dāmaras had assisted him in regaining the throne, he found himself frequently under siege upon his return as they sought to maintain a state of near anarchy in which they could profit for themselves.

In 1123, during a period of intense pressure from besieging dāmaras and while mourning the death of one of his wives, Sussala abdicated in favour of his son, Jayasimha, He soon changed his mind and although Jayasimha was formally crowned as king it was Sussala who continued to govern. Jayasimha succeeded his father in 1128 during a period when there was open rebellion. A plot intended to assert authority had backfired on Sussala and caused his death. Jayasimha was not a forceful character but he did nonetheless manage to bring about both peace and a degree of economic well-being during his reign, which lasted until 1155. Bhikşācara mounted further attempts to regain the throne during the first two years and no sooner had he been killed than another challenger, Lothana, a brother of Salhana, succeeded in taking control of Lohara. That territory was subsequently recaptured but challenges continued from Lothana and two others who sought the throne, Mallājuna and Bhoja, the latter being a son of Salhana. Throughout this period there was also further troublesome behaviour generally from the dāmaras, as so often in the past, and also as in the past it was the fact that those chiefs also fought among themselves which enabled Jayasimha to survive. Peace came after 1145 and Jayasimha was able to employ his methods of kingship, which relied on diplomacy and Machiavellian plotting, for the greater good of his kingdom. In particular, Kalhana refers to the piety of Jayasimha, who rebuilt or constructed many temples which had been destroyed during the long years of war. His success has led Hasan to describe him as "the last great Hindu ruler of Kashmir."

Jayasimha's rule continued until 1155, followed by his son Paramanuka, and then his grandson Vantideva (ruled 1165-72), who is often described as the last king of the Lohara dynasty.