Indian Epigraphy c15.t19.7

c15.t19.7

Sylvain Lévi suggested that the Bhauma-Kara king Śubhākara I should be identified with the Buddhist (Mahāyānist) king of Wu-ch'a (Oḍra=Orissa), who sent, according to Chinese sources, an autographed manuscript to the Chinese emperor in 795 A.D.¹ The name of this Buddhist ruler of Orissa is given in Chinese translation as ‘the fortunate monarch who does what is pure, the lion’, which was believed to suggest an original Śubhakarasiṃha (or °kesarin). But there was no such name in the family in question. R. C. Majumdar is inclined to identify ‘the fortunate monarch who does what is pure, the lion’, flourishing in Orissa 795 A.D., with the Bhauma-Kara king Śivakara I Unmaṭṭasiṃha, father of the above Śubhākara I.² These identifications would place the two centuries of Bhauma-Kara rule roughly in the period 750-950 A.D. or 775-975 A.D. Bhandarkar³ suggests the identification of the Bhauma-Kara era with the Harṣa era of 606 A.D. According to his suggestion, the Bhauma-Karas flourished roughly in the period 606-806 A.D. It must, however, be admitted that the palaeography of the Bhauma-Kara records clearly suggests a date later than that implied by Bhandarkar’s theory⁴ and there is now evidence to show that the Bhauma-Kara kings flourished in a later age.