The Age of the Imperial Guptas c4.20

c4.20

Samudragupta, one of the younger sons of Candragupta I was marked out for his abilities and selected as the heir-apparent by his father. Soon after the death of Candragupta I, Samudragupta started to consolidate his power by conquering the small principalities into which Northern India had become divided at that time. The Allahabad pillar inscription of Hariṣeṇa mentions two kings named Acyuta and Nāgasena, at first along with a chief of the Koṭa tribe, whose name has been lost. We do not know who Nāgasena was but Acyuta¹ and the Koṭa² tribe are both known from small copper coins issued by them. Nāgasena and Acyuta are mentioned once more among a number of kings of Āryāvarta or Northern India, who were totally destroyed by Samudragupta; proving thereby that both Acyuta and the Koṭa tribe belonged to Northern India. The coins of Acyuta are to be found only at Ramnagar near Aonla in the Bareilly district, the site of the ancient Ahicchatra, the ancient capital of Northern Pañcāla. Therefore Acyuta may be taken to be a king of the Pañcāla country. The little known coins of the Koṭa tribe are said to be very common in Delhi and the Eastern Panjab and the Kotas therefore may be taken to be a tribe of North Eastern Rajputana. Hariṣeṇa in his Allahabad pillar inscription introduces the kings of Southern India defeated by Samudragupta after mentioning Nāgasena, Acyuta and the Koṭa tribe but before bringing in the kings of Northern India uprooted by that monarch. The kings of Āryāvarta mentioned in l.21 of Allahabad pillar inscription are:—1. Rudradeva, 2. Matila, 3. Nāgadatta, 4. Candravarman, 5. Gaṇapatināga, 6. Nāgasena, 7. Acyuta, 8. Nandin, and 9. Balavarman. Out of these nine chiefs Rudradeva, Nāgadatta, Nāgasena, Nandin and Balavarman are not known to us from any other source. Matila is known from a clay seal discovered in Bulandshahr.¹ Candravarman is known to us from the Meherauli iron pillar inscription and the Susunia rock inscription. Gaṇapatināga is known from his coins² and appears to have been a king of the Nāga tribe of Nalapura, modern Narwar in Gwalior State. Rapson has proposed to identify Nāgasena with a prince of the same name mentioned in the Harṣacarita of Bāṇa.³ The identification of Rudradeva, Nāgadatta and Nandin is not possible without fresh materials. Balavarman may be the king of Assam of that name who was ninth in ascent from Bhāskaravarman, the contemporary of Harṣavardhana and Yuan Chwang, and the grandson of Puṣyavarman, the founder of the dynasty.⁴ If we except Balavarman and the unidentified princes then we find that the kings of Āryāvarta defeated by Samudragupta were mostly rulers of North Western and Central India. Acyuta belonged to the Bareilly district, Matila to the Bulandshahr district, Gaṇapatināga to Narwar or Pawāyā or Padmāvatī in the Gwalior State, the Koṭas to North Eastern Rajputana and Candravarman to Pokharan in Southern Rajputana. Only the district around Agra and Delhi and Panjab are not mentioned. So also are omitted the kings of the different parts of Bengal, if there were any left after the foundation of the Gupta kingdom by Candragupta I.