The Age of the Imperial Guptas c4.84

c4.84

Rāmagupta, the son and successor of Samudragupta is known to us from a new work on dramaturgy called the *Nāṭyadarpaṇa* by Rāmacandra and Guṇacandra, which mentions and contains fragments of a long-lost historical drama by the celebrated Viśākhadatta, the famous author of *Mudrārākṣasa*. The information was published for the first time by M. Sylvain Levi in a masterly monograph entitled “Deux nouveaux traites de dramaturgie Indienne.”¹ From the fragments preserved in the *Nāṭyadarpaṇa* we know that Rāmagupta had become king while Candragupta was still a prince and that the lady Dhruvadevī or Dhruvasvāminī, who later on married Candragupta II and became the mother of the emperor Kumāragupta I and prince Govindagupta, had first married Rāmagupta. This is the earliest instance of a widow marriage among kings of the historical period in Indian history. That Candragupta II had married his brother's widow was definitely remembered even in the 9th century. In the Sanjan plates of Amoghavarṣa I, dated 871 A.D., it is stated "That donor, in the Kali age, who was of the Gupta lineage, having killed (his) brother, we are told, seized (his) kingdom and queen." ¹ The extracts from Viśākhadatta's new historical drama *Devī-Candragupta* begin with the second act, where it is stated that Rāmagupta agreed to give away Dhruvadevī to the Śakas in order to remove the apprehensions of his subjects. It appears that the Śaka king had demanded his legally married wife Dhruvadevī of Rāmagupta and that coward had actually consented to send her. The extracts contain a long dialogue between Rāmagupta and Dhruvadevī in which Rāmagupta states that he is sending Dhruvadevī for the sake of the people. ² Dhruvadevī complains of her husband's heartlessness. Later on Prince Candragupta speaks of the cowardice of her husband, ³ and determines to go to the Śaka king in the guise of Dhruvadevī. ⁴ Candragupta's raid on the Śaka capital and his slaughter of the Śaka king was known to Bāṇa, who says in his *Harṣa-Carita* that Candragupta disguised as a female killed the king of the Śakas, who was desirous of the wife of another, in the city of the enemy.¹ Śaṅkara, the commentator of the *Harṣa-Carita* makes the reference more explicit by stating that the king of the Śakas was killed in private by Candragupta disguised as Dhruvadevī and surrounded by men dressed as women because the former wanted Dhruvadevī, the brother's wife of Candragupta; *Candraguptabhrātṛjāyām Dhruvadevīm prārthayamānaś=Candraguptena Dhruvadevī-veśadhāriṇā strīveśa-janaparivṛtena rahasi vyāpāditaḥ.*² The subsequent history of Rāmagupta is not known to us from any other source. Evidently after his return to Pāṭaliputra Candragupta succeeded his brother, who was either killed or deposed.³ The statement of the Sanjan plates of Amoghavarṣa I proves that even in the 9th century, more than two hundred years after Bāṇa, the story of Rāmagupta's deposition and the marriage of his widow with Candragupta II were well remembered. No coins of Rāmagupta have been discovered and it is extremely improbable that he ruled for more than a few months.