The Age of the Imperial Guptas c4.95

c4.95

Who was this Śaka king, who had suddenly become bold enough to demand of the successor of Samudragupta his legally married wife? Viśākhadatta calls him a Śaka. In the 19th and 20th centuries we have grown accustomed to identify the later Western Satraps as Śakas in the 3rd and 4th century A.D. But towards the close of the 4th century the power of the Western Satraps had declined very considerably and it is extremely doubtful whether it was possible for any of them to send an open challenge to the Gupta king of Pāṭaliputra, the successor of Samudragupta, in the form of a demand for his legally married queen. We know from the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta that a scion of Kāniṣka I was still ruling somewhere in North Western India and it is more probable that it was he who, emboldened by the weakness of Samudragupta’s successor, had made this last bold bid for the recovery of the lost Imperial position of his house. It is also more probable that Mathurā was still the capital of the Great Kuṣāṇas and the last great Kuṣāṇa emperor was killed in his palace at Mathurā by Candragupta II disguised as Dhruvadevī and his band of faithful adherents dressed as women.