Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c6.s2: Chapter VI. The Traikūṭakas

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarát c6.s2

Language: English

Chapter VI. The Traikūṭakas

The materials regarding the Traikūṭakas, though meagre, serve to show that they were a powerful dynasty who rose to consequence about the time of the middle Kshatrapas (A.D. 250). All the recorded information is in two copperplates, one the Kanheri copperplate found by Dr. Bird in 1839,¹ the other a copperplate found at Párdi near Balsár in 1885.² Both plates are dated, the Kanheri plate 'in the year two hundred and forty-five of the increasing rule of the Traikūṭakas'; the Párdi plate in Samvat 207 clearly figured. The Kanheri plate contains nothing of historical importance; the Párdi plate gives the name of the donor as Dahrasena or Dharasena 'the illustrious great king of the Traikūṭakas.' Though it does not give any royal name the Kanheri plate expressly mentions the date as the year 245 of the increasing rule of the Traikūṭakas. The Párdi plate gives the name of the king as 'of the Traikūṭakas' but merely mentions the date as Sam. 207. This date though not stated to be in the era of the Traikūṭakas must be taken to be dated in the same era as the Kanheri plate seeing that the style of the letters of both plates is very similar.

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¹ Cave Temple Inscriptions, Bom. Arch. Sur. Sep. Number XI. page 57ff.

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² J. B. B. R. A. S. XVI. 346.

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The initial date must therefore have been started by the founder of the dynasty and the Kanheri plate proves the dynasty must have lasted at least 245 years. The Párdi plate is one of the earliest copper-plate grants in India. Neither the genealogy nor even the usual three generations including the father and grandfather are given, nor like later plates does it contain a wealth of attributes. The king is called 'the great king of the Traikūṭakas,' the performer of the aśvamedha or horse-sacrifice, a distinction bespeaking a powerful sovereign. It may therefore be supposed that Dahrasena held South Gujarát to the Narbáda together with part of the North Konkan and of the Ghát and Dakhan plateau.

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What then was the initial date of the Traikūṭakas? Ten Gujarát copper-plates of the Gurjjaras and Chalukyas are dated in an unknown era with Sam. followed by the date figures as in the Párdi plate and in Gupta inscriptions. The earliest is the fragment from Sánkheḍá in the Baroda State dated Sam 346, which would fall in the reign of Dadda I. of Broach.³ Next come the two Kaira grants of the Gurjjara king Dadda Prasántarága dated Sam. 380 and Sam. 385⁴; and the Sánkheḍá grant of Ranagraha dated Sam. 391⁵; then the Kaira grant of the Chalukya king Vijayarája or Vijayavarman dated Samvatsara 394⁶; then the Bagumrá grant of the Sendraka chief Nikumbhallaśakti¹; two grants from Navsári and Surat of the Chalukya king Śiláditya Śryáśraya dated 421 and 443²; two the Navsári and Kávi grants of the Gurjjara king Jayabhata dated respectively Sam. 456 and Sam. 486³; and a grant of Pulakesi dated Samvat 490.⁴

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³ Epigraphia Indica, II. 19.

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⁴ Ind. Ant. XIII. 81ff.

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⁵ Ep. Ind. II. 20.

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⁶ Ind. Ant. VII. 248ff. Dr. Bhandárkar (Early Hist. of the Decean, 42 note 7) has given reasons for believing this grant to be a forgery.

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¹ Ind. Ant. XVIII. 265ff.

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² J. B. B. R. A. S. XVI. 1ff.; Trans. Vienna Or. Congress, 210ff.

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³ Ind. Ant. XIII. 70ff. and V. 109ff.

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⁴ Trans. Vienna Or. Congress, 210ff.

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Of these the grant dated 421 speaks of Śiláditya Śryáśraya as Yuvarája or heir-apparent and as the son of Jayasimhavarmman. The plate further shows that Jayasimhavarmman was brother of Vikramáditya and son of Pulakesi Vallabha ‘the conqueror of the northern king Harshavardhana.’ The name Jayasimhavarmman does not occur in any copperplate of the main line of the Western Chalukyas of the Dakhan. That he is called Mahárája or great king and that his son Śiláditya is called Yuvarája or heir-apparent suggest that Jayasimhavarmman was the founder of the Gujarát branch of the Western Chalukyas and that his great Dakhan brother Vikramáditya was his overlord, a relation which would explain the mention of Vikramáditya in the genealogy of the copper-plate. Vikramáditya’s reign ended in A.D. 680 (Saka 602).⁵ Supposing our grant to be dated in this last year of Vikramáditya, Samvat 421 should correspond to Saka 602, which gives Saka 181 or A.D. 259 as the initial date of the era in which the plate is dated. Probably the plate was dated earlier in the reign of Vikramáditya giving A.D. 250. In any case the era used cannot be the Gupta era whose initial year is now finally settled to be A.D. 319.

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⁵ Fleet’s Kánarese Dynasties, 27.

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The second grant of the same Śiláditya is dated Samvat 443. In it, both in an eulogistic verse at the beginning and in the text of the genealogy, Vinayáditya Satyáśraya Vallabha is mentioned as the paramount sovereign which proves that by Samvat 443 Vikramáditya had been succeeded by Vinayáditya. The reign of Vinayáditya has been fixed as lasting from Saka 602 to Saka 618 that is from A.D. 680 to A.D. 696-97.⁶ Taking Saka 615 or A.D. 693 to correspond with Samvat 443, the initial year of the era is A.D. 250.

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⁶ Fleet’s Kánarese Dynasties, 27.

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The grant of Pulakesivallabha Janásraya dated Samvat 490, mentions Mangalarasaráya as the donor’s elder brother and as the son of Jayasimhavarmman. And a Balsár grant whose donor is mentioned as Mangalarája son of Jayasimhavarmman, apparently the same as the Mangalarasaráya of the plate just mentioned, is dated Saka 653.⁷ Placing the elder brother about ten years before the younger we get Samvat 480 as the date of Mangalarája, which, corresponding with Saka 653 or A.D. 730-31, gives A.D. 730 minus 480 that is A.D. 250-51 as the initial year of the era in which Pulakesi’s grant is dated. In the Navsári plates, which record a gift by the Gurjjara king Jayabhata in Samvat 456, Dadda II. the donor of the Kaira grants which bear date 380 and 385, is mentioned in the genealogical part at the beginning as ‘protecting the lord of Valabhi who had been defeated by the great lord the illustrious Harshadeva.’ Now the great Harshadeva or Harsha Vardhana of Kanauj whose court was visited by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang between A.D. 629 and 645, reigned according to Reinaud from A.D. 607 to about A.D. 648. Taking A.D. 250 as the initial year of the era of the Kaira plates, Dadda II.'s dates 380 and 385, corresponding to A.D. 630 and 635, fall in the reign of Harshavardhana.

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⁷ Ind. Ant. XIV. 75 and Jour. B. B. R. A. S. XVI, 1ff.

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These considerations seem to show that the initial date of the Traikūṭaka era was at or about A.D. 250 which at once suggests its identity with the Chedi or Kalachuri era.¹ The next question is, Who were these Traikūṭakas. The meaning of the title seems to be kings of Trikūṭa. Several references seem to point to the existence of a city named Trikūṭa on the western seaboard. In describing Raghu's triumphant progress the Rāmāyaṇa and the Raghuvamśa mention him as having established the city of Trikūṭa in Aparānta on the western seaboard.² Trikūṭakam or Trikūṭam, a Sanskrit name for sea salt seems a reminiscence of the time when Trikūṭa was the emporium from which Konkan salt was distributed over the Dakhan. The scanty information regarding the territory ruled by the Traikūṭakas is in agreement with the suggestion that Junnar in North Poona was the probable site of their capital and that in the three ranges that encircle Junnar we have the origin of the term Trikūṭa or Three-Peaked.

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¹ Mr. Fleet (Corp. Ins. Ind. III. 9) and Sir A. Cunningham (Arch. Sur. IX. 77) agree in fixing A.D. 250 as the initial date of the Chedi era. Prof. Kielhorn has worked out the available dates and finds that the first year of the era corresponds to A.D. 249-50. Ind. Aut. XVII. 215.

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² Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa, Ganpat Krishnaji's Edition : Raghuvamśa, IV. 59.

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Of the race or tribe of the Traikūṭakas nothing is known. The conjecture may be offered that they are a branch of the Abhīra kings of the Purāṇas, one of whom is mentioned in Inscription XV. of Násik Cave X. which from the style of the letters belongs to about A.D. 150 to 200. The easy connection between Násik and Balsár by way of Peth (Peint) and the nearness in time between the Násik inscription and the initial date of the Traikūṭakas support this conjecture. The further suggestion may be offered that the founder of the line of Traikūṭakas was the Īśvaradatta, who, as noted in the Kshatrapa chapter, held the overlordship of Káthiáwáda as Mahákshatrapa, perhaps during the two years A.D. 248 and 249, a result in close agreement with the conclusions drawn from the examination of the above quoted Traikūṭaka and Chālukya copperplates. As noted in the Kshatrapa chapter after two years' supremacy Īśvaradatta seems to have been defeated and regular Kshatrapa rule restored about A.D. 252 (K. 174) by Dámájaḍaśrí, son of Vijayasena. The unbroken use of the title Mahákshatrapa, the moderate and uniform lengths of the reigns, and the apparently unquestioned successions suggest, what the discovery of Kshatrapa coins at Karád near Sátára in the Dakhan and at Amrávati in the Berárs seems to imply, that during the second half of the third century Kshatrapa rule was widespread and firmly established.³ The conjecture may be offered that Rudrasena (A.D. 256-272) whose coins have been found in Amrávati in the Berárs spread his power at the expense of the Traikūṭakas driving them towards the Central Provinces where they established themselves at Tripura and Kálanjara.⁴ Further that under Bráhman

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³ For details see above page 48.

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⁴ Tripura four miles west of Jabalpur; Kálanjara 140 miles north of Jabalpur.

Cites (2)

Raghuvaṃśa — Kālidāsa, Sanskrit
Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit