History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c14.s1.7

c14.s1.7

2. Revival of Imperial Power. The statement that there was no paramount power before the Imperial Guptas is thoroughly incorrect and cannot be maintained for a moment. The history of the Imperial Hindu revival is not to be dated in the fourth century with Samudra Gupta, not even with the Vākāṭakas nearly a century earlier, but with the Bhāra-Śivas half a century earlier still. There is not a line about the Vākāṭakas in the history of Dr. Vincent Smith, nor a line about the Bhāra-Śivas in any text-book. About the latter I have not seen even a paper written upon in any of the historical or archæological journals, although the main history of both these dynasties is contained in well-attested documents on copper or stone, and as we shall see, fully set out in the Purāṇas, which is supported by coins. The miss and neglect is due to the fact that the editors of those records, Fleet and others, did not read the facts contained in the inscriptions though they read the inscriptions. And as Vincent Smith who surveyed the history of India missed the period, following the lead of Fleet and Kielhorn, the period was declared to be blank. But as a matter of fact it is unusually full as compared with many periods of Indian history. Dr. Fleet while translating the Vākāṭaka inscriptions even missed the prominent expression *Samrāṭ*, ‘EMPEROR OF ALL-INDIA,’¹ the title of Pravarasena I, who assumed it after performing as many as four sacrifices of imperial sovereignty, that is, four *aśvamedhas*.