History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c14.s3: III. The Senior Nāga Dynasty and the Vākāṭakas
History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Nāga–Vākāṭaka Imperial Period c14.s3
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III. The Senior Nāga Dynasty and the Vākāṭakas
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23. The Senior Nāga dynasty merged into the Vākāṭakas by a marriage, according to the Purāṇas, which is confirmed, as we shall see, by the Vākāṭaka inscriptions. After Yaśaḥ Nandi, say the Purāṇas, ‘there will be kings in the line of Yaśaḥ Nandi’ or in the Vidiśā line:
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tasy=ānvaye bhaviṣyanti rājānas tatra yas tu vai dauhitraḥ Śiśuko nāma Purikāyāṃ nṛipo 'bhavat¹
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¹ P.T., p. 49, n. 23.
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‘In his line there will be kings, and therein he who was a daughter’s son, popularly called the Infant, became king at Purikā.² In place of rājānas tatra yas tu (dauhitraḥ), some manuscripts read rājānas taṃ [or, te] trayas tu vai, which is a clear misreading, because the article ‘te’ before ‘trayaḥ’ would not be needed, and taṃ would give no meaning. If the reading ‘trayaḥ’ (three) be there, which I doubt, it will have to be interpreted as three lines of kings arising from Yaśaḥ Nandi and not three kings, in view of what the Viṣṇu says later, that the Nava Nāgas³ ruled from three capitals, Padmāvatī, Mathurā, and Kāntipurī. The dynasty of Y a s a ḥ N a n d ī, or at least one line of it, lapsed and got merged into ‘the d a u g h t e r ’ s s o n’, popularly known as the ‘Infant’. The Nāgas had, under the evident pressure of the Kushans, left Padmāvatī. We have the definite statement in the Purāṇas that Vinvasphāṇi ruled at Padmāvatī and ruled up to Magadha (§§ 33-34). Therefore, we may take it that about 80-100 A.D. the Nāga dynasty takes shelter, away from the trunk road between Mathurā and Vidiśā, into the inaccessible jungles of the Central Provinces (§ 31 A).
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² On Purikā, see Pargiter, Ancient Indian Historical Tradition, p. 262, J.R.A.S., 1910, 445. The location agrees with Hoshangabad.
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³ ‘Nava-Nāgāḥ Padmāvatyāṃ Kāntipuryāṃ Mathurāyāṃ; anu-Gaṅgā-Prayāgaṃ Māgadhā Guptāś cha bhokṣyanti.’ As the Guptas are qualified by ‘Māgadhāḥ’, so the Nāgas are qualified by the word ‘Nava’. In both cases the Purāṇa does not give any number. It cannot mean here ‘nine’. It may mean either the ‘New’, ‘Later’, Nāgas or the Nāgas of Nava’s Dynasty. See § 26.
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24. The Purāṇas, when they reach ‘the Infant’ in the Nāga line, again take up the line of V i n d h y a - ś a k t i in the person of Vindhyaśakti's son, about whom they say that he was popularly known¹ as P r a v ī r a, ‘the Great Hero’. The Viṣṇu expressly states that the two, the Infant and the Great Hero, ruled together: ‘Śiśuka-Pravīrau.’ The Vāyu applies to them a plural verb, ‘bhokṣyanti’—a Prakritism for the dual.² The Bhāgavata omits the Infant altogether and only gives Pravīra. It is thus evident that the Purāṇic historians are signifying here that the Infant succeeded to the territories of the Nāga king, his maternal grandfather, and that in the name of the grandson (the Infant), Pravīra son of Vindhyaśakti ruled. The joint rule is emphasised by the word ‘ch=āpi’ (‘Vindhyaśakti-sutaś chāpi’) of the Vāyu and the Brahmāṇḍa. The Viṣṇu expressly places the Infant first while the Vāyu and the Brahmāṇḍa imply it. The Vāyu and the Brahmāṇḍa give a rule of 60 years to Pravīra, at ‘Purī Kāñchanakā’ or at ‘P u r i k ā a n d C h a n a k ā’³, the latter reading being, more likely, correct, owing to the presence of the ‘a n d’ [cha]. All this is fully confirmed, and fully tallies with, the known details of the Bhāra Śiva and Vākāṭaka history as contained in inscriptions (§ 25).
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¹ प्रवीरो नाम वीर्यवान्.
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² Pargiter, PT., p. 50, n. 31.
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³ ‘bhokṣyanti cha samā shashṭim purīm Kāñchanakāñ cha vai’ where, it is possible to read, following the Prakrit forms Pulakā and Chalakā of Pargiter’s e Vāyu, ‘Purīkāñ Chanakāñ cha vai’. Chanakā may be the same as Nachnā. Such transpositions of syllables are a common phonetic
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Nāga dauhitra and Pravīra-Pravarasena at Purikā and Chanakā.
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25. According to the Vākāṭaka inscriptions¹ Gautamīputra, son of the Emperor Pravarasena and father of Rudrasena I, did not succeed, but Rudrasena I both as the grandson of the Emperor Pravarasena and as the grandson of the Bhāraśiva Mahārāja Bhava Nāga, succeeded; and with this marked distinction that he comes in as the maternal grandson of the Bhāraśiva first and then as a Vākāṭaka—quite unlike Samudra Gupta who comes in the inscriptions as a Gupta king first and as a Lichchhavi grandson next. In one of the Vākāṭaka copper-plates (Bālāghāṭ—E.I., vol. IX, 270) Rudrasena I is expressly described as a ‘Bhāra Śiva’ Mahārāja [Bhāraśivānām Mahārāja-Śrī-Rudrasenasya]. The Viṣṇu Purāṇa is here thus fully supported by the Vākāṭaka dynastic inscriptions. Then, the Vākāṭaka inscriptions mark off the period at the death of Rudrasena I and separate it from the next Vākāṭaka period commencing with Pṛthivīsheṇa I, his son and successor. This is, as we shall see later, because of the extinction of the imperial position of the Vākāṭakas with the defeat and death of Rudrasena at the hands of Samudra Gupta [§ 52 ff], who calls him ‘Rudradeva’, just as in the Nepal inscriptions Vasantasena is called Vasantadeva.² At the accession of Pṛthivīsheṇa I the dynasty had completed 100 years with which the inscriptions mark off the previous period which is the period of independence: ‘varśaśatam=abhivardhamāna-kośa-daṇḍa-sādhana-’. ³ There is ‘96 years’ phenomenon. Nachnā is an ancient capital in the Ajayagarh State where Vākāṭaka inscriptions and monuments have been found. [A.S.R., XXI, 95.] The name Chanakapura is known to the Jaina literature as the older name of Rājagṛiha [Abhidhāna-Rājendra.]. Chanakā will mean ‘celebrated’. Very likely Kāñchanakā and Chanakā were alternative names. The Kalki-Purāṇa (III, 14, 2-21; Veṅkaṭeśvara ed., p. 298) gives the name of the capital of the Nāgas as Kāñchanī purī, which was a secluded (guptā) hill-fortress (giridurgāvṛitā). See also § 60 on Nachnā.
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¹ Fleet, G.I., pp. 237, 245. भारशिवानां महाराज-श्रीभवनाग-दौहित्रस्य गौतमीपुत्रस्य-पुत्रस्य वाकाटकानां महाराज-श्रीरुद्रसेनस्य
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² Fleet, G.I., Introduction, pages 186 to 191.
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³ ‘[Who belonged to an uninterrupted succession of sons and sons’ sons], whose treasure and means of government had been accumulating for a hundred years’ [Fleet].
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given to the dynasty of Vindhyaśakti in the Vāyu and the Brahmāṇḍa.¹ The ‘100 years’ of the inscription stands for what we will say to-day—‘well-nigh a century’. The result is that the identity of the Bhāraśivas with the family of Bhūta-Nandi Nāga is established.
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¹ समाः षष्णवति भूत्वा [ज्ञात्वा], पृथिवी तु गमिष्यति. P.T., p. 48, ns. 86, 88—‘On completion of 96 years, the Empire (see Part III, § 125, below) will pass away.’