History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c14.s3.12

c14.s3.12

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.