History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c14.s5.2

c14.s5.2

38. Then, what was the National Cult and Faith with which the Bhāraśivas entered on their mission? We find in that period everywhere—Śiva. Śiva rules over the actions of the Bhāraśivas and continues to preside over the Vākāṭaka India. In their period even books on poetic sentiments, which ought to be devoted to love, were devoted to Lord Śiva. National service of Hindu state-makers was always a solemn dedication to the Supreme Force which presides over human destiny. The dedication was made to a particular aspect of Him, to a particular temperament of His, according to the national temperament of the time. The presiding God to whom political service was this time dedicated, was the God of Destruction. The Bhāraśivas called in Śiva who stood up in Yoga for a partial Tāṇḍava through his people of the Gangetic valley. We find Śiva everywhere in this period. The air is surcharged with the belief that the Destroyer Himself has founded the Bhāraśiva State, that He is the guarantor of the king and the people of the Bhāraśiva kingdom. He has stood up to see His people free—free to follow their dharma, free to be their own masters, free to be in Āryāvarta, the land of the Āryas, their God-given home. This politico-geographical idea of ‘legitimacy’ of the Hindu sovereign in Āryāvarta, which we may call Āryāvartism, is laid down in the Mānava Dharmaśāstra (II, 22-23), and is traceable from the time of Patañjali (180 B.C.)¹ down to Medhātithi [*ākramyākramya na chiram tatra Mlechchhāḥ sthalāro bhavanti*],² and to Visala-deva [1164 A.D.] as a living belief [*Āryāvartam yathārtham punarapi kritavān Mlechchha-vichchhe-danābhiḥ*].³ This sacred principle had been violated, and He must set the wrong right. He must do it by His own method, by His own process, the dance of destruction. The Nāga kings became Bhāraśiva. They undertook to execute and they successfully executed that national dance of destruction in the valley of the Ganges. The names assumed by the Bhāraśiva Nāgas—‘Virasena,’ ‘Skanda Nāga,’ ‘Bhīma Nāga,’