History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c15.s1.12

c15.s1.12

55. It is possible, though strange, that the empire of the Vākāṭakas should not receive up to this time even a line in modern text-books on Indian history, but it is not possible for the Purāṇas not to include the dynasty of Vindhyaśakti and Pravarasena in their chronicles. It was not a small thing to perform Four Aśvamedhas, and assume the title of S a m r ā ṭ bringing oneself in line with Māndhātā and Vasu. The Purāṇas, which register even the foreign dynasties in India, could not have missed Pravarasena and his family. And, as a matter of fact, they have not missed them. After registering the fall of the Tukhāra, i.e. the Kushan dynasty they immediately give the dynasty of the V i n d h y a k a s, of which they give the founder's name as V i n d h y a ś a k t i, whose son is called P r a v i r a. That name is described as a ‘popular name’ and it literally means ‘the great hero’. His Vājapeya sacrifices are recorded by them and one edition of the Vāyu Purāṇa which is really the original Brahmāṇḍa,¹ instead of reading Vājapeya reads Vājimedha, i.e. ‘Horse-Sacrifice’, and the word is put in the plural [*Vājimedhaiś cha*]¹ which means, according to Sanskrit grammar, that he performed three or more Horse-Sacrifices. His reign is given as one of 60 years, which as being long, stands corroborated by the Vākāṭaka inscriptions and by the fact of his four aśvamedhas which must cover, on account of the protracted nature of the sacrifice and the intervals necessary, 40 to 50 years. Three facts completely establish the identity, viz. (1) the period of the rise of Vindhyaśakti and Pravīra which comes in the Purāṇas before the Guptas and after the Tukhāras, (2) the name of the founder of the dynasty being identical, (3) the vājimedhas (Horse-Sacrifices) and the long reign of Pravīra. Add to this, the inter-connection which the Purāṇas establish between the Nāga dynasty and Pravarasena through the grandson which I have already discussed above. In the light of this identification we gain the whole history of the Vākāṭakas from the Purāṇas which the inscriptions by themselves fail to impart.