History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c15.s2.t1.45
History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Nāga–Vākāṭaka Imperial Period c15.s2.t1.45
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c15.s2.t1.45.1
69. The above chronology which is primarily based upon the Purāṇas, verifies itself with the known historical data we possess, namely, the reign of Chandra Gupta I and the reign of Samudra Gupta. Chandra Gupta captures Pāṭaliputra with the help of the Lichchhavis, both according to his coins and the *Kaumudī-mahotsava*. The reigning dynasty of Magadha which must have been a member of the empire of the Bhāraśivas, coming into existence about 250 A.D., is dispossessed by Chandra Gupta I. Chandra Gupta I strikes his coins in the name of the Lichchhavis from 320 A.D.,¹ that is, he defies the overlordship of the Bhāraśivas and their successor Pravarasena I. His coins have about 9 issues [in his two provinces—Kosala and Magadha] which will cover a rule of about 20 years. This again supports the statement of the *Kaumudī-mahotsava* that the child of Sundaravarman had escaped with his nurse to the Vindhyas and was recalled to Pāṭaliputra by the City Council of that Capital and was crowned king, which according to Hindu constitutional law, would take place after completing the twenty-fourth year. The *Kaumudī-mahotsava* and Samudra Gupta's inscription both prove that before the time of Samudra Gupta, the Gupta dynasty had been dispossessed of Pāṭaliputra. That there was a breach between the imperial coinage of Samudra Gupta and that of Chandra Gupta I is indicated by the fact that Chandra Gupta I's coins have never been found in association with the imperial Gupta coins.
c15.s2.t1.45.2
The period which Samudra Gupta occupied as a small rājā, living in Sāketa or between Benares and Sāketa, is determined by his coins of the Tiger type. On these coins he is described merely as ‘Rājā Samudra Gupta’. He had not yet adopted the Garuḍa standard or any of the figures which appear on his imperial coins. The reverse bears the figure of Gaṅgā standing on a Gangetic dolphin (śiśumāra). Gaṅgā and Yamunā were the imperial marks under the Vākāṭakas. Gaṅgā is found on the Bhāraśiva coins and also on the coin of Pravarasena. It seems to have been adopted by Samudra Gupta in his feudatory capacity as an imperial Vākāṭaka mark, which is not repeated in his own imperial coinage. There are very few coins of the Tiger type, yet from the examples found, we are sure that there were at least two issues of this coin. In the Tiger type coins, Samudra Gupta has not assumed the imperial armour-robes like his father, which also shows that Samudra Gupta assumed the humbler rôle of an orthodox Hindu rājā of the United Provinces, quite in line with the other feudatories of the Vākāṭakas. Dating Chandra Gupta I cir. 320 to 340 A.D. and assigning 4 years to the two issues of the Tiger type coinage of Rājā Samudra Gupta, we arrive at 344 A.D., which was a critical date for Samudra Gupta.
c15.s2.t1.45.3
The death of the great Vākāṭaka Emperor, Pravarasena, who had evidently had a hand in curbing the ambition of Chandra Gupta I and in reinstating the Kota family whose prince had taken refuge at Pampā in the Vākāṭaka dominions, was the most appropriate opportunity in Samudra Gupta's calculation to make a bid for the recovery of Magadha and for an independent position, which had been the unrealized dream of the so-called Mahārājādhirāja Chandra Gupta I. We should recall here that the Tiger coins of Samudra Gupta are not struck with any affinity claimed with the Lichchhavis. The coins do not bear the Lichchhavi symbol of the goddess on the lion, nor the name of the Lichchhavis. At the same time, Samudra Gupta repeats in his inscriptions the fact of his being a Lichchhavi grandson. The constitutional significance of this is that Samudra Gupta lays claim to the independent position once established by the Lichchhavis and to the Lichchhavi dominions. Under his son Chandra Gupta II, the Lichchhavi capital became a provincial seat of a Gupta governor with the title of Mahārāja. The Lichchhavi Republic, therefore, had been suppressed and had gone before the grandson of the Lichchhavi became Emperor of India. And we do find that the Lichchhavi rulers migrated to Nepal where they founded a