History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c15.s3.24

c15.s3.24

coins of this ruler. The coins read:—Mahārāja Śrī Prat (i) kara. Prof. Rapson who published his coins¹ pointed out that they belong to the series of the Nāga coinage.² The Purāṇic name seems to be Su-Pratīkana Bhāra (= Bhāraśiva), as spelt in the present manuscripts. The letter na here is a misreading for ra, like the misreading of paurā for maunā which is pointed out by the commentator of the Viṣṇu Purāṇa.³ The correct reading was Su-Pratīkara-bhāra. To him 30 years are given. In the same area, i.e. under the centre Mahishī, there were three communities whose names ended in Mitra. The Viṣṇu gives them as Pushpa-mitra-Padhumitra-Padmamitrās trayaḥ. The Vāyu and the Brahmāṇḍa name only two, Pushpamitrāḥ and Paṭumitrāḥ. But the Brahmāṇḍa adds trimitrāḥ. The Bhāgavata calls ‘Pushyamitra’ [i.e., the President] a ‘rājanya’, which is the technical term for a type of republican president.⁴ In view of the datum of the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, naming the three communities and that of the Brahmāṇḍa mentioning tri-mitras,⁵ we have to take that their state was divided into three sections, and that they had ten successions, and the expression trayo daśa of the Vāyu is to be taken as meaning that the three states had ten rulers or ten successions of presidents. The other reading in the manuscripts [in place of trayo daśa] tathaiva cha⁶ would indicate that they were also given 30 years as given to the main rulers of Mahishī. They are assigned no separate location, and consequently I take that they were in Western Malwā. They, in the next period, i.e., the Guptan, are described as ‘Āvantyas’ who were under or in the confederacy of the Ābhīras (§§ 145 ff.). It is well-known that the Pushyamitras rose to such a height of power in the reign of Kumāra Gupta that they attacked the Emperor with great severity. As the successions here are of republican presidents, their number ten means that each president's office lasted for three years. This province of Malwā seems to have been an acquisition of the Vākāṭakas about 300-310 A.D.