History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c15.s3.36

c15.s3.36

76A. The Province of Berar (Naishadha) with its capital at Vidūra (Bidar, Northern Hyderabad) was under the Nala dynasty, who were ‘brave’ and ‘very strong’. Their number is not noted by any authority except probably the Viṣṇu, of which the majority of manuscripts would give them also nine successions.⁴ Their beginning or end is described in this way—bhavishyanti ā-Manukshayāt: ‘they will be until their destruction by the (dynasty of) Manu’, the alternative meaning being ‘they will be since the destruction of the Manus’. In the latter case, their rise is dated with the end of the Manus, i.e., the Hāritiputra Mānavyas, i.e., the dynasty called in modern text-books the Chuṭu Dynasty (see Part IV, § 157 ff.), in other words, since about 275 A.D. In the former case, the meaning would be that the Berar family was destroyed by the Mānavya Kadambas, which would be about 345 A.D. Both interpretations equally suit the known chronology of the Chuṭus (see Part IV, below) and that of the Vākāṭakas and the Guptas. Taking the reading of the *e Vāyu*¹ we have to prefer the first interpretation—that the Nalas arose on the destruction of the Chuṭu Mānavyas. This will coincide with the conquest of Andhra in Vindhyaśakti’s time. Vindhyaśakti as a general of the Bhāraśivas seems to have put an end to the kingdoms which had arisen on the fall of the Sātavāhanas. The end of the Naishadha family came with the conquest of Samudra Gupta. Whether they had lasted for nine successions or less is not certain.