History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c15.s3.46

c15.s3.46

80. When S a m u d r a G u p t a comes on the stage and defeats R u d r a s e n a, the whole Empire of the Vākāṭakas including the M ā d r a - k a s in the north, he wins at one stroke. The ready submission of the Mādrakas without a fight is an indication of the fact that the Mādrakas had been within the empire and a part of the empire of the Vākāṭakas. That the Vākāṭaka Empire covered the Eastern Punjab explains the rise of the new house of the Yādavas in Jālandhara. It also explains the intercourse between the Mādraka country and Eastern India in the later Bhāraśiva and the Vākāṭaka period. The Guptas who reach Bihar about 250-275 A.D. were, as we shall see (§ 112), from the Madra country. And this connection with the Madra country is responsible for the Kushan type of coinage at the distant Pāṭaliputra under Chandra Gupta I, which has caused so much puzzle to a numismatist (Mr. Allan) that he refuses to believe that Chandra-Gupta I's coins could have been struck by him and comes to the conclusion that they were posthumously struck by his son after the conquest of the Punjab.¹ Considering the revival of the Mādraka coinage in the Bhāraśiva period and the facts noted above bearing on the history of the Kushan and the foundation of the kingdom of Jālandhara, there can be little doubt that the Vākāṭaka Empire included the Mādraka country.