History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c16.s1.16

c16.s1.16

From the inscription of the Gupta Princess, Prabhāvatī Guptā¹ we know that she belonged to Dhāraṇa gotra. She is evidently giving here her father's gotra, as her husband's gotra was different (Viṣṇu Vṛddha). Our knowledge, however, is expanded by the Kaumudī-mahotsava which gives the caste of Chandra as Kāraskara. The Kāraskaras are mentioned by Baudhāyana as a low community, to whom the Brāhmaṇas should not go and on return from whom they should perform a ceremony of purification.² The Kāraskaras in Baudhāyana are joined with the Punjābī community Āraṭṭas [which literally means 'the republicans']. Their exact location is given by Hema-chandra, who in explaining the Sālvas calls them the people of the Kāra valley.³ The place Kārapatha or Kārāpatha was at the foot of the Himalayas.⁴ The Sālvas were a division of the Madras and were at Sialkot where their name as Siāl, derived from Sālva which is also spelt as Sālya⁵, survives. The Kāraskaras were therefore a Punjab people, a subdivision of the Madras. We know that the Madras were called Vāhikas and Jārtikas⁶. The Madraka⁷ community was thus made up of several subdivisions, comprising Sālvas, Yartris or Jārtikas [whom we call to-day Jaṭs] and others. Now, we may recall here the grammatical illustration of Chandra-gomin: 'the Jārta (king) defeated the Hūṇas.' This is pre-eminently referable to Skanda Gupta⁸. We have thus evidence from different sources converging at one point, that is, that the Guptas were Kāraskara Jāts—originally from the Punjab. Kakkar Jāts¹ in my opinion are the modern representatives of the original community of the Guptas. Amongst the Kāraskaras the particular subdivision to which Guptas belonged was evidently Dhāraṇa. The word gotra in Prabhāvatī Gupta’s inscription (Poona Plates) would mean a caste-subdivision. Dhanri, the Jāt clan found in Amritsar,² may be compared with the Sanskrit Dhāraṇa of Prabhāvatī Guptā. The Kaumudī-mahotsava is in full agreement with and is in fact supported by Chandra-gomin, who is undoubtedly a Gupta author.