History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c16.s1.7

c16.s1.7

111. The Guptas appear about 275 A.D. somewhere in Magadha. Gupta, the first Rājā,³ rises as a feudatory prince. As later, we find the early Guptas connected with Allahabad [Prayāga] and Oudh [Sāketa], Mahārāja Gupta's fief seems to have been near about Allahabad. His son was Ghaṭotkacha, and Ghaṭotkacha's son was the first prince who turned the name of his ancestor Gupta into a dynastic title. His name was Chandra. At the time of the rise of Chandra, called by the Prakrit name Chaṇḍa-sena⁴ in the Kaumudi-mahotsava, the king of Magadha at Pāṭaliputra was Sundara-varman, ruling from his palace called Su-Gāṅga. This palace is named in the inscription of Khāravela as the Su-Gaṃgīya and in the Mudrā-Rākshasa as the Su-Gāṅga. The capital city of Pāṭaliputra thus came down with its ancient palace intact to the period of king Sundara-varmā and Chandra. King Sundara-varman was an old man, having a child of a few years of age yet in charge of a nurse. Chandra or Chandra-sena had been adopted as his son by the king of Magadha, evidently before the birth of the young prince. Chandra regarded himself as the heir, being the elder, though a Kritaka son. He entered into a marriage alliance with the Lichchhavis who are described as the enemy of the Magadha dynasty in the same drama Kaumudī-mahotsava.¹ The Lichchhavis with a large army and Chandra laid a siege to Pāṭaliputra. A battle was fought in which the old king Sundara-varman died. The young prince Kalyāṇa varman was carried away to the Kishkindhā hills by the faithful ministers. Chandra founded a royal dynasty (rāja-kula). The angry authoress of the drama calls the Lichchhavis ‘Mlechchhas’ and Chaṇḍa-sena a Kāraskara, implying a casteless or a low-caste man, not fit for royalty.²