History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c16.s2.30

c16.s2.30

125. There were, thus, apart from the provinces in Āryāvarta, three imperial provinces, according to the Purāṇas, constituted by the Guptas which they caused to be ruled by their governors. The last two (c, d, p. 124) were in ‘Southern’ India. And the second (b) was also below the Vindhyas, just at its gate in the West. From the Hindu point of view this was also situated in Dakṣiṇāpatha, to the south of the Vindhyas, but following the modern Terminology we shall call it here (1) the Deccan Province. The Vishnu Purāṇa mentions it as the third province amongst the provinces ruled through governors, while the Vāyu and the Brahmāṇḍa place it as the first amongst the three provinces. The Vishnu Purāṇa begins with (2) the Province of Kosala-Orissa-Bengal-and-Champā, while the other two Purāṇas place the Province of Kosala, etc. as the second. And the next, according to all the authorities, is (3) the Province of Kalinga-Māhishika-Mahendra. The Bhāgavata stands by itself. It does not give the three provinces, and originally it seems to have included the whole empire in the words medinî: ‘Goptā bhokshyanti medinîm,’ ‘the descendants of Gupta (Goptāḥ, Pkt. for Gauptāḥ) will rule the Earth.’ The Purāṇas in general employ the word medinî, mahî, prithivî, vasundharā or any other synonymous word for the Earth, when they mean an empire.¹ If we follow the order given in the Vishnu we almost follow the Allahabad inscription. Kosala-Odra-Paundra, Tāmralipti, and Samudraṭaṭa would correspond to the inscriptional Kosala and Mahā-Kāntāra on the one hand² (line 19) and Samataṭa on the other [in line 22]. It seems that a province was constituted by Samudra Gupta, the capital of which was at Champā and which extended from the south-east of Magadha, through Chota-Nagpur, the tributary states of Orissa and Chhattisgarh, right down to Bastar and the Chanda District. Both the Vāyu and the Brahmāṇḍa place Andhra next to Kosala. To the old Vākāṭaka province of Kosalā and Mekalā was added by Samudra Gupta Orissa and Bengal and the government thereof was controlled from Champā, from which the routes to Bengal and Kosala emanated and also the river-highway was available to go right down to Tāmralipti. Champā is qualified as ‘Devarakshitā’ which probably signifies that it was under Prince Deva (Deva was the pre-coronation name of Chandra Gupta II, J.B.O.R.S., XVIII, p. 37). Chandra Gupta II on the Mehrauli pillar is credited to have conquered the Vangas, which may mean that as the Viceroy of the East-South he had to wage a war. Samatata seems to have been annexed by Samudra Gupta soon after his expedition.