History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c16.s2.52

c16.s2.52

to the Talagunda inscription [E.I., 8, 35] Kaṅga performed ‘lofty great exploits in terrible wars and his diadem was shaken by the Chauris of his provincial feudatories’. Kaṅga was defeated by the Vākāṭaka king Pṛithivīsheṇa I and he abdicated.¹ Kanaka here seems to be a Sanskritisation of the Tamil Kaṅga. Another reading of the Purāṇic name, in the Viṣṇu, is Kāṇa.² It seems that on assumption of imperial power he was by Pṛithivīsheṇa, who was at that time a feudatory of Samudra Gupta, brought to book, and his abdication was evidently a consequence of his imperial ambition and failure.