History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c16.s2.55

c16.s2.55

§ 129. The Purāṇas help us to fix the period of the rise of Kāṇa or Kanaka, i.e. Kaṅga. Let us see what is the exact point of time at which the Purāṇas are describing here the Guptas and their contemporaries. This is the last section of their chronicles. The Mālavas, the Ābhīras, the Āvantyas and the Śūras [=Yaudheyas]³ had not yet come under the imperial sway. They are mentioned as independent states by the Bhāgavata; the Vāyu and the Brahmāṇḍa do not give them in their list of Samudra Gupta's provinces. Nor do they include the Punjab. They assign, in Āryāvarta, only the valley of the Ganges, Oudh, and Bihar to the Guptas. With their definite date—100 years from Vindhyaśakti—the Purāṇas take 348-349 A. D. as the landmark for the close of their chronicles, that is, the date of the death of Rudradeva or Rudrasena Vākāṭaka as their exact point of time. The way the Purāṇas show fullness about the Nāga history, the Vākāṭaka Empire, and its successor, the Empire of Samudra Gupta [covering the same area of Kosalā, Mekalā, Andhra, Naishadha, etc.], indicates that this part of the chronicles closing with the death of King Rudrasena was composed in the Vākāṭaka kingdom and with the help of the Vākāṭaka royal records. The death of Rudrasena—348-349 A.D., being the date of the Purāṇic history of Gupta India, it naturally does not give a full picture of Samudra Gupta's empire, and it records the Śakas or Yaunas still ruling in Sindh the Western Punjab and Afghanistan. The date of the rise of Kaṅga therefore will also be c. 348-349 A.D.