History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c16.s3.14

c16.s3.14

135. This Southern or the ‘Dakshiṇāpatha’ campaign was not undertaken, as generally supposed, as a digvijaya. It was a military move against the Vākāṭaka power, necessitated by the result of Samudra Gupta's first battle in Āryāvarta in which Gaṇapati Nāga, Achyuta Nandi and Nāgasena fell. The second centre of the Vākāṭaka power was rooted in the Andhra country, where, from the capital Daśanapura¹ the junior branch of the Vākāṭakas had been ruling as 'the Pallava emperors' ('Pallavendra'²) of the South, and had penetrated as far south as Kāñchī, the capital of the Cholas—the most important Tamil State. Samudra Gupta's sole objective in the South was the Pallava army. If, to avenge the destruction of the Vākāṭaka military leaders (Gaṇapati Nāga and others) in the North, the Pallavas with their generals and feudatories from the South and Rudrasena from Bundelkhand invaded Bihar, Samudra Gupta would have been placed between two fires. To avoid this junction, Samudra Gupta would have thought of taking them and dealing with them in detail. He descended swiftly via Chota Nagpur, Sambhalpur and Bastar straight into Veṅgi, the original seat of the Pallavas, and reached the battlefield on the Colair Lake. It is the old route which takes one direct into Andhra-deśa. Samudra Gupta did not follow the East-Coast route, as none of the lower Bengal and Orissa towns is mentioned by his secretary Harisheṇa. The Colair Lake in the seventh century again became the arena of a sanguinary fight in the time of Pulakeśin II.³ If we consider the list of the rulers enumerated by Samudra Gupta's secretary and prince-marshal, we see at once that all these rulers belonged to the regions of Andhra and Kaliṅga lying within the range of the Kurāla or Colair Lake. They were all, evidently, assembled together (§ 135 A) and a decisive battle was fought,⁴ and owing to some clever movement and strategy on the part of Samudra Gupta all the leaders were enveloped, a débâcle followed and they surrendered. Samudra Gupta restored them to liberty on terms. Samudra Gupta returned from this place—the region between Bezwada and Rajahmundry. He had no necessity to go to Kāñchī. Nor was he interested at the time in any other Southern state either on the East Coast or the West Coast. He hurried back to Bihar, having defeated and generously and diplomatically won over the Pallava group and having detached them from the Vākāṭaka allegiance. When back, he marched against Rudra Deva who fought bravely as every one of his northern subordinates did, and was killed with them on the battlefield, probably at Eran (§ 137).