History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c16.s3.28

c16.s3.28

136. Samudra Gupta on his return now invaded the real Vākāṭaka centre, the home-province of the Vākāṭakas in Āryāvarta between the Yamunā and Vidiśā, or to adopt the modern geographical name—the land of Bundelkhand. This Āryāvarta War gave to Samudra Gupta dominion over ‘the Āṭavī rulers [of Āryāvarta]’, i.e., the Vindhyan principalities of Baghelkhand and Eastern Bundelkhand. The war was waged, therefore, in the Vindhyan regions of Āryāvarta, that is, in or about Bundelkhand. To operate in the hills of Pannā is a difficult venture which military leaders would avoid. To the south-west, Bundelkhand is bounded by the districts of Bhilsa [Vidiśā] [Eastern Malwā]. And Bundelkhand is much more accessible from Eastern Malwā, to which there was and has been a good plain road from the Gangetic valley across the Betwa or the Chambal. Samudra Gupta would have attacked the province of the Kilakilā-Vidiśā from the plain country now lying mostly in the Gwalior territory—the passage-land of the Marathas to Hindustan. The battle seems to have been fought at Eran. The reasons for this conclusion are as follows.