History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c16.s4.12.1

c16.s4.12.1

145. The republics of the Mālavas, Āryunāyanas, Yaudheyas, Mādrakas, Ābhīras, Prārjunas, Sahasānikas, Kākas, Kharparikas and others were not on the frontiers of Samudra Gupta's empire as wrongly supposed by Dr. Vincent Smith, for, in line 22 (Allahabad Pillar Inscription) where 'the frontier kings' are mentioned, they are expressly excluded from that category. They were internal States and had become part of the Gupta empire by agreeing to pay all kinds of imperial taxes and obeying imperial orders. In the enumeration of the tributary republics there is a territorial scheme. The Mālavas, Āryunāyanas, Yaudheyas and Mādrakas are counted from the direct Gupta territory—say, from Mathurā. The first state is the Mālava. Nāgara or Karkoṭa-Nāgara which is situated in the modern State of Jaipur was the capital of the Mālavas whose thousands of republican coins—'as thick as shells on the sea-shore'—have been found there (§§ 42, 46). The Bhāgavata calls them the Arbuda-Mālavas and the Vishnu locates them in Rajputana (Marubhūmi). They were thus decidedly in Rajputana from Mount Abu up to Jaipur. The territorial designation Mālwār (माळवार) seems to me to be based on their name.² To their south, there was the Nāga territory, and with the Nāga coins their coinage bears affinity.³ They were, like the Nāgas, followers of Nāga worship. Their capital was dedicated to Karkoṭa Nāga.