History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c17.s3.48

c17.s3.48

§ 203. In this attempt for, what we may describe as Sātavāhanism, Kaṅga who flourished in the time of Samudra Gupta, is the most prominent figure. Kaṅga was the son and successor of Mayūra Śarman. He dropped the Brahmin title śarman and adopted the royal style varman with his name. He was the real founder of the Kadamba kingdom which became very powerful in his time, though only for a few years. The Pallava power, after its defeat at the hands of Samudra Gupta, was sought to be superseded by Kaṅga, whom the Purāṇas fully describe under the name Kāna and Kanaka (§§ 128-129). The Pallavas formed the southern portion of the empire of the Vākāṭaka Samrāṭ. They were ‘Mahārājas’ to the Vākāṭaka Chakravartin. The Pallavas, on behalf of the Vākāṭaka emperor, seem to have exercised suzerainty over the Trairājya, the group of three Tamil kingdoms, the leader of whom—the Cholas—they had actually conquered. Kaṅgavarman became the ruler of three connected units—Strirājya, Mūshika and Bhojaka, and according to the Vishnu Purāṇa, his rule covered also Trairājya, i.e., he became the overlord of the South for the time being, eclipsing the Pallavas. The Pallava territory alone is excluded from his jurisdiction. It seems that Kaṅga tried to restore the Southern Empire of his ancestors after the defeat of the Pallavas and to question the right of Samudra Gupta to be the Emperor of All-India. He was, however, defeated by Pṛithivīsheṇa Vākāṭaka and had to abdicate (§ 127 ff.). After Kaṅga the Kadambas remained politically attached to the Vākāṭaka kingdom which touched the Kuntala part of the Kadamba kingdom on its own Bhojakaṭa frontiers. The importance of the Kadambas lies more on the social side. They had been long in the South before the Vākāṭakas and the Guptas. Yet in the new social revival they showed new vigour and became as good agents of that revival as the Gaṅgas and the Pallavas, within their own sphere.