History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c21.s2.3

c21.s2.3

Mahārājādhirāja's Seal. In a script of about 250 A.D., ‘in northern characters of the 2nd or 3rd Century A.D.’—(Marshall, p. 52), we have a most important seal. The letters of this seal, No. 29, are not Kushan and are distinctly pre-Guptan. They are a class by themselves. They read: ‘..ṭaka mahārājādhirāja’. ² The ‘ja’ is just like the Kushan letter, and ‘ra’ with a small seriph is still straight, while ‘ka’ has a straight cross-bar. The ‘ha’ assumes a form approaching that at Jaggayapetta and it is yet distant from the Allahabad pillar form. It is thus, on the whole, a writing of the latter half of the Third Century A.D., marking a period of transition. A distinct character, however, is given to it by the first letter ṭa which curiously enough, has a box-head. It is the earliest specimen of the box-headed Vākāṭaka writing. The beginning of the legend is broken. Considering the shape of the seal, there seem to have been two more letters as Sir John Marshall has assumed. The first two missing letters, in my opinion, were Vākā (and not Bhaṭṭa- as suggested by Sir John Marshall). The whole legend gave ‘[Vākā]ṭaka-Mahārājādhirāja’. ‘Mahārājādhirāja’—a new title—appears here for the first time. It was a Hindu rendering and adaptation of the ‘Shāhanushāhi’ title of the Kushans which denoted their imperial position. Pravarasena I alone could be the Vākāṭaka sovereign to assume this title, which after his four aśvamedhas expanded into that of Samrāṭ. The seal, like the coins of Pravarasena, is dated. It bears numerals of a type which must have become archaic in his time: 30, 7 (=37). Like the other records of this king we have to take it to be in the era counted from the foundation of the family, i.e. his father’s coronation, 248 A.D. We have already seen (ante p. 79) that the reign of Vindhya-śakti covers 36 years, and the seal being dated in the 37th year, it must refer to the second year of Pravarasena’s reign. The second face of the sealing bears the bull figure which becomes the chief emblem of the dynasty and is stamped on all the seals of high State-officials and generals of the period [see below] and on the Pallava documents. It becomes the crest of the Vākāṭaka Government. This seal was found 18" (eighteen inches) above the Kushan level and eleven feet below from the top, which works out to be the level of the Third Century A.D.