History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c22.26

c22.26

The lord of Zúrádián is certainly the lord of the Surāṣṭras, as pointed out by Prof. Herzfeld (p. 43). The Surāṣṭras had been republican in the time of Kauṭilya. Soon they came under the imperial rule of Chandra Gupta Maurya and Aśoka. Then they came under Rudradāman who was elected by them their king about 150 A.D. In 293-94 A.D. they are under a ruler (xvatavya, not necessarily a ‘Satrap’) whose name BAGDAT may be identified as BHAGADATTA or BHAGADĀTA. Now we know all the Kshatrapa names from 150 A.D. to 332 A.D.—in practically an unbroken succession (Rapson, C. A. D., cliv-clvii), and no name having the slightest approach to Bhagadatta is found in that list. Prof. Rapson has pointed out in connection with the name ĪŚVARADATTA, that the DATTA-ending is foreign to the Kshatrapa family (p. cxxxiii). Surāṣṭra had been the seat of the Western Satraps. The appearance of Bhagadatta in Surāṣṭra in 294 A.D. confirms the conclusion already advanced in our History (§§81, 164) that Surāṣṭra had been won back from the Western Satraps before the Gupta time. Bhagadatta seems to belong to the confederacy of the Ābhīras, cf. the name ‘Ābhīra Śivadatta’. The Saurāṣṭras are described as a republican community at the rise of Samudra Gupta by the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, that is, they had been so in the time of the VĀKĀṬAKAS also (§82). It is likely that this Bhagadatta was a republican chief, which is evidently suggested by the Paikuli term ‘all sorts of Satraps’. If they had been only of the class of ‘Saka’ Satraps such a description was not needed. The description is constitutional; several constitutional classes of independent, though small, rulers are intended.