History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c23: Appendix F. Vākāṭaka Emperor and Gupta Family
History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Nāga–Vākāṭaka Imperial Period c23
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Appendix F. Vākāṭaka Emperor and Gupta Family
c23.2
Prabhāvatī Guptā on the constitutional status of Early Guptas.
c23.3
Prabhāvatī Guptā on constitutional status of Gupta Kings.
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A Vākāṭaka document—the Riddhapur plates now in the possession of the Mahant of Rithpur, Amraoti, Berar, and published by Mr. Gupte in J.A.S.B., 1924, 53¹—gives a piece of information which contradicts the statement of the Gupta inscriptions regarding the beginning of the Gupta family. Mahādevī Prabhāvatī-Guptā, the authoress of the record and mother of Mahārāja Damodarasena-Pravarasena, who issued the grant from Rāmagiri (Ramtek, near Nagpur) in the 19th year of Mahārāja Pravarasena II, was at the time probably the oldest living member of the Gupta family.² She says that Mahārāja Ghaṭotkacha was the first king of the Gupta dynasty (*Guptānāmādirājo Mahārāja-Śrī-Ghaṭotkachaḥ*).³ This statement contradicts that of her grandfather Samudra Gupta on the Allahabad pillar that Śrī Gupta was [*the first*] Mahārāja. This claim is not accepted by the Vākāṭaka family. It seems that the first prince recognized by them was Ghaṭotkacha, who must have been a contemporary of Pravarasena I. In this contradiction between the statements of the grandfather and granddaughter there is a contradiction between the two dynasties, which discloses historical hostility.
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¹ Plates reproduced are unfortunately in the negative. They have to be read with the help of a mirror.
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² The translation and reading of line 11 [J.A.S.B., XX, 58, 60] need correction: in ‘sāgra-varshaśatadivaputra-potrā’, one anusvāra on di° is missed; dimva=dinva. Sāgra-varshaśata has no reference to the Queen who has been taken to have been 100 years old by the editor of the plate; it refers to the ‘son and grandson’ [or sons and grandsons]—‘whose son and grandson are men (endowed) with fully centennial happiness’. Such a wish was appropriate especially when she had already lost her eldest son prematurely.
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³ The same import is to be found in the other grant of this queen (E.I., XV, 42) in ‘Guptādirājo’ qualifying [Mahārāja]=Ghaṭotkachaḥ, where its bearing could not be clear owing to the uncertain reading before Ghaṭotkachaḥ. [My footnote 4 at p. 113 ante has to be modified according to the Riddhapur plate.]
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Historical hostility and constitutional claims. The titles of her paternal ancestors are given by her thus:
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1. Mahārāja Śrī Ghaṭotkacha (E.I., XV, 41; J.A.S.B., 1924, p. 58).
2. Mahārāja Śrī Chandra Gupta (I) (both plates).
3. Mahārājādhirāja Śrī Samudra Gupta (E.I., XV; in J.A.S.B., 1924, ‘Mahārāja’).
4. Mahārājādhirāja Śrī Chandra Gupta II (both plates).
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Against this we have Samudra Gupta giving the following titles to his forefathers and himself:
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Mahārāja Śrī Gupta. Mahārāja Śrī Ghaṭotkacha. Mahārājādhirāja Śrī Chandra Gupta. Mahārājādhirāja Śrī Samudra Gupta.
c23.12
In the 13th year of her first son Divākarasena she gave her grandfather the title of Mahārājādhirāja, but about 40 years later, when her father was gone, she called Samudra Gupta only ‘Mahārāja’ and recognized her father only as the Mahārājādhirāja. All this connotes the historical constitutional position of each Gupta ruler in the eyes of the Vākāṭaka House. The latter (1) did not recognize Gupta to have been a ruler at all, (2) did not recognize Samudra Gupta as a rightful Mahārājādhirāja, as he had begun life as a Vākāṭaka subordinate and as a Mahārāja, and it was only as a rebel that he killed Rudrasena I, while Chandra Gupta II was the first recognized Mahārājādhirāja over the Mahārājas of the Vākāṭaka House. The Vākāṭaka House (3) never recognized Chandra Gupta I as a Mahārājādhirāja; in the time of Pravarasena I such a claim was unthinkable, and Chandra Gupta’s assumption of such dignity would have been then and always considered by the Vākāṭakas as an act of sedition.