History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c23.4

c23.4

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.