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The Vakataka–Gupta Age (circa 200–550 A.D.) c9.s19: 9. Regency of Prabhāvati-guptā

The Vākāṭaka–Gupta Age (circa 200–550 A.D.) c9.s19

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9. Regency of Prabhāvati-guptā

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(c. 390 to c. 410 A.D.)

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Soon after the bereavement, Chandra-gupta must have paid a visit of condolence to his daughter Prabhāvati-guptā. She was only about 25 at this time and had two sons, Divākara-sena and Dāmodara-sena,¹ the former being about 5 years in age and the latter about 2. Chandra-gupta advised his daughter to assume the reins of administration as regent for the minor king Divākara-sena, promising all help, military and administrative. She decided to follow the advice and began to rule as regent. She carried on the administration ably for a period of about twenty years with the valuable assistance of the officers that had been deputed by her father from Pāṭaliputra.²

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¹ Dāmodara-sena later assumed the coronation name of Pravara-sena at the time of his accession. The expression Mahārāja-Dāmodara-sena-Pravara-sena-janani used of Prabhāvati-guptā in the Riṭhapur plates does not show that she had then two sons living, Dāmodarasena and Pravarasena. Had such been the case, the order of the two names in the compound would suggest that Dāmodara-sena was the elder one and the ruling king. The plates however were issued in the 19th regnal year of Pravara-sena and not of Dāmodara-sena. It is, therefore, clear that Dāmodara-sena is identical with Pravara-sena, the latter being his coronation (abhisheka) title. It is not unlikely that besides these two sons, Phabhāvati-guptā may have had a daughter or two, whose names are not mentioned in the records handed down to us.

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² The Poona plates of Prabhāvati-guptā, which use the eastern Gupta script and begin with the Gupta genealogy, instead of the Vākāṭaka one, make it fairly clear that they were drafted by a Gupta officer, imported from Pāṭaliputra.

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In the Basim branch Vindhyaśakti II was the contemporary of Prabhāvati-guptā at the time of her bereavement. He does not seem to have offered any opposition to the administration of the regency. Being the eldest agnatic male in the Vākāṭaka family, he may have felt naturally disappointed that he should not have been made regent for the minor king. But as Prabhāvati-guptā had the solid backing of her mighty father, Vindhyaśakti had to bow down to the inevitable. The relations between the main Vākāṭaka house and its Basim branch were fairly peaceful throughout the regency.

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It was during the regency of Prabhāvatī-guptā that the Gupta conquest of Gujarat and Kathiawar was accomplished, and we may well presume that the dowager queen afforded all possible assistance to her illustrious father. There is, however, no direct evidence to support this conjecture.

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Chandra-gupta II not only helped the regency administration by sending experts, but seems to have also taken active interest in the training of his young grandsons. There is a literary tradition to the effect that the poem Setubandha was composed by king Pravara-sena of Kuntala soon after his accession and was later revised by Kālidāsa. It is not unlikely that this great poet may have been one of the tutors appointed by Chandra-gupta to educate the Vākāṭaka princes.¹

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¹ Rāmagiri-svāmin of Ramtek was highly revered by the Vākāṭakas and Prabhāvatī-guptā made her last grant in his presence. Is it not likely that Kālidāsa too may have visited Ramtek several times in the company of his wards and their mother, and that it may have been during one of these visits that the idea occurred to him to make this hill the place of the exile of his Yaksha in the Meghadūta?

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Prabhāvatī-guptā was destined to suffer one more tragic bereavement. Divākara-sena, her eldest son and the minor king, died soon after the 13th year of her regency.² This must have been a great blow to the dowager queen, for she must have been then looking eagerly to the day when she would be relieved of the onerous duties of administration. Dāmodara-sena, her younger son, was installed on the throne, and Prabhāvatī-guptā continued to be the regent for another five or six years. Eventually the regency terminated in *c.* 410 A.D., when Dāmodara-sena took up the reins of administration, assuming the coronation name of Pravara-sena II.

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² He was the reigning king when Prabhāvatī-guptā issued her Poona plates in the 13th year of her regency.

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Prabhāvatī-guptā continued to live for a long time after the termination of her regency. We find her making a grant in the 19th year of her son Pravara-sena's reign. Four years later the son is seen making a grant for the spiritual welfare both of himself and his mother in *this* and after life.³ Prabhāvatī- guptā, therefore, seems to have lived for about 25 years in her son's reign and died at the ripe age of about 75.

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³ *EI.* XXII, 170 ff.

Cites (3)