The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c16.20.2

v1.c16.20.2

731 sent an embassy to the Chinese Court.’³ It appears from the Chinese annals that he was on his throne at least between 731 and 736 A.D., and it was probably during these years that he undertook a triumphal procession of *digvijaya* for the conquest of the countries all round his dominions, which is recorded in the *Gauḍavaho* of Vākpatirāja.⁴ In the course of his eastern expedition he seems to have met the king of Gauḍa, who is also called *Magadhādhipa*, not far from the ‘Vindhya region,’ and defeated him in a fierce battle, in which the vassals and nobles of the eastern king appeared “like sparks of light issuing from a shooting-star.” After the battle the *Magadhādhipa* was pursued and slain by Yaśovarman, who then proceeded eastwards and compelled the Vaṅga king though ‘powerful in the possession of a large number of warlike elephants’ to acknowledge him as his suzerain.¹ It is not certain who this ruler of Magadha-Gauḍa was; but that he was a powerful sovereign is clear from the fact that his dominions extended from the borders of Vaṅga (Eastern Bengal) to the Vindhyas. Possibly he was one of the Śaila rulers referred to above who conquered Kāśī and Puṇḍra in about the first quarter of the 7th century A.D. It is significant that the Śaila prince Śrīvardhana, who is probably not far removed from the 2nd quarter of the 8th century, is called ‘the lord of the Vindhya’ (*Vindhyeśvara*), the very mountain not far from which the two armies met for the first time.