Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c11.s2.6

c11.s2.6

The imperial ideal had to contend with the centrifugal tendencies of *Jānapada* (provincial and tribal) autonomy. The two forces operated in successive epochs almost with the regularity of the swing of the pendulum. The aspiration for a unity that transcended local boundaries owed its success not a little to the presence of another factor in Indian politics—the danger threatening from foreign invaders. It was only when the "earth was harassed by the barbarians" (*Mlechchhairudvejyamānā*) that she sought refuge in the strong arms of Chandra Gupta Maurya, the first great historical emperor of India—whose dominions undoubtedly overstepped the limits of *Āryāvarta*. Among the early empire-builders of the south was a prince who rid his country of the Scythians, Greeks and Parthians (*Saka-Yavana-Pahlava-nishūdana*). And the rulers who revived the imperial glory of the Gangetic Provinces in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., were warriors who humbled the pride of the Scythian "Son of Heaven" and braved the wrath of the Saka king in his own city. According to sacred legends Vishṇu in the shape of a Boar had rescued the earth in the aeon of universal destruction. It is significant that the worship of the Boar Incarnation became widely popular in the Gupta-Chalukya period. The poet Viśākhadatta actually identifies the man in whose arms the earth found refuge when harassed by the *Mlechchhas*, who "shook the yoke of servitude from the neck" of his country, with the *Vārāhī-tanu* (Boar form) of the Self-Existent Being. Powerful emperors both in the north and the south recalled the feats of the Great Boar and the mightiest ruler of a dynasty that kept the Arabs at bay for centuries actually took the title of *Ādivarāha* or the Primeval Boar. The Boar Incarnation then symbolized the successful struggle of Indians against the devastating floods issuing from the regions outside their borders that threatened to overwhelm their country and civilisation in a common ruin.