Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c18.s4.1

c18.s4.1

The successors of the Great Kushāns in Mathurā and certain neighbouring tracts were the Nāgas.¹ The prevalence of Nāga rule over a considerable portion of northern and central India in the third and fourth centuries A.D., is amply attested by epigraphic evidence. A Lahore copper seal inscription of the fourth century A.D. refers to a king named Maheśvara Nāga, the son of Nāgabhaṭṭa.² The Allahabad Pillar inscription refers to King Ganapati Nāga, while several Vākāṭaka records mention **Bhava Nāga** sovereign of the **Bhāraśivas** whose grandson's grandson Rudrasena II was a contemporary of Chandra Gupta II, and who accordingly must have flourished before the rise of the Gupta Empire. Some idea of the great power of the rulers of Bhava Nāga's line and the territory over which they ruled may be gathered from the fact that the dynasty performed ten *Aśvamedha* sacrifices and "*were besprinkled on the forehead with the pure water of (the river) Bhāgīrathī* (Ganges) *that had been obtained by their valour*."³ The valiant deeds of the family culminating in the performance of ten *Aśvamedha* sacrifices indicate that they were *not* a feudatory line owing allegiance to the Kushāns. We learn from the *Purāṇas* that the Nāgas established themselves at Vidiśā (Besnagar near Bhilsa), Padmāvatī (Padam Pawāyā, “in the apex on the confluence of the Sindhu and Pārā),”¹ Kāntipurī (not satisfactorily identified),² and even Mathurā which was the southern³ capital of Kanishka and his successors. The greatest of the Nāga Kings was perhaps Chandrāṁśa,⁴ ‘the second Nakhavant,’ whose name reminds us of the great king **Chandra** of the Delhi Iron Pillar inscription. *It is by no means clear that the two are identical.*⁵ But if Chandra preceded the rise of the Gupta empire, it is natural to seek a reference to him in the Purāṇic texts which were not compiled till the Gupta-Vākāṭaka age.