[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923) › c19.s3 # Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c19.s3: Section III. The Śakas of Ujjain and Kāthiāwār Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c19.s3 - **Language:** English ## Contents - [c19.s3.t1 Genealogical Table of the Sakas of Ujjain](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.t1) ### Section III. The Śakas of Ujjain and Kāthiāwār ### [c19.s3.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.1) The greatest rivals of the restored Sātavāhana Empire were at first the Saka Kshatrapas of Ujjain. The progenitor of the Śaka princes of Ujjain was Ysamotika who was the father of Chashtana, the first \*Mahākshatrapa\* of the family. The name of Ysamotika is Scythic.¹ His descendant, who was killed by Chandra Gupta II, is called a Śaka king by Bāṇa in his \*Harsha-charita\*. It is, therefore, assumed by scholars that the Kshatrapa family of Ujjain was of Śaka nationality. ### [c19.s3.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.2) ¹ \*JRAS\*, 1906, p. 211. Lévi and Konow (\*Corpus\*, II. i. lxx) identify Ysamotika with Bhūmaka on the ground that the Saka word "\*Ysama\*" means earth. But identity of meaning of names need not necessarily prove identity of persons. \*Cf.\* the cases of Kumāra Gupta and Skanda Gupta. ### [c19.s3.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.3) The proper name of the dynasty is not known. Rapson says that it may have been Kārddamaka. The daughter of Rudradāman boasts that she is descended from the family of Kārddamaka kings; but she may have been indebted to her mother for this distinction. The Kārddamaka kings apparently derive their name from the Kārdama, a river in Persia.² ### [c19.s3.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.4) ² Pārasīka. Shamasastry's translation of the \*Kauṭilīya\*, p. 86. See also \*IHQ\*, 1933, 37 ff. Cf. the Artamis of Ptolemy, VI. 11. 2, a tributary of the Oxus. ### [c19.s3.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.5) According to Dubreuil, \*\*Chashṭana\*\* ascended the throne in A.D. 78, and was the founder of the Śaka era. But this is improbable in view of the fact that the capital of Chashṭana (Tiastanes) was Ujjain (Ozene of Ptolemy), whereas we learn from the \*Periplus\* that Ozene was not a capital in the seventies of the first century A.D.³ The \*Periplus\* speaks of Ozene as a former capital, implying that it was not a capital in its own time. ### [c19.s3.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.6) ³ The \*Periplus\* mentions Malichos (Maliku), the king of the Nabataeans, who died in A. D. 75, and Zoscales (Za Hakale), king of the Auxumites, who reigned from A. D. 76 to 80 (\*JRAS\*, 1917, 827-830). ### [c19.s3.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.7) The earliest known date of Chashtana is S. E. 52, \*i.e.\*, A.D. 130. We learn from the Andhau inscriptions that in the year A.D. 130 Chashṭana was ruling conjointly with his grandson Rudradāman. Professor Rapson and Dr. Bhandarkar point out that his foreign title \*Kshatrapa\*, and the use of the \*Kharoshṭhī\* alphabet on his coins, clearly show that he was a viceroy of some northern power—probably of the Kushāns. Jayadāman, son of Chashṭana, seems to have acted merely as a \*Kshatrapa\* and to have predeceased his father, and the latter was succeeded as \*Mahākshatrapa\* by Rudradāman. ### [c19.s3.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.8) \*\*Rudradāman\*\*¹ became an independent \*Mahākshatrapa\* some time between the years 52 and 72 (A.D. 130 and 150). We learn from the Junāgaḍh Rock Inscription of the year 72 that men of all castes chose him as protector and that he won for himself the title of \*Mahākshatrapa\*. This probably indicates that the power of his house had been shaken by some enemy (possibly Gautamīputra), and he had to restore the supreme satrapal dignity by his own prowess. ### [c19.s3.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.9) ¹ For references to Rudradāman in literature, see Chatterjee, \*Buddhistic Studies\* (ed. Law), pp. 384 f. ### [c19.s3.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.10) The place names in the inscription seem to show that the rule of Rudradāman extended over Purv-āpar-Ākar-Āvanti (East and West Mālwa), Anupa-nivṛit or the Māhishmatī region (Māndhātā in Nimāḍ, or Maheśvara),² Ānartta³ (territory around Dwārakā), Surāshṭra (district around Junāgaḍh), Svabhra (the country on the banks of the Sābarmatī), Maru (Mārwār), Kachchha (Cutch), Sindhu-Sauvīra (the Lower Indus Valley),¹ Kukura (probably between Sind and the Pāriyātra Mt.),² Aparānta (N. Koṅkaṇ),³ Nishāda (in the region of the Sarasvatī and the Western Vindhyas),⁴ etc. Of these places Surāshṭra, Kukura, Aparānta, Anupa and Ākarāvanti formed part of Gautamīputra's dominions, and must have been conquered either from that king or one of his immediate successors. The Junāgaḍh inscription gives the information that Rudradāman twice defeated Sātakarṇi, lord of the Deccan, but did not destroy him on account of their near relationship. According to Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar this Sātakarṇi was Gautamīputra himself, whose son Vāsiśhṭhīputra Sātakarṇi was Rudradāman's son-in-law. According to Rapson the lord of the Deccan defeated by the Śaka ruler was Pulumāyi. It is more probable that the defeated ruler was Vāsisbṭhīputra Śātakarṇi himself, who may have been a brother and a predecessor of Pulumāyi. ### [c19.s3.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.11) ² \*IA\*, 4, 346. ### [c19.s3.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.12) ³ Ānartta may according to some, however, designate the district around Vaḍanagara (\*Bom. Gaz.\* 1, i, 6). In that case Kukura may be placed in the Dwārakā region. The \*Bhāgavata Purāṇa\* refers to Dwārakā as "\*Kukur-Andhaka-Vṛishṇibhiḥ guptā\*" (1, 11, 10). The \*Vāyu Purāṇa\* (ch. 96. 134) represents Ugrasena, the Yādava \*rājā\* as \*Kukurodbhava\*, of Kukura extraction. In Mbh. III. 183. 32, too, Kukuras are closely associated with Daśārhas and Andhakas who are known to have been Yādava clans. In II. 52. 15 they are associated with the Ambaṣhṭhas and the Pahlavas. A branch of the people may have lived in the lower valley of the Chenab and the Indus, while another branch occupied a portion of Kāṭhiāwār. ### [c19.s3.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.13) ¹ Sindhu is the inland portion lying to the west of the Indus (\*Watters, Yuan Chwang\*, II. 252, 253, read with 256; Vātsyāyana. \*Kāmasūtra\*, Benares Ed. 295). \*Sauvīra\* includes the littoral (\*Milinda Pañho, S. B. E.\*, XXXVI, 269), as well as the inland portion lying to the east of the Indus as far as Multān (Alberuni, I, 302; \*IA\*, 7, 259). The Jaina \*Pravachanasāroddhāra\* names Vītabhaya as the capital. ### [c19.s3.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.14) ² \*Bṛihat Saṁhitā\*, V, 71; XIV, 4. ### [c19.s3.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.15) ³ Aparānta in its extended sense (\*cf.\* Aśoka, RE, V) no doubt embraces not only Sūrpāraka but Nāsik, Bharukachchha, the Mahī valley, Cutch, Surāshṭra, Ānartta, Abu, etc. (\*Vāyu\*, 45, 129 f., \*Matsya\*, 114. 50-51; \*Mārk.\* 57, 49 f.—the Purāṇic text is corrupt and Surpārakāḥ Kachchhīyāḥ and Ānarttāḥ should be substituted for Sūryārakāḥ, Kāśmīrāḥ and Avantyāḥ). But as the Junāgaḍh record distinguishes Aparānta from Surāshṭra, Ānartta, etc., it is clearly used here in its restricted sense. ### [c19.s3.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.16) ⁴ \*Cf. Nishāda-rāshṭra\*, Mbh., III. 130. 4 (the place of the disappearance—\*Vinaśana\*—of the river Sarasvatī is described as the \*dvāra\* of \*Nishādarāshṭra\*); note also \*Pāriyātracharāḥ\*, Mbh., XII, 135, 3-5. In Mbh. ii. 31. 4-7 a Nishādabhūmi is placed between the Matsyas (of Jaipur) and the Chambal. The Vedic commentator Mahīdhara explains the word Nishāda as meaning a Bhil (\*Vedic Index\*, I. 454). According to Bühler (\*IA\*, 7, 263) Nishāda probably corresponded with Hissar and Bhatnir. ### [c19.s3.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.17) The Great Satrap also conquered the Yaudheyas, possibly of Johiya-bār along the Sutlej, who are known, from a stone inscription, to have occupied also the Bijayagaḍh region in the Bharatpur state. If the Kushān chronology accepted by us be correct, then he must have wrested Sindhu-Sauvīra from one of the successors of Kanishka I. ### [c19.s3.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.18) Rudradāman apparently held his court at Ujjain, which is mentioned by Ptolemy as the capital of his grandfather Chashtana, placing the provinces of Ānarta and Surāshṭra under his Pahlava (Parthian) \*Amātya\*¹ Suviśākha. The \*Amātya\* constructed a new dam on the famous Sudarśana Lake which owed its origin to the "care bestowed by the Maurya government upon question of irrigation, even in the most remote provinces." ### [c19.s3.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.19) ¹ With this bureaucratic designation is to be contrasted the title \*Rājā\* applied to Tushāspha, the local ruler of Surāshṭra in the days of Aśoka, who "was more than a mere official" (\*IA\*, 7, 257 n). While some of the Saka provinces or districts were placed under \*amātyas\* or officers whose functions were mainly of a civil character, others seem to have been governed by generals (\*Mahādaṇḍanāyaka\*). The name of such a military governor is disclosed by a Sāñchi inscription (\*JASB\*, 1923, 343). ### [c19.s3.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.20) The Great Kshatrapa is said to have gained fame by studying grammar (\*śabda\*), polity (\*artha\*), music (\*gandharva\*), logic (\*nyāya\*), etc. As a test of the civilised character of his rule it may be noted that he took and kept to the end of his life, the vow to stop killing men except in battle. The Sudarśana embankment was rebuilt and the lake reconstructed by "expending a great amount of money from his own treasury, without oppressing the people of the town and of the province by exacting taxes (\*Kara\*), forced labour (\*Vishi\*) benevolences (\*Praṇaya\*), and the like.¹ The king was helped in the work of government by an able staff of officials, who were "fully endowed with the qualifications of ministers" (\*amātya-guṇa samudyuktaiḥ\*) and were divided into two classes, \*viz.\*, \*Matisachiva\* (Counsellors) and \*Karma-sachiva\* (Executive Officers). ### [c19.s3.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.21) ¹ \*Bomb. Gaz.\* I, 1, 39. ### [c19.s3.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.22) Rudradāman had at least two sons and one daughter. The princess was given in marriage to Vāsiśhṭhīputra Srī Sātakarṇi of the Sātavāhana family of the Deccan. A Nāgārjunikoṇḍa inscription² refers to a princess from Ujjain named Rudradhara Bhaṭṭārikā who was the queen (\*Mahādevī\*) of an Ikshvāku ruler of the Guṇṭūr district and some adjoining regions in the lower Kṛishṇā valley. It has been surmised by Vogel that she probably belonged to the house of Chashṭana. Her father is styled a \*Mahārāja\*, a title which seems to have been formally assumed by one of the latest successors of Rudradāman I, viz., Svāmī-Rudrasena III, who ruled from \*c.\* A.D. 348 to 378, and was, apparently, a contemporary of Samudra-Gupta. It is, however, difficult to say if the Ikshvāku queen was a daughter of Rudrasena III or of some earlier prince. ### [c19.s3.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.23) ² \*Ep. Ind.\*, XX, 1 ff. ### [c19.s3.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.24) Rudradāman I, was succeeded by his eldest son \*\*Dāmaghsada I\*\*. After Dāmaghsada there were, according to Rapson, two claimants for the succession : his son Jīvadāman and his brother Rudra Siṁha I. The struggle was eventually decided in favour of the latter. To \*\*Rudra Siṁha's\*\* reign belongs the Guṇḍa inscription of the year 103 (= A. D. 181) which records the digging of a tank by an Ābhīra general named Rudradhūti, son of the general Bāpaka or Bāhaka. The Ābhīras afterwards possibly usurped the position of \*Mahākshatrapa\*. According to Dr. Bhandarkar an Ābhīra named Iśvaradatta was the \*Mahākshatrapa\* of the period 188-90 A. D. But Rapson places Iśvaradatta after A.D. 236. ### [c19.s3.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.25) Rudra Siṁha I was followed by his sons \*\*Rudrasena I\*\*,^1 Saṅghadāman and Dāmasena. Three of Dāmasena's sons became \*Mahākshatrapa\*, viz., Yaśodāman, Vijayasena and Dāmajada Śrī. This last prince was succeeded by his nephew Rudrasena II who was followed by his sons Viśvasiṁha and Bhartṛidāman. Under Bhartṛidāman his son Viśvasena served as \*Kshatrapa\*. ### [c19.s3.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.26) The connection of Bhartṛidāman and Viśvasena with the next \*Mahākshatrapa\* \*\*Rudradāman II\*\* and his successors cannot be ascertained. The last known member of the line was \*\*Rudra Siṁha III\*\* who ruled up to at least A.D. 388. ### [c19.s3.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.27) Rapson points out that from A.D. 295 to \*c.\* 340 there was no \*Mahākshatrapa\*. The elder branch of the family came to an end after 305 and passed by an obscure transition to a new line of Satraps and Great Satraps. The rulers from A.D. 295 to 332 held only the subordinate title of Satrap, and the higher title was not revived till a few years before A.D. 348, when Rudrasena III styled himself \*Rājā Mahākshatrapa\* and \*Mahārāja Kshatrapa\*. Now, it is precisely during the period when the old line passed away in obscurity, and the office of \*Mahākshatrapa\* remained in abeyance, that we find Śakasthāna and portions of Hind annexed to the Sassanian empire and dominated by Sassanian viceroys. The Sassanian conquest began before the end of the reign of Varhrān (Bahrām) II (A. D. 293) and the Sassanian suzerainty was maintained till the early part of the reign of Shāpūr II (A.D. 309-79). The hold of the Persians on the distant Indian provinces became weak in the middle of the fourth century A.D. when Rudrasena III assumed the title of \*Mahārāja\*, and Samudra Gupta, the prototype of the Raghu of Kālidāsa, forced the foreign potentates of the north-west borderland to do him homage. ### [c19.s3.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.28) ¹ ^1 To Rudrasena's reign belong the Mulwasar tank inscription, and the Jasdhan Pillar Inscription of A. D. 205. In the latter epigraph we have the title Bhadramukha applied to all the ancestors of Rudrasena, excepting Jayadāma. ### [c19.s3.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.29) The revived power of the Śakas of Western India did not last long, being finally destroyed by the Guptas. Already in the time of Samudra Gupta the Śakas appear among the peoples who hastened to buy peace by the offer of maidens and other acts of respectful submission. The Udayagiri Inscriptions of Chandra Gupta II testify to that monarch’s conquest of Eastern Mālwa. One of the Inscriptions commemorates the construction of a cave by a minister of Chandra Gupta who “came here, accompanied by the king in person, who was seeking to conquer the whole world.” The subjugation of western Mālwa is probably hinted at by the epithet “\*Siṁha-vikrānta-gāmini\*,” resorting to (as a vassal of) Siṁha Vikrama, \*i.e.\*, Chandra Gupta II, applied to Naravarman of Mandasor.¹ Evidence of the conquest of Surāshṭra is to be seen in Chandra Gupta’s silver coins which are imitated from those of Śaka Satraps. Lastly, Bāṇa in his \*Harsha-charita\* refers to the slaying of the Śaka king by Chandra Gupta : \*Ar(l ?) ipure cha para-kalatra kāmukam kāminī-veśaguptaścha Chandra Guptaḥ Śaka-patim aśātayaditi\*.¹ ### [c19.s3.30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.30) ¹ \*Ind. Ant.\*, 1913, p. 162. The small copper coins of Chandra Gupta II bearing a vase as type were probably struck by him in the Mālava territory which may have been under Śaka domination in the second century A.D. (Allan, \*CICAI\*, cvi). ### [c19.s3.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.31) ¹ According to the commentator Śaṅkara the \*Parakalatra\* and \*Kāminī\* referred to above was Dhruva-devī, and the ruler of the Śakas was secretly killed by Chandragupta disguised as Dhruva-devī while the former was making advances of love. The \*Śṛiṅgāraprakāśa\* by Bhoja throws additional light on the point quoting passages from the \*Devīchandraguptam\* (see \*Aiyangar Com. Vol.\*, 359 ff; also Lévi, \*J. A.\*, 1923, 201 ff; \*Devīchandraguptam\* by A. Rangaswami Sarasvati, \*Ind. Ant.\*, 1923, p. 181 ff.) The last mentioned work is a play by Viśākhadatta, the author of the \*Mudrārākshasa\*. Quotations from the \*Devīchandraguptam\* are also found in the \*Nāṭya darpaṇa\* of Rāmachandra and Guṇachandra. ### Genealogical Table of the Sakas of Ujjain ## Linked texts (11) - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa.3.183.32) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Bhāgavatapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.bhagavata.1.11.10) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Matsyapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.matsya.114.50) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.markandeya.57.49) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Bṛhatsaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.astro.samhita.rsi.brhatsamhita.5.71) — Varāhamihira, Sanskrit - [Vāyupurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.vayu) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Milindapañha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.milindapanha) — Pāli - [Harṣacarita](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.historical.harsacarita) — Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Sanskrit - [Devīcandragupta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.plays.rajacarita.devicandragupta) — Viśākhadatta, Sanskrit - [Nāṭyadarpaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.natya.natyadarpana) — Rāmacandrasūri & Guṇacandra, Sanskrit - [Sānchi inscription (No. 274)](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.central.sanchi.sanchi-inscription-no-274) — Prakrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3) · Pramāṇa