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Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s1: Section I. Survival of the Gupta Power after Skanda Gupta

Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s1

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Section I. Survival of the Gupta Power after Skanda Gupta

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It is now admitted on all hands that the reign of Skanda Gupta ended about A.D. 467.¹ When he passed away the empire declined,² especially in the west, but did not wholly perish. We have epigraphic as well as literary evidence of the continuance of the Gupta empire in parts of Central and Eastern India in the latter half of the fifth as well as the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. The Dāmodarpur plates, the Sārnāth Inscriptions³ and the Eraṇ epigraph of Budha Gupta prove that from A.D. 477 to 496 the Gupta empire extended from Bengal to Eastern Mālwa. The Betul plates of the *Parivrājaka Mahārāja* Saṁkshobha, dated in the year 199 G. E., *i.e.*, 518 A.D., 'during the enjoyment of sovereignty by the Gupta King,'⁴ testify to the fact that the Gupta sway at this period was acknowledged in Dabhālā, which included the Tripuri *Vishaya* (Jabbalpur region).¹ Another inscription of Saṁkshobha found in the valley near the village of Khoh in Baghēlkhaṇḍ, dated in A.D. 528, proves that the Gupta empire included some of the central districts even in A.D. 528.² Fifteen years later the grant of a village in the Koṭivarsha *Vishaya* (Dinājpur District) of Puṇḍravardhana-bhukti (roughly North Bengal) 'during the reign of *Paramadaivata* (the Supreme Divinity) *Parama-bhaṭṭāraka* (the Supreme Lord) *Mahārājādhirāja* (King of Kings) *Śrī . . . . . Gupta*,'³ shows that the Gupta dominions at this period included the eastern as well as the central provinces. Towards the close of the sixth century a Gupta king, a contemporary of Prabhākara-vardhana of the Pushyabhūti⁴ family of Śrīkaṇṭha (Thānēsar), was ruling in "Mālava."⁵ Two sons of this king, Kumāra Gupta and Mādhava Gupta were appointed to wait upon the princes Rājya-vardhana and Harsha of Thānesar. From the Aphsaḍ inscription of Ādityasena we learn that the fame of the father of Mādhava Gupta, the associate of Harsha,¹ marked with honour of victory in war over Susthitavarman, doubtless a king of Kāmarūpa, was constantly sung on the bank of the river Lohitya or Brahmaputra. This indicates that even in or about A.D. 600 (the time of Prabhākara-vardhana) the sway of kings bearing the name Gupta extended from "Mālava" to the Brahmaputra.²

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¹ Smith *The Oxford History of India*, additions and corrections, p. 171, end.

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² For the probable causes of decline, see *Calcutta Review*, April, 1930, p. 36 ff; also post, 626 ff.

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³ *A.S.I. Report*, 1914-15; *Hindusthan Review*, Jan., 1918; *JBORS*, IV, 344 f.

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⁴ *Śrīmati pravardhamāna-vijaya-rājye saṁvatsara-śate nava-navaty-uttare Gupta-nṛipa-rājya-bhuktau*. "In the glorious, augmenting and victorious reign, in a century of years increased by ninety-nine, in the enjoyment of sovereignty by the Gupta King."

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¹ Ep. Ind., VIII, pp. 284-87. Dabhālā = later Dāhala.

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² Fleet, CII, III, pp. 113-16; Hoernle in JASB, 1889, p. 95.

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³ Ep. Ind., XV, p. 113 ff. Corrected in Ep. Ind., XVII (Jan., 1921), p. 193.

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⁴ This seems to be the correct spelling and not Pushpabhūti (Ep. Ind., I, 68).

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⁵ "Mālava" was graced by the presence of the Guptas as early as the fifth century. This is proved by the Udayagiri inscriptions of Chandragupta II and the Tumain inscription of Ghatotkacha Gupta. In the latter part of the sixth and the commencement of the seventh century, it seems to have been under the direct rule of a line of Guptas whose precise connection with the Great Guptas is not clear. Magadha was probably administered by local rulers like Kumārāmātya Mahārāja Nandana (A. D. 551-2?) of the Amauna plate, Gayā Dist., Ep. Ind., X, 49, and the Varmans (cf Nāgārjunī Hill Cave Ins., CII, 226; also Pūrṇavarman mentioned by Hiuen Tsang and Deva-varman, IA, X, 110). For a detailed discussion see Ray Chaudhuri, *JBORS*, XV, parts iii and iv (1929, pp. 651 f.). The precise location and extent of the "Mālava" of the "later Guptas" cannot be determined. In Ep. Ind., V, 229, the Daṇḍanāyaka Anantapāla, a feudatory of Vikramāditya VI, is said to have subdued the *Sapta Mālava* countries up to the Himālaya Mountains. This suggests that there were as many as seven countries called Mālava (cf, also Rice, *Mysore and Coorg*, 46). These were probably: (1) The country of the 'Mālavas' in the Western Ghats (*Kanarese Districts*, p. 569), (2) Mo-la-po (Mālavaka *āhāra* of Valabhī grants) on the Mahī governed by the Maitrakas, (3) Avanti in the wider sense of the term ruled by the Kaṭachchuris or Kalachuris of the Abhona plates (sixth century) and by a Brāhmaṇa family in the time of Hiuen Tsang Chinese pilgrim, (4) *Pūrva Mālava* (round Bhilsa), (5) District round Prayāga, Kauśāmbī and Fatehpur in U. P. (Smith, EHI, 4th ed., p. 350n.; IHQ. 1931. 150f.; *cf.* JRAS. 1903. 561), (6) part of eastern Rājputāna, (7) Cis-Sutlej districts of the Pañjāb together with some Himālayan territory. The later Guptas probably held (4) and (5) and at times, Magadha as well. The *Bhāgvata Purāṇa* (xii. 1. 36) whose date is not probably far removed from that of the later Guptas, associates Mālava with Arbuda (Abu) and distinguishes it from Avanti. The rulers of Mālava and Avanti are also distinguished from each other by Rājaśekhara in his *Viddhaśāla bhañjikā*, Act IV (p. 121 of Jīvānanda Vidyāsāgara's edition). Early, in the seventh century the Guptas seem to have lost Eastern Mālwa to the Kaṭachchuris. In the Vaḍner plates issued from Vidiśā (Besnagar) in or about A. D. 608, a Kaṭachchuri king, Śaṁkaragaṇa receives epithets that are palpably borrowed from the Allahabad *Praśasti* of Samudra Gupta. The overthrow of the Kaṭachchuris was effected by the early Chalukyas of Badami and South Gujarāt. Fleet points out (CII, 14) that three of the epithets of Samudra Gupta are applied to the Chalukya chieftain Vijayarāja in the Kaira grant of the year 394 (IA. VII. 248). Ādityasena of the later Gupta family, who ruled in the second half of the seventh century A. D., seems to be referred to in Nepalese inscriptions as 'King of Magadha'. Magadha, now replaced Eastern Mālwa as the chief centre of Gupta power.

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¹ *Cf.* Hoernle in JRAS, 1903, 561.

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² An allusion to the later Guptas seems to occur in the *Kādambarī*, Verse 10, of Bāṇa which says that the lotus feet of Kubera, the poet's great-grandfather, were worshipped by many a Gupta:—

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In the sixth century Gupta suzerainty was no doubt successively challenged by the Huns and their conquerors belonging to the Mandasor and Maukhari families. In

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*Babhūva Vātsyāyana vaṁśa sambhavo*
*dvijo jagadgītaguṇo'granīḥ satām*
*aneka Guptārchita pāda paṅkajaḥ*
*Kubera nāmāṁśa iva Svayambhuvaḥ.*

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the first half of the seventh century the Guptas lost Vidiśā to the Kaṭachchuris and their power in the Ganges Valley was overshadowed by that of Harsha. But, after the death of the great Kanauj monarch, the "Gupta" empire was sought to be revived by Ādityasena, son of Mādhava Gupta, who "ruled the whole earth up to the shores of the oceans," performed the *Aśvamedha* and other great sacrifices and assumed the titles of *Parama-bhaṭṭāraka* and *Mahārājādhirāja*.

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