Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s5: Section V. Successors of Budha Gupta

Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s5

Language: English

c22.s5.t1 The Early Imperial Guptas — 12 parts

Section V. Successors of Budha Gupta

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According to the *Life of Hiuen Tsang* Budha Gupta was succeeded by Tathāgata Gupta, after whom Bālāditya succeeded to the empire.¹ At this period the supremacy of the Guptas in Central India was challenged by the Hun king Toramāṇa. We have seen that in A.D. 484-85 a *Mahārāja* named Mātṛivishṇu ruled in the Airikiṇa Vishaya (Eraṇ in Eastern Mālwa, now in the Saugor District of the Central Provinces) as a vassal of the emperor Budha Gupta. But after his death his younger brother Dhanyavishṇu transferred his allegiance to Toramāṇa. The success of the Huns in Central India was, however, short-lived. In 510-11 we find a general named Goparāja fighting by the side of a Gupta king at Eraṇ and king Hastin of the neighbouring province of Ḍabhālā to the south-east of Eraṇ acknowledging the sovereignty of the Guptas. In A.D. 518-9 the suzerainty of the Guptas is acknowledged in the Tripurī *vishaya* (Jubbalpore District). In the year 528-29 the Gupta sway was still acknowledged by the *Parivrājaka-Mahārāja* of Ḍabhālā. The *Parivrājakas* Hastin and Saṁkshobha seem to have been the bulwarks of the Gupta empire in the northern part of the present Madhya Pradeśa. The *Harsha-charita* of Bāṇa recognises the possession of Mālava, possibly Eastern Mālwa, by the Guptas as late as the time of Prabhākara-vardhana (*cir.* A.D. 600). There can be no doubt that the expulsion of the Huns from parts of Central India was final.² The recovery of the Central Provinces was probably effected in the time of Bālāditya whose troops are represented by Hiuen Tsang as having imprisoned Mihirakula, the son and successor of Toramāṇa, and set him at liberty at the request of the Queen Mother. The Hun king had to be content with a small kingdom in the north."¹ It is not improbable that Bālāditya was a *biruda* of the "glorious Bhānu Gupta, the bravest man on the earth, a mighty king, equal to Pārtha" along with whom Goparāja went to Eraṇ and having fought a "very famous battle" died shortly before A.D. 510-11.²

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¹ Beal, *Si-yu-ki*, II, p. 168; the *Life*, p. 111.

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² For the survival of the Huns in the Mālwa region, See *Ep. Ind.*, xxiii., 102.

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¹ Beal, *Si-yu-ki*, I, p. 171.

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² In a Nālandā Stone Inscription (*Ep. Ind.*, XX, 43-45) Bālāditya is described as a king of irresistible valour and vanquisher of all foes. The last of the Bālādityas mentioned in a Sārnāth Inscription (Fleet, *CII*, 285 f.) had a son named Prakaṭāditya by his wife Dhavalā. In the *Ārya-Mañjuśrī-mūla-kalpa* (ed. G. Śāstrī, p. 637 ff.) Pakārākhya (Prakaṭāditya) is represented as the son of Bhakārākhya (Bhānu Gupta). Buddhist tradition thus corroborates the identification, first proposed in these pages, of Bālāditya with Bhānu Gupta. *Cf.* now Jayaswal, *An Imperial History of India*, pp. 47, 53. An inscription found at Guṇāighara near Comilla and certain seals at Nālandā disclose the existence of a king named (Vai)nya Gu(pta) who ruled in or about A. D. 507 and must have been also a contemporary of Mihirakula or of his father (*Prabāsī*, 1338, 675; IHQ, 1930, 53, 561). The seals give him the style *Mahārājādhirāja* (*ASI*, *AR*, 1930-34, Pt. I, 230, 249; *MASI*, 66, 67; *IHQ*, XIX, 275) and suggest relationship with the imperial Guptas. Dr D. C. Ganguly identifies him with the *Dvādaśāditya* of coins (*IHQ*, 1933, 784, 989). But owing to damaged condition of the Nālandā seal his parentage cannot be ascertained.

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Mihirakula was finally subjugated by the *Janendra*³ Yaśodharman of Mandaśor some time before A.D. 533.

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³ The ascription of the title of Vikramāditya to Yaśodharman of Mandaśor, and the representation of this chief as a ruler of Ujjain, the father of Śīlāditya of Mo-la-po and the father-in-law of Prabhākara-vardhana are absolutely unwarranted. According to Father Heras (*JBORS*, 1927, March, 8-9) the defeat of Mihirakula at the hands of Bālāditya took place after the Hun king's conflict with Yaśodharman. It should, however, be remembered that at the time of the war with Bālāditya Mihirakula was a paramount sovereign to whom the king of Magadha had been tributary, and with whom he dared not fight, being only anxious to conceal his poor person (Beal, *Si-yu-ki*, Vol. I, p. 168). This is hardly possible after the Janendra of Mandaśor had compelled the Hun "to pay respect to his two feet". The victory of Bālāditya over Mihirakula was certainly not decisive. The "loss of the royal estate" was only temporary, and the tyrant soon placed himself on the throne of Kaśmīra and conquered Gandhāra (Beal, *Si-yu-ki*, I, p. 171). To the court-poet of Yaśodharman Mihirakula was pre-eminently a king of the Himālayan region. This is clear from the following passage which was misunderstood by Fleet whose interpretation has been followed by Father Heras (p. 8 n) :— "He (Yaśodharman) to whose feet respect was paid—by even that (famous) king Mihirakula, whose head had never previously been brought into the humility of obeisance to any other save (the god) Sthāṇu (and) *embraced by whose arms the mountain of snow falsely prides itself as being styled an inaccessible fortress*" (Kielhorn in *Ind. Ant.*, 1885, p. 219). Kielhorn's interpretation was accepted by Fleet. [The statement that Mihirakula's head 'had never been brought into the humility of obeisance to any other save (the god) Sthāṇu" shows that he refused to do homage to Bālāditya, and probably accounts for the order, given for his execution by that king.]

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Line 6 of the Mandaśor Stone Pillar inscription¹ leaves the impression that in the time of Yaśodharman Mihirakula was the king of a Himālayan country ("small kingdom in the north"), i.e., Kaśmīra and that neighbourhood, who was compelled "to pay respect to the two feet" of the victorious *Janendra* probably when the latter carried his arms to "the mountain of snow the tablelands of which are embraced by the Gaṅgā."

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¹ CII, pp. 146-147; Jayaswal, *The Historical Position of Kalki*, p. 9.

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Yaśodharman claims to have extended his sway as far as the Lauhitya or Brahmaputra in the east. It is not improbable that he defeated and killed **Vajra**, the son of Bālāditya,² and extinguished the viceregal family of the Dattas of Puṇḍra-vardhana. Hiuen Tsang mentions a king of Central India as the successor of Vajra. The Dattas, who governed Puṇḍra-vardhana from the time of Kumāra Gupta I, disappear about this time. But Yaśodharman's success must have been short-lived, because in A.D. 543-44, ten years after the Mandasor inscription which mentions the *Janendra* Yaśodharman as victorious, the son (?) and viceroy of a Gupta *parama-bhaṭṭāraka mahārājādhirāja pṛithivīpati*, ‘supreme sovereign, king of kings, lord of the earth,’ and not any official of the Central Indian *Janendra*, was governing the Puṇḍra-vardhana-*bhukti*, a province which lay between the Indian interior and the Lauhitya.

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² If the identification of Bālāditya with Bhānu Gupta first proposed in these pages is correct, his son Vajra may be identified with Vakārākhya, the younger brother (*anuja*) of the Prakaṭāditya of the Sārnāth Inscription (Fleet, CII, 284 ff.)—the Pakārākhya of the *Ārya-Mañjuśrī-mūla-kalpa* who is represented as the son of Bhakārākhya, i.e., Bhānu Gupta (ed. G. Śāstrī, pp. 637-44). Prakaṭāditya is represented in the inscription named above as the son of Bālāditya by Dhavalā. *Cf.* now Jayaswal, *An Imperial History of India*, pp. 47, 53, 56, 63.

The Early Imperial Guptas

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[Figure: Gupta

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Ghaṭotkacha Licbchhavi

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Chandra Gupta I = Kumāra Devī (?) A.D. 320 | Samudra Gupta = Datta Devī

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Dhruva Devī = Deva Gupta I (Chandra Gupta II) Vikramāditya = Kubera Nāgā A.D. 376-413

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Govinda Gupta Kumāra Gupta I Mahendrāditya (1) Devakī ? Guttas of Guttal. Prabhāvatī Crown Prince ? A.D. 415-455 (2) Ananta Devī | Vākāṭaka kings of Bhojakaṭa, etc.,* in the Deccan