Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s5.1

c22.s5.1

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