Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s6.12

c22.s6.12

A new power was rising in the Upper Ganges Valley which was destined to engage in a death grapple with the Guptas for the mastery of Northern India. This was the Mukhara or **Maukhari**¹ power. The Maukharis claimed descent from the hundred sons whom king Aśvapati got from Vaivasvata, *i.e.*, Yama² (not Manu). The family consisted of several distinct groups. The stone inscriptions of one group have been discovered in the Jaunpur and Bārā Bankī districts of the Uttara Pradeśa, while lithic records of another group have been discovered in the Gayā district of Bihār. A third family has left inscription at Baḍvā in the Kotah state in Rājputāna. The Maukharis of Gayā, namely, Yajñavarman, Sārdūlavarman and Anantavarman were a feudatory family. Śārdūla is expressly called *sāmanta chūḍāmaṇi*, ‘crest-jewel of vassal chiefs’ in the Barābar Hill Cave Inscription of his son.¹ The Baḍvā Maukharis held the office of general or military governor under some Prince of Western India in the third century A. D. The Maukharis of the Uttara Pradeśa² probably also held a subordinate rank at first. The earliest princes of this family, viz., Harivarman. Ādityavarman, and Īśvaravarman, were simply *Mahārājas*, Ādityavarman’s wife was Harsha Guptā, probably a sister of king Harsha Gupta. The wife of his son and successor Īśvaravarman was also probably a Gupta princess named Upa-Guptā. In the Harāhā inscription **Īśānavarman**, son of Īśvaravarman and Upa-Guptā,³ claims victories over the **Andhras**,⁴ the **Śūlikas** and the **Gauḍas** and is the first to assume the Imperial title of *Mahārājādhirāja*. It was this which probably brought him into conflict with king Kumāra Gupta III.¹ Thus began a duel between the Maukharis and the Guptas which ended only when the latter with the help of the Gauḍas wiped out the Maukhari power in the time of Grahavarman, brother-in-law of Harshavardhana.²