Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s6.5

c22.s6.5

Regarding **Kṛishṇa Gupta** we know very little. The Aphsaḍ inscription describes him as a hero whose arm played the part of a lion, in bruising the foreheads of the array of the rutting elephants of (his) haughty enemy (*dṛiptārāti*), (and) in being victorious by (its) prowess over countless foes. The *dṛiptārāti* against whom he had to fight may have been Yaśodharman. The next king **Deva Śrī Harsha Gupta** had to engage in terrible contests with those who were "averse to the abode of the goddess of fortune being with (him, her) own lord." There were wounds from many weapons on his chest. The name of the enemies, who tried to deprive him of his rightful possessions, are not given. Harsha's son **Jīvita Gupta I** probably succeeded in re-establishing the power of his family in the territory lying between the Himālayas and the sea, apparently in Eastern India. "The very terrible scorching fever (of fear) left not (his) haughty foes, even though they stood on seaside shores that were cool with the flowing and ebbing currents of water, (and) were covered with the branches of plantain trees severed by the trunks of elephants roaming through the lofty groves of palmyra palms; (or) even though they stood on (that) mountain (Himālaya) which is cold with the water of the rushing and waving torrents full of snow." The "haughty foes" on seaside shores were probably the Gauḍas who had already launched into a career of conquest about this time and who are described as living on the sea shore (*samudr-āśraya*) in the Harāhā inscription of A. D. 554.¹ The other enemies may have included ambitious *Kumārāmātyas* like Nandana of the Amauna plate.