Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s6.7

c22.s6.7

The next king, **Kumāra Gupta III**, had to encounter a sea of troubles. The Gauḍas were issuing from their "proper realm" which was in Western Bengal as it bordered on the sea and included Karṇasuvarṇa² and Rāḍhāpuri.³ The lord of the Andhras who had thousands of three-fold rutting elephants, and the Sūlikas who had an army of countless galloping horses, were powers to be reckoned with. The Andhra king was probably Mādhava-varman (I, Janāśraya) of the Polamuru plates belonging to the Vishṇukuṇḍin family who "crossed the river Godāvari with the desire to conquer the eastern region"⁴ and performed eleven horse-sacrifices. The Sūlikas were probably the Chalukyas.⁵ In the Mahākūṭa pillar inscription the name appears as Chalikya. In the Gujarāt records we find the forms Solaki and Solaṅki. Sūlika may have been another dialectic variant. The Mahākūṭa pillar inscription tells us that in the sixth century A.D., Kīrtivarman I of the "Chalikya" dynasty gained victories over the kings of Vaṅga, Aṅga, Magadha, etc. His father is known to have performed the *Aśvamedha* sacrifice, "the super-eminent touch-stone to test the might of warriors conquering the world and an indication of the conquest of all the warriors." Prince Kīrtivarman may have been entrusted with the guardianship of the sacrificial steed that had to roam about for a year in the territories of the rulers to whom a challenge was thrown by the performer of the sacrifice.