Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c26.20

c26.20

This verse is reminiscent of the period when the Huns came into contact with the Sassanian dynasty of Persia.⁵ Kālidāsa, too, places the Huns close to Persia—in the saffron-producing country watered by the river Vaṅkshu, the modern Oxus.⁶ Early in the reign of the Emperor Skanda Gupta they poured into the Gupta Empire, but were at first beaten back. The repulse of the Huns is mentioned in the Bhitarī Inscription and is also probably alluded to by the grammarian Chandragomin as a contemporary event.⁷ With the passing away of Skanda Gupta, however, all impediments to the steady advance of the invaders seem to have been removed and, if Somadeva, a Jaina contemporary of Kṛishṇa III, Rāshtrakūṭa, is to be believed, they penetrated into the Indian interior as far as Chitrakūṭa.¹ They certainly conquered the Eraṇ district (*Airikiṇa pradeśa*) in the northern part of the present Madhya Pradeśa. The principal centres of their power in India, in the time of their kings Toramāṇa and Mihirakula, were Pavvaiya on the Chināb² and Sākala, modern Siālkoṭ, between the Chenāb and the Degh, in the Upper Pañjāb.