Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c26.36

c26.36

Another family which came to the forefront in the sixth century A.D., was the line of the Mukharas or Maukharis. The stone inscriptions of the princes of this dynasty prove their control over the Bārā Bankī, Jaunpur and Gayā districts of the Uttar Pradeśa and Bihār. All these territories formed integral parts of the Gupta Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. In the next century they must have passed into the hands of the Maukharis. The feudatory titles of the earlier princes of the Mukhara line leave no room for doubt that they occupied a subordinate position in the first few decades of the sixth century A.D. In or about the year A.D. 554, however, Iśānavarman Maukhari ventured to measure swords with the Guptas, and probably also with Huns, and assumed the Imperial title of *Mahārājādhirāja*. For a period of about a quarter of a century (A.D. 554-cir. A.D. 580) the Maukharis were beyond question the strongest political powers in the Upper Ganges Valley. They anticipated to some extent the glorious achievements of Harsha, the brother-in-law, and, apparently, the successor (on the throne of Kanauj ?) of their last notable king Grahavarman.