History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c9.s1.t10.7

c9.s1.t10.7

Perhaps after the defeat and death of Dāmodaragupta, Magadha or at least its western portion was annexed by Sarvavarman. This conclusion seems evident from the Deo-Baranark inscription in which one Sarvavarman, identified with the Maukhari king of the same name, confirms a grant that was previously made by Bālāditya, the famous conqueror of the Hūṇas². We can explain this grant in the modern Shahabad district of Bihar Province only on the assumption that the supremacy over Magadha had passed to the Maukharis after this victory. What happened to the Later Guptas cannot be ascertained definitely, but the Harṣacarita probably gives a faint trace of their movements. Bāṇa calls Kumāragupta and Mādhavagupta, Mālavarājaputra (sons of the king of Malwa); and as the latter has been accepted on almost all hands as identical with Mādhavagupta of the Aphsad inscription, it may not be unreasonable to suggest that Mahāsenagupta, the son of Dāmodaragupta, retired to some part of Malwa, which continued to acknowledge the Gupta supremacy even after the downfall of the Imperial family.¹ This was probably Eastern Malwa, corresponding to the Bhilsa district on the Vetravatī, for we are told in the commentary of the Kāmasūtra of Vātsyāyana (Adhikaraṇa, III) that Ujjayinī or Ujjain denoted Western Malwa, and where only Malwa is mentioned it should be taken to mean Eastern Malwa.² It appears that Mahāsenagupta established himself in this region after being ousted from Magadha in order to pursue his schemes to regain the lost possession with greater vigour and unhampered by the enemy's proximity.³