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History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c9.s1.t2: Sources

History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c9.s1.t2

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English

Sources

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Unfortunately, our data for the history of Kanauj under the Maukharis² are very meagre, and so we have to depend mainly on guesswork supported by a few coins, epigraphic documents, and casual literary references.

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² The records of the dynasty use the term Mukhara and Maukhari in a loose way. The Jaunpur (*C. I. I.*, III, pp. 229, 230) and the Haraha inscriptions (*Ep. Ind.*, XIV. pp. 115, 119) call its kings "Mukhara," whereas Bāṇa uses both terms indiscriminately (see *Hc.* C.T., pp. 122, 194; *Kādambarī*, ed. Peterson (Bombay, 1900), p. 1, verse 4.

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(a) The first record of some value is the seal of Sarvavarman found in Asirgaḍh, which is a hill-fort (formerly belonging to the Scindia) in the Burhanpur tahsil of the Nimad district of Central Provinces.¹

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¹ C. I. I., III, No. 47, pp. 219-21.

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(b) Next, we have what are known as the Nālandā seals.² They are several in number, and were discovered in the ruins of Nālandā in the Patna district of the Bihar Province. These records are preserved in a fragmentary state, and the lacunæ are evidently too many to yield us any substantial information. A seal of Sarvavarman, which Dr. Hīrānanda Śāstrī calls “a replica of the Asirgaḍh seal,” is, however, almost entire.

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² Arch. Surv. Ind. Rep., Eastern circle, 1917-18, p. 44; Ep. Ind., XXI (April, 1931), pp. 73-74.

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(c) The third inscription was found in the Juma Masjid of Jaunpur in the United Provinces.³ It is supposed to detail the victories achieved by Īśvaravarman, but its value is somewhat vitiated by the dubious character of its testimony.⁴

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³ C. I. I., III, No. 51, pp. 228-30.

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⁴ See Infra.

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(d) The most important epigraph, however, is the one found at Haraha in the Bara Banki district of the United Provinces.⁵ Its object is to record the reconstruction of a dilapidated temple of Śiva by Sūryavarman, son of Īśānavarman, the reigning king of the Maukhari dynasty. It not only enumerates the achievements of Īśānavarman, but also contains a date which we shall discuss further at length, as it offers certain difficulties in interpretation.

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⁵ Ep. Ind., XIV; pp. 110-20, edited by Hīrānanda Śāstrī; Ind. Ant. XLVI, pp. 125-27, commented upon by Mr. N. G. Majumdar.

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(e) The history of the Maukhari dynasty is also supplemented by inscriptions of a line known to historians as that of the Later Guptas. One of them was found at Aphsad in the Nawada subdivision of the Gaya district.¹ It throws a flood of light on Gupta-Maukhari relations, and without its help we should have been left to grope in the dark about these points.

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¹ C. I. I., III, No. 42, pp. 200-08.

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(f) Another inscription, belonging to the time of Jivitagupta II, was found in Deo Baranārk in the Shahabad district.² It is the only epigraphic record in which the name of Avantivarman occurs.

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² Ibid., No 46, pp. 213-18. Also see *Arch. Surv. Ind. Rep.*, XVI, pp. 73-75.

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(g) We may also mention here the hoard of Maukhari coins discovered in Bhitaura in the Fyzabad district of the United Provinces.³ It is considered that they furnish certain dates, and we shall try to determine later on how far we can fix the chronological position of these Maukhari kings by their help.

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³ *J. R. A. S.*, 1906, pp. 843-50.

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(h) Further, we may take into account the evidence of Bāṇa. The *Harṣacarita* narrates the last stages of the Gupta-Maukhari feud, and tells how eventually the young Maukhari ruler was engulfed in the political whirlpool of the times.

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(i) Lastly, the *Mañjusrī-Mūlakalpa* alludes to the Maukharis and their contemporary powers. This late Buddhist work, however, demands cautious and critical use.

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