History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c14.s5.20

v1.c14.s5.20

Nor does the history of Valabhi kings as given by tradition seem inconsistent with the natural course of events and require a conquest by foreigners. Their tradition is that one Kanakasena of the solar family from Ayodhya came first to Lohakot which need not be Lahore, and from thence to Birnagar in Saurastra. There he took possession of it from a local prince in A. D. 144. Four generations later, Vijayasena founded Vijayapur (now Dholka) and subsequently the family founded Valabhipur (Todd). Now this tradition does not contradict known history or the inscriptions. Kshatriya adventurers were always ready to go where they could found a kingdom and Kanakasena might have found opportunity to become a Thakur under the Saka kings of Kathiawar of A. D. 144. Later on when the Guptas conquered the country the Senas might have been the sub-lords of the Guptas. Now Bhatārka is styled Senāpati in early copperplates. He was probably a general of the Gupta forces in Saurashtra and must have fought their battles with invaders either in Saurashtra or in the Panjab and elsewhere. When the Gupta empire fell, he must have become independent in his own small state of Valabhi, still preserving the title Senāpati as one of honour. Such things have constantly happened in Indian history from the most ancient times to the modern. When empires fall, the governors of provinces become independent and still preserve their former titles of honour, witness the Vazier of Oudh or the Nizam of the Deccan. These titles are of those offices which they actually filled under the Moghals, and when they became independent they still kept them as honourable ones. This will suffice to explain the title Senāpati, and others taken by Bhatārka of the Maitraka family. (The word Maitrakānām had wrongly been interpreted previously as applying to his enemies. It has been rightly now explained as belonging to Bhatārka; but it is indicative of his family and as we have shown above it does not make him a meher. ) The epithet अनुरक्त-मौलभृतश्रेणी-बलावप्तराज्यश्री shows that Bhatārka was born in a kingly family and had many Kshatriya followers who were servants of the state for many generations. This proves that it was not Bhatārka who first rose to royal dignity.*