History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c18.s1.3

v1.c18.s1.3

The next mention we have of Gauda in ancient records found so far is that of the Gupta family of Ādityasena. This must be another Gupta branch. According to our view already detailed it was a branch Gupta line which had come from Malwa, after Deva-gupta the enemy of Grahavarman had been slain. Mādhava Gupta, his half brother, was a friend and follower of Harsha and during or after Harsha's rule, his own Mālava kingdom having been seized and forfeited, he founded a kingdom in Magadha. The Aphsad inscription describes Ādityasena the donor as a son of Mādhava-gupta "a friend of Harsha" in 66 H. E. or 672 A. D. The inscription was drawn out by a Gauda named Sūkshma Śiva. The literary excellence of the Gaudas may be seen even at that time in this inscription an excellence which coutinues down to this day. Magadha and Gauda or western Bengal appear then to have been under one ruler and the same thing appears from the Gaudavaho which we next proceed to notice. In this poem, as we have said before, Yaśovarman of Kanauj is said to have invaded Gauda and killed the Gauda king in battle. The king is said to be Magadhādhipa also. Who was this king? We have placed Yaśovarman between 675 and 715 A.D. following S. P. Pandit. From the Deo-Barnak inscription of Jivita-gupta we get the following line from Mādhava-1 Madhava 2 Ādityasena (672 A. D.) 3 Devagupta 4 Vishnugupta and 5 Jivitagupta. The date of the latter is not given and we have to surmise it. The king killed in the battle with Yaśovarman is said by some to be Jivitagupta himself This battle was fought before Yaśovarman was conquered by Lalitāditya of Kashmir in about 700 A. D. Hence according to our dates the king killed in Gauda must have been Devagupta. Of course as there was no annexation of kingdoms practically in those days his son succeeded. And perhaps it may have been his son Vishnugupta who was conquered by Lalitāditya and who in some year later than 700 having again taken up arms against the distant Lalitāditya was again conquered and taken a prisoner to Kashmir where, inspite of an oath to the contrary, he was murdered as related in Kashmir history. He was succeeded by Jivitagupta whose record, the Dev-Barnak inscription, has been found. This line of the Guptas we have identified as the Mālwa branch for many reasons and two names properly recur Devagupta and this name Jivitagupta. (See Gupta pedigree given in Book I). The date of Jivitagupta approximately may be taken to be 732 A.D. taking 20 years for each generation and Muktāpīda’s reign Kalhana has rightly assigned as lying between 699 and 735 A. D. (see Kashmir pedigree Chap. I). We take it as very probable that Jivitagupta was not the king murdered in Kashmir. From the Dev-Barnak inscription of this king we find that Ādityasena was a worshipper of Vishnu (परमभागवत) and his queen was Kônadevī (both facts appear from the Apsad inscription also), that their son Devagupta was a worshipper of Śiva (परममाहेश्वर) and his queen was Kamalādevī, that his son was Vishnugupta also a worshipper of Śiva and his wife was Ijyādevī and that their son Jivitagupta was probably a worshipper of the sun (the word here after parama is unfortunately not readable) for he made or rather confirmed a grant for the worship of the sun. Thus it will appear that these Guptas were not Buddhists. Perhaps Mādhava may have been a Buddhist like and following Harsha, but as after Harsha’s death Buddhism was everywhere supplanted, in Gauda too we have a revival of Hinduism or Aryanism and the worship of Śiva, Vishnu and the sun was re-established. The story of the vengeance which according to the Rājataranginī the loyal servants of the Gauda king murdered in Kashmir took on the god Parihāsa-Keshava whose oath was violated is touching and illustrative of the great love and personal affection which loyal servants often bore towards their royal masters in India.