History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c22.s1.16.2

v1.c22.s1.16.2

7 is by Amśuvarman himself and is dated Samvat 39 which being in Harsha's era gives A. D. 645. He must have been alive then and it can not be explained how Sir Vincent Smith gives 641 A. D. as the date of his death (E. H. 3rd Ed. p. 366). But Amśuvarman must have died before Harsha very probably and he was not the man who gave assistance to the Chinese envoy who was maltreated by the ruler of Tirhut as stated in the history of Kanauj. For it appears that Amśuvarman at least in his later days was a staunch Hindu and a worshipper of Śiva as may be surmised from the following epithet applied to him in this very inscription viz. निशि निशि चानिकशास्त्रविमर्शविसादितसदर्शनतया धर्माधिकारास्थितिकारणमेवोत्सवनतिशयं मन्यमानः. This wording not only corroborates Hiuen Tsang's report about Amśuvarman's learning but shows that he had seen the fallacy of the wrong philosophy (of course Buddhism). The course of history in Nepal, therefore, at this time was the same as elsewhere. The kings upto Amśuvarman were sometimes Buddhists, sometimes Vaishnavites. The first Vishnudeva whose name we have in inscription No. 1 is described in Ins. No. 15 of Jayadeva as सुगतशासनपक्षपाती i. e. favourer of the teaching of Buddha. The Buddhist religion probably led to the enervation of the kingly line and Amśuvarman appears to have become supreme, being a professor of the sturdier religion of Śiva.