History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c5.8

v1.c5.8

Harsha had already returned from his hunting trip on hearing of his father’s sudden illness and had been by his bedside at the time of his death. His mother Yaśomatī with more than Rajput instinct had preceded her husband by burning herself on a pyre in spite of the implorations of Harsha. Thus, by a sudden turn of the wheel of fortune, Rājyavardhana found himself raised to the throne of Thanesar though rendered inconsolable by the sudden demise of both his parents. The Buddhist Rājya thought of retiring in favour of the astounded Harsha; but all such thoughts were laid aside when just at that moment a messenger arrived with news of the strangest character. The Guptas of Malwa seem to have been the hereditary enemies of the Maukharis of Kanauj.¹ When news spread abroad, and in ancient India, in spite of the absence of railways and telegraphs, news always spread very quickly, that Prabhākara was dead and that his son Rājya had gone on an expedition against the Huns, Deva Gupta of Malwa thought it an opportune moment to attack the young king Grahavarmā of Kanauj. He suddenly marched on that city, killed Grahavarmā in a surprise attack and taking his queen Rājyashrī a prisoner, inhumanly confined her like an ordinary deliquent, loaded with iron fetters, in a prison. He thought himself now strong enough to invade the kingdom of Thanesar itself and commenced his march towards its capital, though his ally and friend Saśānka Gupta of Karnasuvarna or Bengal, who had already marched to his assistance, had not yet arrived. It is not difficult to understand that the Guptas of Bengal like the Guptas of Malwa were smarting under the supremacy of the Maukharis of Kanauj, who had supplanted the power of the Imperial Guptas and established their sway upto the Brahmaputra, and were only waiting for an opportunity to wreak their vengeance on them. It is also possible to conceive that the two Guptas were leagued against Thanesar and Kanauj, because the kings of the latter two were now Buddhists. No doubt religious differences, in ancient India, at least in the seventh century, were not of much animosity but still such differences might accentuate political enmities already existing and the kings of Bengal and Malwa might have been united in harbouring a wish to run down Grahavarmā of Kanauj and Rājyavardhana of Thanesar who were also both young and inexperienced at this time.