History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c7.s4.1

v1.c7.s4.1

At page 312 (3rd edn.) of his Early History of India Sir Vincent Smith observes: "These ‘later Guptas of Magadha,’ as they are called by Archæologists shared the rule of that province with another dynasty of rajas who had names ending in ‘Varman’ and belonged to a clan called Maukhari. The territorial division between the two dynasties cannot be defined precisely. Their relations with one another were sometimes friendly and sometimes hostile, but the few details known are of little importance." Now it is clear from the above that Sir V. Smith refers to the Maukharis and the Guptas discussed in the above two notes. It seems, however, clear to me that the Maukharis originally belonged to Kanauj. That their kingdom was Kanauj is certain from the statements of Bāṇa. Grahavarmā was attacked and killed there. His father was Avantivarmā from Bāṇa's statement. This Avantivarmā was a grandson of Śarvavarmā as seems very probable from the Deo Barnak inscription. The seal of Śarvavarmā found at Ashirgad gives the genealogy of this line of kings which has been given above. These Maukhari kings thus ruled at Kanauj and held extensive sway. The description of Bāṇa धरणीधराणां भन्मात्न स्थितोपि सकलभुवननमस्कृतो मौखरो वंशः ! as also तिमिरैस्तिरस्कारो रवैर्यो मौखराणां मालवैः परिभवः (H. C. pp. 200 and 252) seems to indicate that the Maukharis of Kanauj were a powerful family and the seal found at Ashirgad and the inscriptions found at Jaunpur and Deo Barnak show that they held sway over a large extent of territory southwards upto the Vindhya, northwards upto Jaunpur, and eastwards upto the Brahmaputra. In fact I would give the political history of India in the latter half of the sixth century as follows:--When the Imperial Gupta line ended in 538 A. D. with Kumāra Gupta II (V. Smith page 152 3rd edition), many of their provinces came under the sway of the Maukharis of Kanauj. With the overthrow of the Huns by a confederacy led by Yaśodharma and Bālāditya several new kingdoms came into importance in different parts of the Gupta empire and among them the Vardhanas of Thanesar and the Maukharis of Kanauj who had also their share of the fights with the Huns were the two prominent. The latter extended their sway north, south and east and for a time the eastern provinces were under their direct sway. We can only thus explain the confirmation of the grant at Deo Barnak made originally by Bālāditya, by Śarvavarmā and again by Avantivarmā. It was after Harsha's death that this sway of the Maukharis of Kanauj in Bengal was substituted by that of the later Guptas of Magadha as they are called by Archæologists. This part of my theory about the Maukharis seems to me to be well founded and strong. As to my surmise that the later Gupta line originally came from Malwa, I cannot speak with the same certainty. If Mādhava of the Aphsad inscription is a brother of Devagupta, then he came undoubtedly from Malwa. But if not we may treat his line as ruling from before in some portion of Magadha. All the same Devagupta who killed Grahavarmā and who was killed by Rājya certainly belongs to Malwa. We may well imagine that a Gupta line set itself up in Malwa after the disruption of the Gupta empire and always fought with the Maukharis of Kanauj for supremacy. Devagupta may also be, with fitness, assigned to the line of Gupta princes of whom Bhavagupta of 580 A. D. was one. Mādhava and Kumāra the companions of Harsha and Rājya must in that case be taken to be belong to this line of Malwa kings, that is the Mādhava of Harsha-Charita must be taken to be different from the Mādhava of the Aphsad inscription. These Guptas of the Aphsad inscription even if assigned to Magadha may also have had fights with the Maukharis of Kanauj who were as we have said above the overlords of the eastern portion of the Gupta empire.