History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c7.s7.3

v1.c7.s7.3

Thus Pravarasena II according to Kalhana came to the throne in 3186 L. E. or 111 A. D. He took the kingdom from Mātrigupta who was sent to rule Kashmir during an interregnum by Vikramāditya of Malwa, on Vikrama's death. Kalhana takes this Vikrama to be the first Vikrama who founded the era of 57 B. C. This makes Vikrama die at least 111 + 57 = 168 years of rule which is an obvious absurdity. There is also the absurdity of Ranāditya ruling for 300 years in this dynasty of kings. All this hopeless confusion has been caused by Kalhana's mistake in giving up the original tradition fortunately pre served by Kalhana himself that Vikramāditya Sakāri or the first Vikrama was a different person from the one who sent Mātṛigupta to rule over Kashmir. The first Vikrama according to the tradition reiected by Kalhana was a relative and a contemporary of a previous king of Kashmir by name Pratāpāditya. If we take the Vikramāditya who sent Mātṛigupta to Kashmir to be Yaśodharma Viṣṇu-Vardhana of Malwa who defeated the Huns in 528 A. D., and established an empire over the whole of Nothern India as stated in his Mandsaur pillar inscription we get at some reliable history and dates and we are supported also by the evidence of Hiuen Tsang. For Hiuen Tsang relates that when he visited Kashmir the capital of that country was newly built and the traveller speaks of the new capital as distinct from the old Now it is certain that Pravarasena II founded the present capital Srinagar called also from him Pravarapura. When Hiuen Tsang visited Kashmir in 631 A. D., we may take it that this new capital was not yet a hundred years old. Thus Pravarasena's coming to the throne must be placed some time after 531 A. D.— a time which is not inconsistent with the date of Vikramāditya Yeśodharma of the Mandsaur pillar inscription of 533 A. D. We must give up the genealogy and history of the later Gonardiya kings given by Kalhana altogether and take two or three salient facts only as certain, namely, that Pravarasena II founded the new capital of Kashmir about 540 A. D., that Vikramāditya Yaśodharma had sent a man named Mātṛigupta to rule Kashmir before this Pravarasena and that Pravarasena assisted Vikramāditya's son Pratāpaśīla, also called Śīlāditya, to regain his kingdom lost owing to his expulsion by enemies. This Pratāpaśīla named also Śīlāditya may thus have been the Śīlāditya of Malwa who is mentioned by Hiuen Tsang as ruling in Molapo.