History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c7.s7.9

v1.c7.s7.9

On one point, however, I think it is not impossible to accept Dr. Hoernle's idea. His suggestion that the coins of Harśa Pratāpaśīla and Śilāditya found with those of Īśanāvarmā and Grahavarmā at Bhitaura, Fyzabad District, noticed by Mr. Burn in J. R. A. S. 1909 mentioned before, should be attributed to Yaśodharma and his son Śilāditya, deserves to receive more favourable consideration than it has hitherto done. By a strange coincidence the names Harsha, Pratāpaśīla and Śilāditya apply to both Harsha and Pratāpaśīla of Thanesar and to Yaśodharma and his son Śilāditya. Rājtaranginī (III. 125) gives Harsha as another name of Vikramāditya and his son Śilāditya had also another name of Pratāpaśīla (Do. III. 330.)† The years on these coins are as Mr. Burn says regnal. Harsha of Thanesar established an era of his own and his years may be regnal, but his father Pratāpaśīla like Īśāna would rather use the Gupta era or some other era. He was not an emperor nor did he claim to be one. His titles and those of Īśāna are the same and hence it is not probable that he would use his regnal years on his coins. He does not appear to have reigned long and his years, even if regnal, could not have been so many as 33 or 31. Thirdly, it appears from the Harsha-Charita that the coin of Harsha was marked with a bull. This was so in the first year of his rule (वृषाङ्कामाभिनवघटितां हाटक मयीं मुद्रां समुपाविन्त्य H. C., p. 274) and the same would be the case with the coins of his father if they did not copy the Gupta coins. These arguments should induce us to attribute these coins to Harsha Yaśodharma Vikramāditya who was an emperor of India and his son Pratāpaśīla alias Śilāditya who would use his own or his father's regnal years. The name Śilāditya was a favourite one with Buddhists who valued virtue (शील) more than valour (विक्रम) and who thus gavethis title to many kings of Budhist fame. Śīlāditya of Molapo was a staunch Budhist and may have struck coins in that name also besides those issued in the name of Pratāpaśīla.