The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c7.s6.30

v1.c7.s6.30

Puṣyamitra’s war on Vidarbha may have to be assigned to the period immediately following the death of Khāravela in *c.* 169 B.C. The circumstances that brought him into power precluded any such war during the early years after his accession. Yajñasena’s declaration of Vidarbha’s independence occurred after the Śuṅga revolution and the imprisonment of the Maurya *Sachiva*. Vidarbha must have enjoyed a few years of independence even to merit its description as *acirādhiṣṭhita*. Soon thereafter followed Khāravela’s invasions of Magadha in 175 and 171 B.C. In this quick succession of political occurrences it is difficult to place the Śuṅga war against Vidarbha and its resettlement under the cousins Agnimitra and Virasena. It may perhaps be assigned to *c.* 168 B.C. Though it ended in a victory for the Śuṅgas, the Vidarbha war initiated a chain of events for which Puṣyamitra had not bargained. Hardly he celebrated his successes with the observance of *Aśva-* medha, than an enemy more formidable than Yajñasena came to grips with him. As Prof. Rapson says: ‘It seems clear from what is known of the general history of the period that any such incursion by the Śuṅgas into Vidarbha must inevitably have brought them into collision with the Andhras.... This was merely an episode in the struggle in which the Andhras were finally triumphant.’¹