The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c8.s5.13

v1.c8.s5.13

The conquest of Kuntala and the extension of the Vākāṭaka sphere of influence in Bundelkhand naturally resulted in the increase of the prestige of the dynasty. It is therefore no wonder that the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II should have sought a matrimonial alliance with it by offering the hand of his daughter Prabhāvatīguptā to the Vākāṭaka crown prince Rudrasena II. The marriage had a political motive behind it; Chandragupta wanted to facilitate his contemplated conquest of Gujarāt and Kathiāwar by ensuring the presence of a friendly power on his southern flank, which might afford help at least to his commissariat and supplies, even if not with direct military aid. The precise date of this marriage is not easy to determine, but in all likelihood it took place in *c.* A.D. 380.¹ The marriage probably took place at Pāṭaliputra and must have been celebrated with great pomp. It is interesting to note that this marriage was an intercaste *anuloma* marriage; for the bridegroom was a Brāhman and the bride a Vaishya by caste. Such *anuloma* intercaste marriages, where the bridegroom belongs to a caste higher than that of the bride, were permitted by the contemporary *Smṛitis* and seem in practice to have actually taken place even in high and cultured society.