The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c8.s9.3

v1.c8.s9.3

The happy discovery of the Basim plates of Vindhyaśakti II in 1939, and the revised edition of the inscription in cave XVI at Ajanta by Prof. V. V. Mirashi in 1941 have now simplified the whole problem. It has now become quite clear that the Ajanta inscription does not refer to the main Vākāṭaka line at all. It gives the genealogy of the Basim branch of the Vākāṭaka family, which had separated from the main stock not after the death of Pravarasena II in *c.* A.D. 440, but after the demise of Pravarasena I about a century earlier. There is therefore no longer any room for speculating as to whether Narendrasena was a younger or elder brother of the prince whose name is lost in the Ajanta record, or to whether this prince was eight years old at the time of his accession or whether he ruled for eight years, as to whether Narendrasena had not to fight with another brother, whose existence is not yet known to us, and so on. The two branches had been ruling side by side for more than a century at the time of the accession of Narendrasena, and there is no evidence whatsoever to show that he had to fight with his cousins ruling at Basim owing to bitter feelings engendered by a recent partition forced upon him.