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Tribes in Ancient India c55: Chapter LII. The Gauḍas

Tribes in Ancient India c55

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Chapter LII. The Gauḍas

c55.2

The earliest literary reference to the country of the Gauḍas is made by the celebrated grammarian Pāṇini who seems to locate the country in the east (Pāṇini, VI, ii, 99-100). The country is also referred to in the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya as well as in the Kāmasūtra of Vātsyāyana (nakhacchedya prakaraṇam, ii, 13). Varāhamihira (sixth century A.D.) probably refers to the Gauḍa country when he places ‘Gauḍaka’ in the eastern division of India. But the first epigraphic mention of the tribe is made in the Harāhā inscription of A.D. 554 (Ep. Ind , XIV, pp. 110ff.), where King Īśānavarman of the Maukhari dynasty claims victories over the Andhras, the Śūlikas (prob. = the Cālukyas) and the Gauḍas, who are described as living on the seashore (Gauḍān samudrāśrayān). It is difficult to define with any amount of certainty the exact region which the Gauḍas occupied at that time. H. C. Ray Chaudhuri, however, suggests that their ‘proper realm’ was Western Bengal as it bordered on the sea, and included Karṇasuvarṇa and Rāḍhāpurī (P.H.A.I., 4th Ed., p. 509). This may find confirmation in the combined testimony of Bāṇa and Hsüan Tsang who state that Śaśāṅka or Karṇasuvarṇa (identified with Rāṅgāmāṭi in Murshidabad, W. Bengal) was the Gauḍa king, the great rival of Rājyavardhana and Harṣavardhana, the kings of Thāneśvar (seventh century).

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The fight with the Maukharis seems to have brought the Gauḍas into the forefront of Eastern Indian politics. At first the Gupta-Maukhari struggle effected the serious discomfiture of the Guptas; in fact they were obliged to give up Magadha to their enemies and retire to Mālava.¹ During the reign of Rājyavardhana of Kanauj, the king of Mālava was Devagupta,² and the king of the Gauḍas was Śaśāṅka who was also the king of Karṇasuvarṇa, according to Hsüan Tsang. Devagupta allied himself with Śaśāṅka, and defeated and killed Grahavarman, the Maukhari king, who had married Rājyaśrī, sister of Rājyavardhana and Harṣavardhana. Rājyavardhana, who came to the rescue of his widowed sister, and succeeded in defeating Devagupta, was treacherously slain by the latter's ally, Śaśāṅka, king of Gauḍa¹ (606 A.D.). Though the murdered king's brother Harṣavardhana sought to avenge his death, Śaśāṅka is known to have been still in power as late as the year 619; but his kingdom probably became subject to Harṣa at a later date.²

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¹ N. Ray, The Maukharis of Kanoj, Cal. Rev., 1928, Feb.

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² Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita; cf. also the Madhuvan and Banskhera Inscriptions of Harṣavardhana.

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¹ V. A. Smith, *Early History of India* (4th Ed.), p. 350.

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² The Gauḍa country is referred to in the Apshad Inscription of Ādityasena (c. 655 A.D.), where Sūkṣmaśiva, the engraver of the inscription, is mentioned as being a native of the Gauḍa country.

c55.8

After the death of Śaśāṅka, the Gauḍas seem to have faded out of history for a time; but in the first half of the eighth century they again appear on the stage, and a Gauḍa king is seen to occupy the throne of Magadha. This appears from the Gauḍavaho, a Prākṛit poem by Vākpatirāja, which records the slaying of the Gauḍa king, who was also the king of Magadha, by Yaśovarman, king of Kanauj. The Gauḍa country in Vākpatirāja's account is distinguished from the Vaṅga country. As its king was also the king of Magadha, it may be assumed that it was contiguous with Magadha.

c55.9

The sequel to the story of Yaśovarman is given in the Rājatarangiṇī of Kalhaṇa. Yaśovarman was defeated in his turn by Lalitāditya, king of Kāśmīr, who had launched out on a career of conquest. Lalitāditya is also credited by Kalhaṇa with having defeated another Gauḍa king and compelled the latter to give him his whole elephant force. We are not told who this Gauḍa king was or which region he ruled over. According to Kalhaṇa, Lalitāditya had the Gauḍa king killed in spite of a promise given not to harm him and sworn by his favourite god Parihāsa Keśava. When the Gauḍas heard of this treachery, they at once started for Kāśmīr, and entering the capital, they threw down the idol of the Rāmasvāmī temple, broke it into pieces and strewed them on the road. While they were thus engaged, the royal army from Śrīnagar arrived and attacked them. Undaunted, the Gauḍas continued in their work of destruction until they were annihilated by the army. Even in the time of Kalhaṇa (twelfth century A.D.) the Rāmasvāmī temple was empty, and the heroism of the Gauḍas was sung all over the valley. But it is difficult in the absence of other records to ascertain the elements of historic truth underlying this romantic story, and sober history would hardly agree to recognise it.³

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³ After Yaśovarman's defeat Kalhaṇa makes Lalitāditya start on a march of triumphal conquest round the whole of India, which is manifestly legendary (Stein, *Chronicles of the Kings of Kāśmīr*, Vol. I, p. 90).

c55.11

Lalitāditya's grandson Jayāpīḍa (close of the eighth century) is also described by Kalhaṇa as having had some relations with the Gauḍas. He is said to have once gone to Bengal *incognito*.

c55.12

Having killed a tiger which had become a terror to the city of Pauṇḍravardhana, he came to the notice of the king who ruled there, one Jayanta. Jayanta gave him his daughter in marriage, and Jayāpīḍa is then said to have subdued five kings of the Gauḍa country (which probably meant the major portion of the province of Bengal with Monghyr and Bhagalpur of the province of Bihar) on behalf of his father-in-law, and then returned to Kāśmīr in triumph with his bride. The whole story reads more as fiction than history, and serious criticism has doubted its authenticity.¹

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¹ Stein, *Chronicles of the Kings of Kāśmīr*, Vol. I, p. 94. ‘But the romantic tale of his visit *incognito* to the capital of Pauṇḍravardhana, then the seat of government of a king named Jayanta, unknown to sober history, seems to be purely imaginary’ (Smith, *Early History of India*, 4th Ed., p. 387).

c55.14

The Gauḍas are twice mentioned in Rājaśekhara’s *Kāvya-mīmāṃsā*, where it is said that they spoke Sanskrit, but could not speak Prākṛit well (Chap. X, p. 57 ; Chap. 7, p. 33).

c55.15

The Pāla kings of Bengal are often described as ‘Lords of Gauḍa’ (*Gauḍendra* or *Gauḍeśvara*) as well as ‘Vaṅgapati’, in the contemporary epigraphic records of the ninth century A.D. Dharmapāla and Devapāla had often to measure swords with the Gurjara Pratihāras on the one hand and the Rāṣṭrakūṭas on the other. Thus the Rādhanpur plates of Rāṣṭrakūṭa Govinda III (*Ep. Ind.*, VI, p. 248) as well as the Wani grant of the same monarch refer to a defeat inflicted by the Rāṣṭrakūṭa king Dhruva upon Vatsarāja, the Gurjara king, who had already defeated the king of Gauḍa. The Sanjan Copperplate of Amoghavarṣa I tells us that Dhruva took away the white umbrellas of the king of Gauḍa, which were destroyed between the Ganges and the Jumna (*Ind. Ant.*, Vol. XII, p. 159). That Dhruva actually advanced so far is also proved by a verse in the Baroda plates of Kakkarāja. This proves almost conclusively that the kingdom of Gauḍa in the ninth century stretched at least as far as Allahabad at the confluence of the Ganges; and Vatsarāja’s son Nāgabhaṭa is stated in the Gwalior Inscription of Bhoja to have defeated the king of Bengal (*c.* 810 A.D.). The Jodhpur Inscription of Bauka informs us that his father Kakka ‘gained renown by fighting with the Gauḍas at Madgagiri (or Monghyr)’ (Majumdar, *Gurjara Pratihāras*, p. 60). The Sirur and Nilgund Inscriptions (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. VI) of Amoghavarṣa I (866 A.D.) refer to the Rāṣṭrakūṭa Govinda III, who imprisoned not only the Keralas and Mālavas, but also the Gauḍas, whose king at that time was Devapāla who is described in the Garuḍa Pillar Inscription of Bādal (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. II, pp. 160ff.) as the Lord of Gauḍa. It was probably during the reign of Devapāla’s grandson Nārāyaṇapāla that the Rāṣṭrakūṭa king Krishna II inflicted a defeat on the Gauḍas. In the Deoli Plates he is said to have ‘taught humility to the Gauḍas’. The Gauḍas are represented as having been humiliated by Krishna III as well (Karhad Plates of Krishna III, *Ep. Ind.*, IV, p. 287). The Kāmarūpa copperplate of Vaidyadeva also refers to the Lord of Gauḍa, evidently meaning the Pāla king¹ who appointed Vaidyadeva as ruler (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. II, p. 348).

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¹ Kumārapāla, acc. to Smith, *Early History of India*, p. 416 (4th Ed.).

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After the fall of the Pālas, the Gauḍa country seems to have passed into the hands of the Senas. Vijayasena (c. 1060 A.D.), one of the early kings of the Sena dynasty, is described in the Deopara Inscription (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. I, pp. 305-15) as having defeated Nānya, Vira, and the kings of Gauḍa, Kāmarūpa, and Kaliṅga. The Madhainagar copperplate of Lakṣmaṇasena (*J.A.S.B.*, N.S., Vol. V, pp. 467ff.) describes Lakṣmaṇasena (early twelfth century) as having suddenly seized the kingdom of Gauḍa, and raided Kaliṅga. He is referred to as *Gauḍeśvara*, i.e. Lord of Gauḍa, and his sons Keśavasena and Viśvarūpasena are also referred to as Lords of Gauḍa (*J.A.S.B.*, N.S., Vol. X, pp. 99-104). During the rule of the Senas the Gauḍa country seems to have more than once been attacked. In the Nagpur Stone Inscription of the rulers of Mālava (1104-5 A.D.), Lakṣmadeva, the Paramāra king, is said to have defeated the Lord of Gauḍa—an unhistorical claim, says Kielhorn (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. II, p. 193). The Pīthapuram Inscription of Prithivīśvara (Prithivīsena) points out that King Malla is credited with having subdued among others the Lord of the Gauḍas.²

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² See *chap.* on the Vaṅgas.

c55.19

The Gauḍas at one time or another must have inhabited other countries and localities than the region with which they were primarily associated. The late A. M. T. Jackson pointed out that Thāneśwar was called Guḍa (a corruption of Gauḍa) in Alberuni’s day (*J.R.A.S.*, 1905, pp. 163-4). He was supported by B. C. Majumdar (*J.R.A.S.*, 1906, p. 442), who cites a verse from the *Matsyapurāṇa* to the effect that Rājā Śrāvasta founded Śrāvastī in *Gauḍadeśa*—the evident conclusion being that ‘Gauḍa must have been lying to the north of Kośala and to the north-west of Mithilā’. The reference is supported by similar references in the *Kūrma* and *Liṅga Purāṇas*³; and R. C. Majumdar⁴ was led to conclude that there was more than one Gauḍa. It is more likely, however, that Śrāvastī which is referred to in the Purāṇas is the same Śrāvastī which is mentioned in the Silimpur Inscription of Prahās (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XII, pp. 283-95), and which is to be located somewhere in North Bengal, i.e. in the Varendra country of Gauḍa.

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³ *Matsya P.*, XII, p. 30; *Liṅga P.*, I, p. 65; *Kūrma P.*, I, 20, 19.

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⁴ *Gurjara Pratihāras*, p. 34, f.n. 2.

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Gonda, a subdivision of Uttara Kośala, 42 miles south of the Kośala Śrāvastī, is, according to Cunningham, a corruption of Gauḍa.¹ The term *Pañca Gauḍa*, often used to designate the entire territory of Northern India as far as Kanauj and the river Sarasvatī, is however late, and is probably ‘reminiscent of the Gauḍa empire of Dharmapāla and Devapāla, and cannot be equated with the ancient realm of the Gauḍas in the early centuries of the Christian era’ (*P.H.A.I.*, 4th Ed., p. 537). The ruins of the ancient city of the Gauḍas, which was situated at the junction of the Ganges and the Mahānandā, can still be seen near Maldah in North Bengal, at a distance of 10 miles from the town.

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¹ Cunningham, *Anc. Geography*, p. 408; Dey’s *Geographical Dictionary*, p. 63.

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