Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c9.s2.9

c9.s2.9

The Maukhari court-poet, while referring to the struggle between the Maukharis and the Gauḍas, speaks of the latter as having been compelled to be *samudr-āśraya*, *i.e.*, a people whose shelter is the sea, owing to their defeat at the hands of the Maukhari king.¹ This shows that in the sixth century A.D. the Gauḍas had already become famous as a sea-faring people. That the Gauḍa country about this time produced many sea-faring merchants is suggested by the discovery of an inscription² of *Mahānāvika* (i.e. Captain) Buddhagupta of Raktamṛttikā (near the Gauḍa capital) in the Wellesley District of the Malay Peninsula. The Dubi inscription of Bhāskaravarman of Kāmarūpa seems to refer to the Gauḍa army as specially strong in naval warfare.³