Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c27: Chapter XIX: Disappearance

Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c27

Language: English

Chapter XIX: Disappearance

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§ 165. The Gupta power struck the republican system in Rajputana. The Guptas, however, rose to imperial position by their alliance with the republican Lichchhavis¹ which had survived the Maurya and Suṅga times and had grown highly powerful. They had outlived their ancient contemporaries in power and glory and remained the single and sole representative of ancient republicanism.

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¹ Their name is jointly inscribed with the name of the emperor Chandra Gupta I on the Imperial coins.

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§ 166. A new republic was formed about this time on the ruins of the ancient ones in Rajputana. This was founded by one Pushymitra, as the name signifies. The Purāṇas dealing with the Post-Andhra rulers of Vidiśā and thereabouts mention the rulers of a new capital Kāñchanakā. The last Kāñchanakā rulers, that is, those who flourished about 499 A.C., the closing date of the Purāṇas,² were ‘*Pushya-mitras*’ and ‘*Patumitras*’, but the rulers before them are kings mentioned by name (*e.g.*, king Vindhya-Sakti, king Sakyamān, etc.). While the other Purāṇas put down the Pushyamitras in the plural, the Bhāgavata mentions the President Pushyamitra (‘Pushyamitro’tha Rājanyaḥ’) *i.e.*, it mentions the original founder. Some copies of the Vishṇu Purāṇa say that Pushyamitra, *i.e.*, the President, was powerful and victorious (‘**सर्ववर्णेषु बलवान्**

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² Jayaswal, *JBORS.*, III, 247.

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जयो भविष्यति).¹ No dynastic figure is given to the Pushyamitras for the evident reason that they were republican.

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¹ For references to Purāṇic texts, *see* Pargiter, *Purāṇa Texts*, p. 51 and notes.

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The Pushyamitras 'developed great power and wealth'² to such an extent that they dealt a blow at the imperial throne from which it could not fully recover. The defeat inflicted by them on the imperial forces under Kumāra Gupta made the dynasty, to quote the language of his son Skanda Gupta, totter to its fall.³ Evidently Kumāra Gupta himself was killed.⁴ In the second war Skanda Gupta remained on the battlefield the whole night and slept on the bare ground. The next morning when the battle continued he succeeded in forcing a decision which entitled him, as the inscription says, to plant his foot on the royal footstool, *i.e.*, became entitled to sovereignty.⁵ But it is not claimed that the Pushyamitras bent their head or became feudatory. It was therefore a military defeat at most, or rather if we take into consideration the site of the publication of this record of victory (Bhitari in Ghazipur District), it was the stemming back of the invading Pushyamitras. The subsequent history of Hindu India might have received a different turn had they reached Pāṭaliputra and made it the seat of their republican government. We might have seen a vast republic, vaster than the country had yet seen. But the issue was decided otherwise. The Pushyamitras retired, but the glory of the Guptas never returned. The course of their weakness and decline consequent on the Pushyamitra wars could not be checked. There seems to be a strange fatality in the history of the Guptas. They rose to power with the help of a republic, they abolished the ancient republicanism, and they in turn were shaken off their foundations by a republic. The Pushyamitras having executed this historical revenge withdrew in the mystic past.

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² समुदितबल[को]षांश्च पुष्यमित्रांश्च . . . . . Bhitari Stone pillar Inscription of Skanda Gupta, Fleet, *G. I.*, pp. 53-54.

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³ *Ibid.* विचलितकुललक्ष्मी° *l.* 11; विप्लुतां वंशलक्ष्मीं *l.* 13; प्रचलितां वंशम् *l.* 14.

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⁴ पितरि दिवमुपे[ते] *etc.*

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⁵ See lines 12-13. *Ibid.* The translation of this passage by Fleet is confused and does not reproduce the spirit of the text.

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With the end of the fifth century Republics disappear from Hindu India. The old Lichchhavis quit the political scene, a branch migrating into Nepal. The young Pushyamitras vanish in the air. The following century saw the final exit of Hindu constitutionalism from the stage of History. All that was good, come down from the age of Vedic Forefathers, all that progress which had been achieved since the composition of the first Ṛik, all that gave life to the mechanism of State, bade good-bye to the Land. Republicanism was the first to begin the Great Departure, to lead the dirge of political Nirvāṇa. We have understood only one verse of that epilogue—the praise of the sword of destruction which nature gives into the hand of the barbarian. But the other verses are yet a riddle. The real causes of that Departure which the epilogue should disclose remain undeciphered.

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From 550 A. C. onwards Hindu history melts into brilliant biographies—isolated gems without a common string of national and communal life. We get men great in virtue or great in crime—we get Harsha and Śaśāṅka, Yaśodharman Kalki and Śaṅkarāchārya—but they are so high above the common level that they are only helplessly admired and sacredly respected.¹ The community ceases to breathe freedom. The causes of this decay must be internal which have yet to be investigated. The Hūṇ invasion alone cannot explain it. The Hūṇs were fully crushed within a century by successive dynasts. Yet the old life refused to return.

Linked texts (2)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Viṣṇupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit