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The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t2: 2. The Gupta and Pâla Digvijayas

The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t2

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English

2. The Gupta and Pâla Digvijayas

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About A. C. 360 Hari-ṣeṇa, a *mahâdanda-nâyaka* (high grade military or judicial officer) of the Gupta Empire, composed in Sanskrit what he called a *kâvya*.² It was an ode, in verse and prose, in eulogy of Samudra-gupta’s conquest of “all the world”. That panegyric “in one single gigantic sentence”, which half a century later furnished Kâlidâsa with an epigraphic precedent for his own romantic account of Raghu’s *digvijaya* (“conquest of the quarters”) is at present the only contemporary account of a Hindu military enterprise that has satisfactory details as to the names of nations and rulers. Hari-ṣeṇa exults over the “violent extermination” of old states, and describes how kings were “captured and then liberated” by his hero. We are told that Samudra-gupta’s “officers were always employed in restoring the wealth of the various kings who had been conquered by the strength of his arms”.

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² Text of the *kâvya* in *Gup. Insc.* The English translation by Fleet was corrected in Bühler’s German article on Indian Artificial Poetry, and this has been Englished by V. S. Ghate for the *Ind. Ant.* (1913). *Re* the date of the composition *vide* the *Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society*, 1898, pp. 386—387. The identification of some of the regions overrun by Samudra-gupta seems to be open to question. H. C. Ray Chaudhuri says in the *Mod. Rev.* (Oct. 1921) that the Western Deccan lay outside of the sphere of Gupta conquests. He accepts the interpretation in Dubreuil’s *Ancient History of the Deccan* and rejects Smith’s identifications.

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As might be naturally expected, in this description of the aggressor’s triumphant expeditions through kingdoms, forests, hills and rivers we read of the "blows of battle-axes, arrows, spears, pikes, barbed darts, swords, lances, javelins for throwing, iron arrows" and many other weapons that disfigured or rather "beautified", as the poet-laureate would have it, the "charming body" of Samudra-gupta with the "marks of hundred confused wounds".¹ But while the world-conqueror is portrayed as "skilful in engaging in a hundred battles of various kinds", with "*parâkrama* (strength) of his own arm for his only ally", the officer-biographer leaves us in the dark as to the Indian Napoleon's plan of campaign, methods of field organization, and administration of the army services. We can only guess the thoroughness of the military department from the fact that the extensive Alexandrine career of uninterrupted success covered no less than three thousand miles of territory and was spread over about twenty years (330—350).

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¹ *Ind. Ant.*, VIII, p. 31, 172; Fleet's *Gupta Ins.*, p. 12, 14, 16.

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Hardly anything has been unearthed as yet in regard to the Bengali legions with which Dharma-pâla started from Pâtali-putra on his Upper Gangetic Valley campaign about 783 in order to set up a nominee and protege, Chakrâyudha, on the throne of Kanauj. The adventure of this expeditionary force led to the temporary conquest of Malwa, North Eastern Rajputana, Eastern Punjab and Sindh, Western Punjab and the Northwestern frontier provinces, and parts of Afghanistan. The soldiers of Bengal were thus in a position to enjoy the waters as far to the northwest as at Kedâra in the Western Himalayas and as far to the southwest as at Gokarna in the North Kanara District of the Bombay Presidency.²

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² Banerji's *Memoir*, pp. 51—53, 55—56; *Bânglâr Itihâsa* (*History of Bengal* in Bengali), Vol. I. pp. 167—170; *Ind. Ant.* 1892, p. 257.

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In the Khâlimpur copper plate inscription we have a hint that Dharma-pâla had to build a bridge of boats at Pâtali-putra. And "the manifold fleets of boats proceeding on the path of the Ganges made it seem as if a series of mountain tops had been sunk to build another causeway". The general superintendent of boats was then as in Kautilya's language known as *târika*.³ The organization of Devapâla's extensive campaigns by which he compelled entire Northern India from sea to sea to pay tribute to Bengal is as unknown as that under his predecessor. The name of one general can be wrung out of the inscriptions, that of Someśvara, the son of the Premier, Darbha-pâṇi. For obvious reasons Bengal has always had a boat service attached to the army.

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³ *Ep. Ind.*, 1896—1897, pp. 252, 253.

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Under the Sena Emperors (1068—1200), as under the Pâlas, *nau-vala* (naval force) was an important arm of the military establishment.¹

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¹ *Ind. Ship.*, p. 220.

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It is known among archeologists today that during the tenth century there was a series of triangular conflicts² between the ambitious *digvijayî* monarchs of Bengal, Upper India and the Deccan. But the military achievements of the Gurjara-Pratîhâra and Râṣtra-kûta *sârva-bhaumas* are as unillumined, so far as the details of field work, training of officers, commissariat or transport service are considered, as are those of the Pâlas.

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² Banerji's *Memoir*, p. 52, 56.

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