North Indian Inscriptions

LITERARY HISTORY

who flourished in this period. As a matter of fact, however, no poets or poet is definitely known to have flourished in the reign of any one of the Gupta kings. What we have surmised so far is that poets like Aśvaghōsha, Bhāsa and Kālidāsa most probably lived from the first to the fifth century A.D. But we cannot assert with certainty that any one of them flourished in the reign of any one of the princes who ruled during this age. Nevertheless, the scholar who has critically studied Vatsabhaṭṭi’s praśasti of the Sun Temple of Daśapura cannot help thinking that as he was a third-rate poet, it is no wonder if, for some imagery and turns of expression, he was indebted to the Ṛitusaṁhāra and the Mēghadūta of Kālidāsa, showing clearly that this poet was well-known and was freely drawn upon for the embellishment of his poetic composition. This point has already been dwelt upon in the political history of the Gupta epoch when we treated of the reign of Chandragupta. We discussed also about three characters, Vikramāditya, Mātṛigupta and Pravarasēna, who loom so large in the first three books of the Rājataraṅgiṇī. Although these books abound more with legendary anecdotes than with real incidents, yet, some of them possess historical interest and faithfully reproduce the popular tradition. The question that arises here is: how Vikramāditya, Mātṛigupta and Pravarasēna have been mentioned together. It is true that this Vikramāditya has been called Hartsha-Vikramāditya by Kalhaṇa. There can, however, be little doubt that he was Chandra-Vikramāditya, that is, Chandragupta II, of the Gupta dynasty, because he was the Vikramāditya living at Ujjayinī as the sole sovereign of the world and exterminating the Śakas, such as he has been described by Kalhaṇa. This description suits Chandragupta II only. We have already dilated upon this point when we gave an account of his reign. This also explains how chronologically, Pravarasēna comes close to the supreme ruler, Vikramāditya of Ujjayinī. For, we have already pointed out that there was a Pravarasēna who was a son of Prabhāvatiguptā, daughter of Chandragupta II. In the introductory verses to the Harshacharita Bāṇa speaks not only of Pravarasēna but also of Kālidāsa.

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“The fame of Pravarasēna,” says he, “has gone to the other shore of the ocean of his ‘Bridge,’ like the army of monkeys,” obviouly referring to his Prakrit poem, the Sētubandha. Just as there was a crust over the name of Vikramāditya, sovereign of Ujjayinī, who, instead of being called Chandra-Vikramāditya, was called Harsha-Vikramāditya by Kalhaṇa, there was a crust over the popular tradition about the work of Pravarasēna who is mentioned by the Kashmir poet as having constructed the “Great Bridge’ (Bṛihat-sētu) built on the Vitastā.¹ There can be no doubt that this Bṛihat-sētu here is not a physical construction but the Sētubandha, the celebrated composition of the king. So, one who carefully studies the first three books of the Rājataraṅgiṇī cannot but be convinced that, although most of the legendary accounts mentioned by Kalhaṇa have historical interest, there can be no doubt that more or less thin crusts have grown over the popular traditions of the early centuries of the Christian era. Perhaps, the thickest has overgrown the name of Mātṛigupta, who, we have pointed out above, can be no other than Kālidāsa himself. The only question that arises in this connection is how Mātṛigupta and Pravarasēna came to be connected with Kashmir. But we have to bear in mind that in the Gupta epoch poetry was held in high esteem and poets were assigned high positions. Perhaps the highest office of that period was that of Sāndhivigrahika which was held by Harishēṇa in the time of Samudragupta and by Śāba Kautsa in that of Chandragupta II. That Harishēṇa was a poet of a high order has been pointed out above by means of a critical examination of the praśasti on Samudragupta engraved on the Allahābād pillar. He has himself called it a Kāvya. That he occupied not only the high administrative post of Sāndhivigrahika, but also a high social position, is clear from the fact that he, like his father, has been styled a Mahā-Daṇḍanāyaka.This and other points connected with Harishēṇa have been set forth above.
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¹ Rājataraṅgiṇī, Bk. III, verse 354.