North Indian Inscriptions

POLITICAL HISTORY

pur near Biṭhūr (Cunningham, Anc. Geog., 386).” But the identification seems unlikely as this Biṭhūr is in Kanpur District, Uttar Pradesh, and not somewhere in Central India, as may naturally be expected. Smith says: “The name Kāka (‘crow’) may be locally associated with Kākaṇāda (‘crow’s voice’), the ancient name of Sāñcī, the celebrated Buddhist site 5-1/2 miles south-west of Bhīlsa.”¹ This name occurs once in the lid of the steatite casket found in Stūpa No. 2 at Andher near Bhilsa² and thrice as Kākaṇāya or Kākaṇāva in inscriptions of Sāñchī Stūpa No. 1.³ The hill of Sāñchī on which the stūpas stand has been called Kākaṇādabōṭa in two epigraphs of the Gupta period (No. 9 below and CII., Vol. III, 1888, No. 62). Further, as Jayaswal has pointed out, about twenty miles north of Bhilsa, is a large and ancient village called Kākapur, situated on a river, and a hill opposite the village has two square temples and a few Gupta sculptures.⁴ This Kākapur he identifies as the ancient seat of the Kākas. The Kāka family or clan is frequently mentioned in the Rājataraṅgiṇi and has survived in Kashmir to this day.⁵ It seems that like the (Ṭāka-) Nāgas, Kākas had migrated from this country and settled down round about Bhilsa in Madhya Pradesh shortly before the time of Samudragupta. The last tribe that we have to consider is Kharaparika. As pointed out by Hiralal, they are probably identical with Kharpara mentioned apparently as a people⁶ in the Baṭihāgaṛh inscription of the Damoh District, Madhya Pradesh. Kharparas, according to this record, are evidently to be located in that district.

       These wonderful achievements of Samudragupta must have spread his name and fame far and wide so that the neighbouring independent monarchs entered into diplomatic relations with him. We are here furnished not only with the enumeration of these foreign kings but also with a description of the modes in which they sought his friendship and alliance. The first form of alliance was that of self effacement (ātma-nivēdana). The second consisted in offering daughters in marriage (kany-ōpāyana-dāna). The third was a request (yāchanā) for the governance (śāsana) of their own districts and provinces (sva-vishaya-bhukti) by means of the Garuḍa badge (Garutmad-aṅka),⁷ which was, no doubt, the royal insignia of the Gupta family. It was by one or another of these measures that they, we are told, established friendly relations with him. As regards these distant monarchs, they fall into two groups. One of these comprised the rulers of Siṁhala (Ceylon) and such other Islands (dvīpa) which were situated to the south and south-west of India.⁸ The other consisted of Daivaputra-Shāhi-Shāhānushāhi-Śaka-Muruṇḍa. The identification of the foreign independent kings enumerated in this long compound is a matter of some difficulty and cannot be made with perfect certainty. There can, however, be little doubt that they were the descendants of the Śaka and Kushāṇa kings, who invaded India
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¹ JRAS., 1897, p. 893.
² Cunningham, Bhilsa Topes, p. 241, Pl. XVI, No. 39.
³ Ep. Ind., Vol. II, p. 99, No. 39; and p. 396, Nos. 377 and 378.
⁴ JBORS., Vol. XVIII, pp. 212-13.
⁵ Rājataraṅgiṇī, trans. by Stein, Vol. I, p. 371, note on verse 1311.
⁶ Ep. Ind., Vol. XII, p. 46, verse 5. See also his Descriptive Lists of Inscrs. in C. P. and Berar (2nd ed.), pp. 58-59, where, however, the name has been spelt Kharapara.
⁷ Aṅka is synonymous with lāñchhana, and later inscriptions speak of Varāha-lāñchhana in the case of the Chalukyas of Bādāmi and Garuḍa-lāñchhana in the case of the Rāshṭrakūṭas of Mālkhēḍ (B. G., Vol. I, pt. ii, p. 338 and p. 387 respectively). [Cf. Garuḍ-āṅkō Jagattuṅgō in the Nēsarikā grant of Rāshṭrakūṭa Gōvinda III, Śaka 727-Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXIV, p. 137.-Ed.]. The word had better be translated by ‘badge’ instead of ‘seal’.
⁸ According to Jayaswal, ‘All the dvīpas’ here meant “all the Indian colonies of Bhāratavarsha, of the Bhāratī Prajā.” “His India or Pṛthivī, therefore, embraced within its bounds Further India” (His. of India, 150 A.D. to 350 A.D., p. 156). This view is, however, strongly dissented from by Miss Karunakara Gupta (IC., Vol. II, p. 65). As this list is headed by Siṁhala (Ceylon), it is safer to take sarva-dvīpa to denote such islands as Laccadive, Maldive and others which have been referred to as Lakshadvīpa and Malayadvīpa in Sanskrita works dealing with Geography (IHQ., Vol. II, pp. 348 ff.).