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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
POLITICAL HISTORY king retired, and met Chandragupta, dressed as Dhruvasvāminī, the latter ripped his belly with the knife and sounded the trumpet. When the other youths heard it, they did their work similarly in an instant. All the officers of the army were thus slain. On hearing the trumpet, Rāmagupta’s soldiers also sallied forth and exterminated the foe. Chandragupta’s ruse succeeded wonderfully.
The first question that now arises here is: Where could these hostilities have taken place
between Rāmagupta and Śakāchārya ? The enemy’s camp, as we have already stated, was
stationed at Aḷipura, which has wrongly been changed once into Aripura. But where was this
Aḷipura ? No such place has yet been known to us. Perhaps some help is forthcoming from
the Mujmal-ut-Tawārīkh, where, we are told, a former rebel of his father attacked Rawwāl,
that is, Rāmagupta, and put him to flight. Rawwāl with his brother and nobles went to the
top of a mountain where a strong fortress had been built. But the enemy got possession of the
mountain by stratagem, besieged the fort, and was near upon taking it. Rawwāl then sued
for peace and the enemy asked him to send his queen for himself and compel his chiefs to send
their girls for his officers. Just at this juncture his brother Barkamāris came in and proposed
to go to the enemy’s camp dressed like the queen, in accordance with his scheme which was
explained and approved. This account shows that Rāmagupta, and his brother were hemmed
in and defeated, not on the plains in their capital at Pāṭaliputra, but on some mountain where
they had gone on an expedition of conquest to punish some rebel king. Further light is thrown
upon this point by a stanza in Rājaśēkhara’s Kāvyamīmāṁsā which Altekar was the first to
bring to our notice.1 The stanza is addressed to a king and says that his praises are sung by
the women of Kārttikēya-nagara just in that Himālaya from where Śarma (Sēna) gupta, being
besieged, was found to surrender his queen Dhruvasvāminī to the king of the Khaśas. The
name Dhruvasvāminī, and the incident of a king being compelled to give up his queen to the
enemy leave no doubt as to its being the political episode dramatized in Dēvīchandraguptam.
There is, however, difference of name to be accounted for namely, Śarma (Sēna) gupta instead
of Rāmagupta. But both of these seem to be a misreading for Kāchagupta, as we shall see
later on. As regards Khaśa, it is almost the letters Śa-ka reversed. And as Khaśas were perhaps
known better than Śakas, especially in the Himālayan region, the letters which were originally
Śa-ka came naturally to be reversed and turned into Kha-śa with a slight change. Unfortunately,
Altekar separates Kārttikēya from nagara and takes the former to denote Kumāragupta, who,
in his opinion, is the person addressed in this stanza. But why Kārttikēya should stand for
Kumāragupta, and not for Skandagupta, is far from clear. Secondly, why should the
Himālayan caves be taken to reverberate with the exploits of Kumāragupta or Skandagupta
about which we know nothing ? On the other hand, the stanza attains to its fullest significance
if we take it as addressed, not to Kumāragupta or Skandagupta, but to Chandragupta II.
For, in that case, we can easily understand why the praises of this Chandragupta are sung
just in those Himālayan caves from where his brother had to think of an ignominious retreat
by promising to surrender Dhruvasvāminī who was then his wife. This seems to be the natural
sense of this stanza. It is therefore advisable to take Kārttikēyanagara as one word. Now,
gazetteer, N.W.P., 2 tells us that Kārttikēyapura lay in the valley of the Gōmatī and near the
present village of Baijnāth which is comprised in the Almora District of U.P. and thus
situated in the Himālayas. It is mentioned in the Dēvī-Purāṇa.3 The town and district of 1 Dattvā ruddha-gatiḥ Khaś-ādhipatayē dēvīṁ Dhruvasvāminīṁ yasmāt khaṇḍita-sāhasō nivavṛitī
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