North Indian Inscriptions

POLITICAL HISTORY

by the fact that Vīrasēna, as we are informed, had been entrusted with the Office of Peace and War. If any further confirmation is required, it is furnished by the fact that Vīrasēna has been called Pāṭaliputraka, “an inhabitant of Pāṭaliputra”. It thus seems that Vīrasēna Śāba was Minister of Peace and War of the emperor Chandragupta II and came to Vidiśā from Pāṭaliputra in the company of his master during his expedition of conquest of the whole world. It may, however, be asked: where was the necessity of this India-wide conquest, again, on the part of Chandragupta, when his father, Samudragupta, had once conquered the whole country, put his seal to it by the celebration of the Aśvamēdha sacrifice, and left a compact empire to his successors? But, in the political history of ancient India, we often find that as soon as a prince of the imperial dynasty comes to the throne, some of his feudatories are sure to rebel, being disaffected by the rival claimants to the throne or by his conterminous sovereigns. Soon after assuming the reins of government and consolidating his power over the territory directly under his control, the new ruler was therefore compelled to start on an expedition of conquest, first with a view to reclaiming or putting down the disaffected tributaries, and secondly, to war with the independent neighbours whose ambition and aggression were always feared. These reasons must have weighed with Chandragupta in undertaking this expedition of conquest. We have already pointed out that although he was chosen by his father to succeed to the Gupta throne, his elder brother, Kāchagupta, nefariously intercepted and forestalled him. We have also perceived how Chandragupta ultimately triumphed over his brother and managed to occupy the throne, rightfully his own. It must have taken him a pretty long time to make his position firm and secure at the centre of the Gupta empire before he could safely leave Pāṭaliputra for putting down the malcontents and bringing round the recalcitrants among his tributaries and neighbouring princes. In this connection we have to take note of one event of his reign to which attention has been drawn by some scholars, namely, his conquest of the Western Kshatrapas, Which added Surāshṭra to his dominions. It is true that, to begin with, these Kshatrapas exercised sway over Malwa, part of Rajputana and Gujarat and practically the whole of Kāṭhiāwāṛ and Cutch. But about the time when the Guptas rose to eminence, they were shorn of their power over all these territories except Kāṭhiāwāṛ and Cutch.¹ The date of this event, namely, the conquest of Surāshṭra, has not yet been ascertained, but can be fixed within fairly narrow limits. The latest dated coins of the Western Kshatrapas are those of the Mahākshatrapa Svāmī Rudrasiṁha III, son of Svāmī Satyasiṁha. They bear one date only, namely, 310 or 31X=388 or 388 plus X A.D., which could not have been separated by a long interval from the Gupta conquest of the Westren Kshatrapa dominions. But, on the other hand, we have to note that “evidence of the conquest

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¹ All the coins of the later Kshatrapas have been found in Kāṭhiāwāṛ and Cutch only. The latest hoard of their coins outside these provinces was found at Sarvāṇiā in the earstwhile Banswara State, Rajputana, with coins ranging from those of Rudrasiṁha I (Śaka 101-14) to Rudrasēna III (Śaka 270-73) (A. R. ASI., 1913-14, pp. 227 ff.). As regards Malwa no Kshatrapa coins have been discovered except perhaps of the Mahākshatrapa Iśvaradatta at Besnagar (ibid., 1914-15, p. 88). On the other hand, an inscription has come to light at Kānākhēṛā (Sāñchī) which is dated 241 and is of the reign of the Mahādaṇḍanāyaka Śaka Śrīdharavarman, son of Śaka Nanda ( D. R. Bhandarkar, A List of the Inscriptions of Northern India, No. 1077). The inscription was first published by R. D. Banerji in Ep. Ind., Vol. XVI, p. 232 but was afterwards thoroughly revised and critically re-edited by N. G. Majumdar in JPASB., Vol. XIX, pp. 343 ff. The record gives the regnal year 13 of Śrīdharavarman and describes it as sva-rājy-ābhivṛiddhikarē vaijayikē saṁvatsarē trayōdaśamē. This shows that Śrīdharavarman was an independent king though he is styled Mahādaṇḍanāyaka. The case in not unlike that of Sēnāpati Pushyamitra, the founder of the Śuṅga family (Ep. Ind., Vol. XX, p.57). Further palaeographic considerations require that the date 241 of Śrīdharavarman should be referred to the Śaka era. It thus seems that when the foundation stone of the Gupta empire was being laid by Chandragupta I, The province of Malwa, at any rate, of Eastern Malwa, was being ruled over not by a Kshatrapa but by Śrīdharavarman, who, though he was a Śaka by extraction was styled Mahādaṇḍanāyaka. As regards Western Malwa, it was held by the Nāga families of Dhārā and Padmāvatī.