North Indian Inscriptions

POLITICAL HISTORY

came a ruler we do not know. At any rate, there is no evidence to that effect, no record of his having yet been found. We have, however, five copper plate inscriptions of his brother, Pravarasēna II. One of these¹ records the grants of his mother Prabhāvatiguptā, but refers itself to his reign. She was then near “the feet of the Lord of Rāmagiri”, where, obviously she had retired and from where her grant was issued. As she no longer exercised any ruling authority, the charter is dated in the reign of her son. In that record she is described as “the Mother of the Vākāṭaka Mahārājas Dāmōdarasēna and Pravarasēna.” This means that Divākarasēna never became a Mahārājas, that is, died without becoming a king, but that after him the Vākāṭaka throne was occupied first by Dāmōdarasēna and afterwards by Pravarasēna (II). Their mother, Prabhāvatiguptā, must have been far advanced in age when she issued her last grant, and as a matter of fact, she is represented in this inscription as being “more than a hundred years old”. There is yet another inscription² of the reign of Pravarasēna which relates to her. But this time the grant is made by the son himself for the augmentation of merit, in this as well as in the next world, to his Mātṛi-bhaṭṭārikā or ‘Venerable mother’.

        At least three Officers of Chandragupta II are known to us from the inscriptions of the Gupta period. One of these we have already noted. He is the one referred to in the undated Udayagiri cave inscription (No. 11 below). He was the Minister of Peace and War, and was, in fact, a hereditary minister of the royal family. He was named Vīrasēna and surnamed Śāba. He belonged to the Kautsa gōtra and was evidently a Brāhmaṇa. He was an inhabitant of Pāṭaliputra, and came to Central India in the company of his sovereign during his conquest of the earth. Being a Brāhmaṇa, and, above all, Minister for Peace and War, he was a man of letters. He is thus represented as being conversant with Grammar (Śabda), Polity (Artha), Logic (Nyāya) and Popular Usage and Custom (Lōka).³ In other words, he was well-versed in the four sciences known as Vyākaraṇa, Artha-śāstra, Nyāya and Dharma-śāstra, as every Minister of Peace and War was expected to be. Above all, he is described as being a poet (kavi). This was also a qualification indispensable to a Sāndhivigrahika. The longest and historically the most important Gupta record is the well-known praśasti of Samudragupta, engraved on the Aśōkan pillar now in the Allahabad fort. It was composed by Harishēṇa who calls it a kāvya. Elsewhere we have pointed out that this panegyric was a meritorious production worthy of being styled a kāvya. But what was the official position of Harishēṇa at that time? He too was a Sāndhivigrahika. In fact, this office was of such a character that the occupant of it had perforce to be a master of style. It is rather unfortunate that no piece of composition from the pen of Vīrasēna Śāba has been preserved. The name of another Brāhmaṇa minister of Chandragupta II is revealed by an inscription (No. 21 below) discovered in the Fyzabad District in Uttar Pradesh, belonging to the reign of his son Kumāragupta I, and bearing the date Gupta year 117. He has therein been named Śikharasvāmin and mentioned as son of Vishṇupālitabhaṭṭa and grandson of Kumāravyabhaṭṭa who was a teacher of the Chhandōga Vēda and was of the Aśvavājin gōtra. Śikharasvāmin is there designated as both Mantrin and Kumārāmātya. The first of these designations, namely, Mantrin, is of a generic character and seems to be synonymous with Sachiva applied to Vīrasēna Śāba. The name of a third Officer, also of Chandragupta II, appears to have been preserved in an inscription (No. 9 below) dated Gupta year 93 on the railing of the Great Stūpa at Sāñchī, known in ancient times as Kākanādabōṭa. The purport of this epigraph is to record the benefaction of twentyfive Dīnāras and of a place called Iśvaravāsaka purchased with the money realised by selling off three royal palaces by a donor, called Āmrakārdava, son of Undāna. These
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¹ CII., Vol. V, No. 8, pp. 33 ff.
² Ibid., No. 15, pp. 69 ff.
³ For the meanings of these see the necessary foot-note to the translation of this record.