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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA we have seen, the two brothers were defeated in the battle, and were taken captive to Gauḍa, although the Gauḍa king shortly afterwards sent them back to Kāmarūpa. There is hardly any doubt, as already indicated above, that Supratishṭhitavarman regained his throne by offering allegiance to the king of Gauḍa whose action in this case was guided by a principle recognised by ancient Indian rulers.[1] It seems that, for some time after the carrying away of Supratishṭhitavarman by the Gauḍas, the kingless state of Kāmarūpa was actually in the possession of the Gauḍa army. Even after the reinstatement of Supratishṭhitavarman and during the early years of the rule of his brother and successor Bhāskaravarman, the Kāmarūpa kingdom seems to have owed allegiance to Gauḍa. But Bhāskaravarman must have thrown off the Gauḍa yoke even in the earlier part of his reign (cf. verse 75 of our record). This is suggested by his alliance with Harshavardhana, an enemy of king Śaśāṅka of Gauḍa, about 606 A. D. In this connection it is necessary to sketch the background of the foreign policy of Gauḍa and Kāmarūpa and their struggle in the sixth and seventh centuries A. D. As already indicated above, the political influence of the Gupta emperors seems to have spread over Kāmarūpa in the second half of the fourth century. But, owing to the decline of the Imperial Guptas in the earlier part of the sixth century, the Bhauma kings of Assam appear to have thrown off the Gupta yoke. This is suggested by the performance of the horse-sacrifice by king Nārāyaṇavarman, his son Bhūtivarman or Mahābhūtavarman and the latter’s grandson Sthiravarman. The reigns of Nārāyaṇavarman and Bhūtivarman may be roughly assigned to the first and second quarters of the sixth century, while Sthiravarman seems to have ended his rule some years before the end of the same century. The throwing off of the Gupta yoke by the kings of Kāmarūpa in the first half of the sixth century may have engaged them in a struggle with the latest members of the Imperial Gupta family still continuing to rule over North Bengal.[2]
Shortly afterwards, however, the Gauḍas, originally subordinate to the Imperial. Guptas, established an independent kingdom comprising wide regions of Central and South-western Bengal and they soon extended their power over North Bengal also.[3] This brought the Gauḍas face to face with the kings of Kāmarūpa which then appears to have included parts of North Bengal at least upto the river Karatōyā in the west. Ancient Indian political thinkers regarded two powerful states situated side by side as natural or potential enemies of each other, while a powerful state lying on the further side of the enemy state was regarded as a natural or potential friend.[4] Besides Gauḍa and Kāmarūpa, two other powers, viz. the Maukharis of Bihar and U. P. and the so-called Later Guptas of Mālava (East Malwa), were also playing an important part in the political history of Northern India[5] and it is interesting to note that the principles of a state’s foreign policy as enunciated by the ancient Indian political thinkers seems to have been actually followed by these four powers in their political relations with one another. The Gauḍas are known to have been enemies of their eastern neighbours, i.e. the kings of Kāmarūpa,[6] as well as their western _______________________________________________
[1] Cf. grahaṇa-mōksha in line 20 of the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta (Select Inscriptions,
p. 257) and gṛihīta-pratimukta in Kālidāsa’s Raghuvaṁśa, IV. 43.
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