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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA Nārāyaṇavarman may have been celebrated when that king was too old and his son Bhūtivarman was ruling the country on his father’s behalf and that this was possibly the reason why Bhūtivarman is said to be the performer of the horse-sacrifice in the record of his own reign[1]. Nārāyaṇavarman was the first performer of the Aśvamēdha sacrifice among the king of the Bhauma-Nāraka dynasty of Kāmarūpa, which was founded by Pushyavarman. It is interesting to note in this connection that the independent status newly acquired by ancient Indian ruling families was usually signalised by the celebration of the Aśvamēdha[2]. In the ancient history of India, we have also many instances of a feudatory naming his son after his overlord[3]. The naming of Pushyavarman’s son as Samudravarman apparently after the celebrated Gupta monarch Samudragupta (circa 340-76 A.C.) appears to be a significant fact in the early history of Kāmarūpa. Samudravarman’s queen Dattavatī seems also to have assumed the name of Samudragupta’s queen Dattadēvī. These facts leave hardly any doubt that the Kāmarūpa king Pushyavarman was a vassal or subordinate ally of the Gupta emperor and flourished about the middle of the fourth century A.C.[4] The Bhauma-Nārakas of Kāmarūpa appear to have continued to offer allegiance to the Guptas till the beginning of the sixth century when the imperial Gupta power declined and the Bhauma-Nāraka king Nārāyaṇavarman (circa 494-518 A.C.) performed the horse-sacrifice no doubt to assert the newly gained independence of the kingdom of Kāmarūpa, formerly under the suzerainty of the Guptas. Again the facts that Pushyavarman was a contemporary of Samudragupta, that Susthitavarman and Supratishṭhitavarman appear to have died quite early in life and that Bhāskaravarman reigned in the period circa 600-50 A.C. suggest roughly the following chronology of the Bhauma-Nāraka kings of Kāmarūpa[5] :─ (1) Pushyavarman circa 350-74 A.C. (2) Samudravarman ,, 374-98 ,, (3) Balavarman ,, 398-422 ,, (4) Kalayāṇavarman ,, 422-46 ,, (5) Gaṇapativarman ,, 446-70 ,, (6) Mahēndravarman ,, 470-94 ,, (7) Nārāyaṇavarman ,, 494-518 ,, (8) Bhūtivarman ,, 518-42 ,, (9) Chandramukhavarman ,, 542-66 ,, (10) Sthiravarman ,, 566-90 ,, (11) Susthitavarman ,, 590-95 ,, (12) Supratishṭhitavarman ,, 595-600 ,, (13) Bhāskaravarman ,, 600-50 ,,
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[1] The Śailodbhava records generally attributed an Aśvamidha to Sainyabhīta Mādhavavarman [1 Śrīnivāsa]
but, in a few inscriptions of that king’s son and grandson, the latter are also vaguely described as performers of
the Aśvamēdha probably because they took part in Śrīnivāsa’s sacrifice. Cf. above, Vol. XXIX, p. 39, n. 4.
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