South Indian Inscriptions

ABHIRAS

Vidarbha. After the fall of the Vakatas, this feudatory family of Khandesh was over thrown by the Kalachuris who occupied Northern Maharashtra in circa 550 A. C.

Īśvararāta - Another feudatory who probably owed allegiance to the Ābhīras was ruling in Central Gujarat. He is known from a fragmentary copper-plate grant discovered at Kalachhala near Chhota Udaipur in the Bombay State. Only the first plate of this grant, which originally must have consisted of two or three plates, has been found. It mentions one Īśvararāta, who meditated on the feet of a lord paramount ( Paramabhattāra-kapad-ānudhyāta ) Īśvararāta, though he bears no royal title, was plainly a feudatory of some imperial power. He appears to have ruled over a fairly extensive territory; for, among the persons to whom he addressed his order are included such high officers of the State as Kumārāmātya and Uparika.¹ The extant portion of the grant contains no date, but its palæography and wording, which closely resemble those of the aforementioned grants from Khandesh, indicate that Īśvararāta flourished in the 4th century A. C. Like the Mahārajas of Valka, he was probably a feudatory of the ĀbhĪras.

Īśvararāta’s grant was made at Prachakāśā. This place may be identical with Prakāsha on the Tāpī in North Khandesh. The village Kupikā granted by the charter cannot now be traced, but Vankikā, the headquarters of the territorial division in which it was situated, may be represented by the modern village Vānkad, about 20 miles from Chhota Udaipur. Īśvararāta, therefore, appears to have held Central Gujarat and some portion of the Khandesh District.

No successor of Īśvararata is known; but his family may have continued to hold Central Gujarat until it was ousted by Sarva Bhattāraka who appears to have risen to power in circa 400 A. C. As shown elsewhere,² the latter’s coins, imitated from those of the Western Kshatrapas, are found in abundance in Central Gujarat and Saurashtra.

The Kings of Māhishmati - The Ābhīras appear to have soon extended their rule to Anūpa (the country around Māhishmatī) and Ākarāvanti (Malwa) also. It has been noticed that the potin coins of the Western Kshatrapas, which were intended for circulation in Malwa, suddenly come to an end in 240 A. C.³ The reason for this contraction of Kshatrapa power is supposed to be the rise of the Vākātaka Vindyaśakti. We have, however, no indication of the extension of the Vākātaka power north of the Narmadā in this early period,⁴ while we have evidence of the spread of the Ābhīra kingdom in the use of the Ābhira era in the countries of Anupa and Ākaravanti in the fourth and fifth centuries A. C. The era must have been introduced there by the Abhiras or their feudatories.

One of these feudatories was Mahādandanāyaka Śaka Śridharavarman, the son of Śaka Nanda, whose stone inscription,⁵ recording the excavation of a well, was found at Kānākhèrā near sāñchī in the Bhopal State. Though a Śaka by extraction, Śridharavarman did not probably belong to the house of Chashtana; for unlike the Western Kshatrapas, he dated his record in the era of the Ābhīras, not in that of the Śakas. The title Mahādandanāyaka prefixed to his name in the Kānākhera inscription indicates that he began his career as a military officer, probably of the contemporary Ābhīra king. Later, he may ________________

¹ For Kumārāmātya and Uparika, see below, p. 36, notes 4 and 3 respectively.
² J. N. S. I., Vol. VI, pp. 14 ff. Dr. Altekar places Śarva Bhattāraka in the period 348-378 A. C. Ibid., pp. 18 ff.
³ C. A. D., Introd., p. cxxxiii; N. H. I. P., VoL. IV, p.54. .
⁴ I have shown elsewhere that the original home of the Vākātakas lay in South India. A.B.O.R.I., Vol. xxxii, pp. I ff. Prithivīshēna, whose feudatory Vyāgha’s inscriptions have been found at Nachna and Ganj in Vindhya Pradesh, was the secondVākātaka prince of that name who flourished in c. 470-490 A. C.
⁵ No. 5, pp. 13 ff., below.