South Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MINISTERS AND FEUDATORIES OF THE
VATSAGULMA BRANCH

Vākāṭaka king Dēvasēna (V. 10). The next two verses (VV. 11-12) which eulogised Hastibhōja are unfortunately very much mutilated. Verse 13 commences with atha which indicates the introduction of a new subjecte 1. It mentions a son of Dēvarāja, named Harishēṇa². He is plaintly identical with Dēvasēna’s son Harishēṇa, the great Vākāṭaka king during whose reign the Ajaṇṭā caves XVI, XVII and XIX were excavated. Bhagwanlal and Bühler, who could not decipher the two words Dēvarāja-sūnur=Harishēṇō, missed completely the historical information given by this verse. The former identified this Dēvarāja with a minister of an Aśmaka king, while the latter thought that dēvarāja was no personal name at all³. Verse 14 seems to have continued the eulogy of Harishēṇa. The next verse (15), which, like V.13, commences with atha seems to have resumed the description of Hastibhōja, from V.12. Verse 16 refers to several sons⁴, apparently of Hastibhōja, perhaps in connection with a description of Varāhadēva, who succeeded his father as the Chief Minister of Harishēṇa. His name is partially preserved in line 18. The lower part of the inscription which probably eulogised Varāhadēva and recorded the excavation of the Ghaṭōtkacha cave is completely lost.

...As Dr. Bühler observed, the wording of V. 5 makes it probable that Dēva who is eulogised therein held the office of Prime Minister. The king whom he served is not named, but in view of what has been said above, it would not probably be wrong to infer that his master belonged to the Vākāṭaka dynasty. The ministers and the contemporary Vākāṭaka kings whom they served may therefore be stated as follows :-

.............Ministers                      ......Contemporary Vākāṭaka Kings (with approxi-
                                                              ..........mate dates of accession)
            Yajñapati
           
            Dēva                                                                Vindhyaśakti (250 A.C.)
           
            Sōma                                                               Pravarasēna I (270 A.C.)
           
            Ravi                                                                 Sarvasēna (330 A.C.)
           
            Pravara                                                            Vindhyasēna (355 A.C.)
           
            Śri Rāma                                                         Pravarasēna II (400 A.C.)
           
            Kīrti                                                                 (Name lost) (410 A.C.)
           
            Hastibhōja                                                       Devasēna (450 A.C.)
           
            Varāhadēva                                                     Harishēṇa (475 A.C.)

... This ministerial family bore the name of Vallūra, which, as V.8 shows, was derived from their original habitation. This place is said to have been situated in the south. Bühler, who, following Bhagvanlal, read Malaya in V. 7 as the name of the country where Ravi was ruling, thought that the ministerial family was probably a sub-division of the
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¹ In No. 25, v. 17 also the word atha is used to mark a change in the subject of description.
² Bhagvanlal read iatha Dēvarāja, and Bühler, atha dēvarājasya in the beginning of V. 13. Pl. LX in A.S.W.I. Vol. IV, defective as it is, shows clearly the aksharas atha Dēvarāja-sūnur=Hari-. The fresh estampages supplied to me by the Archaeological Department of the Hyderabad State give the name Harishēna clearly. There should therefore be no doubt about this reading.
³ A.S.W.I., Vol. IV, p. 139, n. 4.
⁴ The inscription in Cave XVI at Ajaṇṭā also refers to the bandhu-varga of Varāhadēva who apparently had a large number of relatives. See No. 25, line 24.