South Indian Inscriptions

THE HOME OF THE VAKATAKAS

Ajaigaḍh State. This Pṛithivīshēṇa is identified by some scholars with the first Vākāṭaka king of that name, who flourished in the period 350-400 A.C. These records are sometimes cited to prove that the Vākāṭakas had an empire north of the Vindhyas prior to that of the Guptas. The paleographic evidence which has been recently adduced to prove the early age of these inscriptions¹ is not conclusive. Besides, there is no other vestige of the extension of Vākāṭaka supremacy in that region as early as the reign of Pṛithivīshēṇa I. On the other hand, Vyāghradēva of the aforementioned Nachnā and Ganj inscriptions is probably identical with the Uchchakalpa prince of the same name mentioned in the grants of his son Jayanātha who flourished in the last quarter of the fifth century A.C.² His suzerain Pṛithivīshēṇa was therefore the second Vākāṭaka king of that name who flourished from about 470 A.C. to 490 A.C. That the Vākāṭakas had extended their supremacy north of the Vindhyas during the reign of Pṛithivīshēṇa II’s father Narēndrasēna is also known from the expression Kōsalā-Mekalā-Mālav-ābhyarchchita-śāsanaḥ used in the Bālāghāṭ plates to describe Narendrasēna.³ This is again confirmed by the evidence of the Pāṇḍavavaṁśī king Bharatalala who covertly refers to his suzerain Narēndrasēna.⁴ This Bharatabala ruled over Mēkalā as stated expressly in the grant. No other king of the name of Vyāghra is known to have ruled in Central India in the age of the Vākāṭakas. Vyāghradēva of the Nachnā and Ganj inscriptions therefore belonged to the Uchchakalpa dynasty and was a feudatory of the Vākāṭaka Pṛithivīshēṇa II and not of Pṛithivīshēṇa I, who flourished nearly 120 years earlier. These inscription do not, therefore, evidence any early rule of the Vākāṭakas, much less their home-land, north of the Vindhyas.

........(4)As stated before, the find-spots of copper-plates and coins afford no sure proof of the rule of any dynasty in a particular territory. Still, their evidence also has to be considered in the absence of other proofs. The only copper-plate grant of the Vākāṭakas said to have been found in North India is that recorded on the so-called Indore Plates⁵ of Pravarasēna II. These plates were found in the collection of the late Pandit Vāmanaśāstrī Islāmpurkar. It is well known that the Pandit was engaged in collecting old Sanskrit manuscripts and historical records from different parts of the country. I have shown elsewhere that two other grants⁶ found in his collection at Indore were. originally from Khāndēsh and the places mentioned in them can also be located in Khāndēsh. As all other copper-plate grants of the Vākāṭakas discovered so far originally came from Vidarbha, the Indore copper-plate grant also, in all probability, belongs to the same part of the country. None of the places mentioned in it have been located in North India.⁷

... As for coins, Jayaswal drew attention to some coins of North Indian fabric which he attributed to the Vākāṭakas. The coin with the legend Pravarasenasya⁸ bears, according to Jayaswal, the date 76, and that having the legend Rudra⁹ the date 100. Jayaswal referred these dates to the so-called Kalachuri-Chēdi era commencing in 248 A.C., which, accord-
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¹ In H.C.I.P., Vol. III, p. 179, n. 1. D.C. Sircar has drawn attention to the triangular v and the old forms of j and t, which, according to him, evidence an early date for Vyāghradēva’s feudatory Pṛithivīshēṇa, but the evidence is inconclusive. See below pp. 89 f. See also my article on this subject in Dr. S. K. Belvalkar Felicitation Volume, pp. 286 f.
² C.I.I. Vol. III, Nos. 26 and 27.
³ No. 18, pp. 27-28.
⁴ No. 19, lines 31-34.
⁵ No. 9.
⁶ C.I.I., Vol. IV, pp. 5 f.
⁷ I have identified some of them in the Bālāghāṭ District. See below, p. 40.
⁸ History of India, etc., pp. 52 f.
⁹ Ibid., pp. 108 f.