South Indian Inscriptions

THE HOME OF THE VAKATAKAS

ing to him, was really started by the Vākāṭakas. If his readings of the legends and dates and the identification of the era are correct, these coins may indicate the extension of Vākāṭaka rule north of the Vindhyas during the reigns of the early Vākāṭaka rulers Pravarasēna I and Rudrasēna I. But Jayaswal’s readings and interpretations have been disputed by other scholars. Dr. Altekar has shown that the coin attributed to Pravarasēna is really of Vīrasēna. The symbols which Dr. Jayaswal supposed to be the date 76 are really the branches of a tree in railing. As for the coins of Rudrasēna I, what he took to be the letters Rudra is really the tri-ratna symbol. The symbol supposed to denote the date 100 is clearly a svastika^.1 So these coins cannot be attributed to any Vākāṭaka king. In fact, the Vākāṭakas did not strike any coins, but used the currency of the Guptas throughout their kingdom. Several gold coins of Chandragupta II have been found in Vidarbha. The silver coins of the Western Kshatrapas also may have been current in their territory. Some hoards of Kshatrapa coins have been found in the Chhindwāḍā and other districts of Madhya Pradēsh. Again, even supposing that the readings of the dates on these coins are correct, they cannot be referred to the era of 248 A.C. That era was not started by the Vākāṭakas² and has not been used in dating any Vākāṭaka grant. All inscriptions of the Vākāṭakas are dated in regnal years. As a matter of fact, the era was introduced in Vidarbha after the downfall of the Vākāṭakas. The only date of that era found in Vidarbha occurs in the recently discovered Nandivardhana plates of Svāmirāja, who was probably a feudatory of the Kalachuri king Kṛishṇarāja.³

........The foregoing discussion must have made it plain that neither the era nor the coins are of the Vākāṭakas. There is thus not an iota of evidence to prove that the Vākāṭakas originally hailed from North India.

... I shall now proceed to state some evidence which indicates that the original home of the dynasty was in the Deccan.

... (i)The earliest mention of the name Vākāṭaka occurs in the following record⁴ incised on a fragment of an octagonal pillar at Amarāvatī in the Gunṭur District of Andhra State. It is in Prakrit and is in characters of about the third century A.C.
Inscription No. 126–⁵

...The inscription is unfortunately fragmentary, but its extant portion shows that it was intended to record the gift of a gṛihapati (householder) named Vākāṭaka and his two wives, one of whom was named Chamunā. The gift was made by them at the instance of a Thēra (Buddhist Bhikshu) named Bōdhika and for longevity of themselves and their agnates (jñatis), friends and relatives. Vākāṭaka is used here as a personal name and not as a family name. This record shows that the gṛihapati Vākāṭaka had gone to Amarāvatī with his wives to make donations there for the longevity of himself, his wives and relatives. The name of the native village was mentioned in the beginning of the first line, but it is now lost. In view of the difficulties of travelling in those days it would not be
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¹ J.N.S.I., Vol. V, pp. 130 f.
² It was probably started by the Abhīra king Īśvarasēna. C.I.I., Vol. IV, pp. xxiii f.
³ Ibid., Vol. IV, pp. 611 f.
⁴ Ep. Ind., Vol. XV, p. 267 and plate.
⁵ This number is cited from Amarāvatī Sculptures in the Madras Government Museum, p. 304.