South Indian Inscriptions

THE MAIN BRANCH

least six generations. Narēndrasēna’s contemporary may have been Bhīmasena I. Narēndrasēna may also have annexed the Anūpa country, the capital of which was Māhishmatī, modern Mahēshvar, when he extended his suzrerainty to Mālwā.¹

...Narēndrasēna, who was probably a grown up man at the time of his accession,² may have had a reign of about 20 years (450-470 A.C.). Towards the end of his reign the Vākāṭaka terrītory was invaded by the Nala king Bhavadattavarman. According to the purānas,³ the Nalas ruled over the Kōsalā country. This statement is corroborated by the find-spots of their inscriptions and coins. Gold coins of three kings of the Nala family, Varāha, Bhavadattavarman and Arthapati have been found at Eḍēṅgā in the Kōṇḍēgaon tehsil of the Bastar District of Madhya Pradesh.⁴ Of these Varāha was the earliest. He may have been defeated by Narēndrasēna and forced to pay tribute. His son Bhavadattavarman seems to have taken revenge. He invaded the Vākāṭaka territory and pressed as far as Nandivardhana, the erstwhile capital of the Vākāṭakas, which he occupied for some time. A copper-plate inscription discovered at Ṛiddhapur in the Amarāvatī District records the grant of a village in the Yeotmāl District which the king Bhavadatta had made at the holy tīrtha of Prayāga (Allāhābād) for the religious merit of himself and his wife.⁵ The plates were actually issued by his son⁶ Arthapati from Nandivardhana. This inscription clearly shows that a considerable portion of the Vākāṭaka dominion was occupied by the Nalas.

...The Vākāṭakas also admit this disaster to their arms. The Bālāghāṭ plates state that Pṛithivīshēṇa II, the son of Narēndrasēna, raised his sunken family.⁷ At this time he seems to have been forced to move to the east and fix his capital at Padmapura, modern Padampur near Āmgaon in the Bhaṇḍārā District, from where an unfinished Vālāṭaka plate was intended to be issued.⁸ Pṛithivīshēṇa consolidated his power at this capital and after a time drove the enemy from his ancestral country. He even carried the war into the enemy’s territory and stormed and devastated his capital Pushkarī, as admitted in an inscription of Arthapati’s brother Skandavarman found at Pōḍāgaḍh in the Vizagāpaṭam District.⁹

...It is not known whether Pṛithivīshēṇa II continued to rule from Padmapura or again shifted his capital to some other place in Vidarbha. In any case Padmapura retained its importance for a long time; for, it attracted learned Brāhmaṇas like Gōpāla, an ancestor of the famous Sanskrit dramatist Bhavabhūti, who performed the Vājapēya and other sacrifices there. In his plays Bhavabhūti mentions Padmapura situated in Vidarbha as the home of his ancestors.¹⁰

...Pṛithīvishēṇa II soon retrieved his position in the north also and even pressed farther than his father. Two stone inscriptions of his feudatory Vyāghradēva, who explicitly acknowledges his suzerainty, have been discovered at Nachnā and Ganj in the former vindhya
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¹ The Daśakumāracharita, eighth uchchhvāsa, shows that Māhishmatī was included in the dominion of the Vākāṭakas about this time.
² His father Pravarasēna II had a long reign of about 30 years.
³ D.K.A., p. 51.
⁴ J.N.S.I., Vol. I, pp. 29 f.
⁵ Ep. Ind., Vol. XIX, pp. 100 f.
⁶ Arthapati was the son, not the grandson, of Bhavadattavarman as supposed by Dr. D. C. Sircar, See Ind Hist. Quart., Vol. XXXIV, pp. 142 f.
⁷ No. 18, line 33.
⁸ No. 17, line 1.
⁹ Ep. Ind., Vol. XXI, p. 156.
¹⁰ For the identification of Padmapura, see Ind. Hist. Quart., Vol. XI, pp. 287 f. Also S. I., Vol. I, pp. 21 f.