Epigraphia Indica Vol 28

SR No.: 032582
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1949
Total Pages: 526
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 31 MB

Page 140

No. 16]
and coins of king Prasannamatra of Sarabhapura in South Kōsala exhibit influence of Gupta coinage. Recently coins of the South Kōsala king, Mahendraditya, who seems to have been named after the Gupta emperor Kumaragupta I Mahendraditya, have been discovered. This may actually indicate that the Gupta suzerainty was accepted by the kings of this family of South Kōsala. Of course the discovery of a large hoard of Kumaragupta's coins at Satara may or may not indicate the expansion of Gupta influence over that part of the Deccan, but the other evidences cited above have to be taken into consideration in this connection. As regards the question of Gupta influence in Kalinga in particular, we may refer to the use of the Gupta era in that country. The Ganjam inscription of the time of Saśānka, as we have already seen, is dated in the Gupta year 300 (A.D. 619). The Soro (Balasore District) and Patiakella (Cuttack District) inscriptions mentioning a king named Sambhuyaśas who was the ruler of Tōsalt, both North (roughly the Balasore District) and South (Puri-Cuttack region together with the eastern portion of Ganjam at least in the age of the BhaumaKaras), are dated in the Gupta years 260 (A.D. 579) and 283 (A.D. 602) respectively. Tōsali (modern Dhauli in the Puri District) was the name of the chief city of northern Kalinga in the days of the Mauryas and it seems that the rulers of the Puri region in northern Kalinga felt the necessity of giving this new name to their kingdom sometime after the Eastern Gangas had established themselves at Kalinganagara in the last decade of the fifth century and were describing themselves as lords of Kalinga. In any case, South Tosalt was practically the same as the northern part of Kalinga. The use of the Gupta era in the records of Sambhuyaśas, ruler of both north and south Tōsalt, is thus additional evidence in favour of the spread of Gupta influence over the Kalinga country. Till now, however, there was no direct evidence to prove that Kalinga formed an integral part of the Gupta empire. The present inscription proves this fact for the first time. The Guptas may have entered Kalinga either through South Kōsala or through South-West Bengal, more probably through the latter. Samudragupta is known to have extirpated Chandravarman who, according to the Susunia inscription, ruled over South-West Bengal from his capital at Pushkaraṇā (modern Pokharna on the Damodar). Thus South-West Bengal formed an integral part of the Gupta empire since the middle of the fourth century. The rule of Sasanka, king of the Gaudas who were political successors of the Guptas in Bengal, in the Kōngōda country, comprising the eastern part of the Ganjam District, as well as in Utkala, as indicated by the Ganjam and Midnapur inscriptions seems to be merely an after effect of the Gupta occupation of Kalinga. For the extent of Gupta domination over Kalinga and its duration we have yet to wait for further evidence.
SUMANDALA PLATES OF THE TIME OF PRITHIVIVIGRAHABHATTARAKA: GUPTA YEAR 250
The third problem raised by our inscription relates to chronology, viz., fixing the date of Prithvivigraha's rule over Kalinga in relation to some known facts of Kalinga history. We know that the Eastern Gangas began to rule at least in the Ganjam District with the exclusion of its eastern part from a date falling in the period A.D. 496-98. Köngöda on the Puri-Ganjam border was under the Sailōdbhavas at least from the middle of the sixth century, since Madhavavarman II Sainyabhita, who was the fourth ruler of this family, is known to have been reigning in A.D. 619
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1 Loc. cit.
1 J. N. S. I., Vol. X, pp. 137-42.
Cf. Successors of the Satavahanas, pp. 176, 248n, where instances of Ganga kings bearing Pallava names indicating their subordination to the Pallava monarchs are given.
Above, Vol. XXIII, p. 197.
Ibid., Vol. IX, p. 285 and New History of the Indian People, Vol. VI, p. 84n.
⚫ Select Inscriptions, pp. 341-42.
* Pravāsi, Śrāvaṇa, 1350 B.S., pp. 291-300; J. R. A. S. B., Letters, Vol. XI. pp. 1-9 and plates. J. K. H. R. S., Vol. I, pp. 219-21.
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