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CHRONOLOGY OF GUJARAT
A.D. C. 470
rock. As a result of this, the extant paintings are in very fragmentary state and cannot be identified or related to any story.
The Fourth Scene ( published as Plate D in The Bagh Caves) consists of a delightful double group of female dancers and musicians. The left hand group comprises seven women standing around an eighth figure, evidently a central dancer, who wears a peculiar kind of costume. Out of the seven female-musicians one plays a hand-drum, three have each two little sticks-dandas, (so wellknown in the danda-rāsaka) and three hold cymbals. The palms of the hands are turned upwards in the position assumed in the tāla or the tāla-rāsaka, by the dancers. The second group of female musicians is likewise arrayed round a dancer with long black locks. Of the six women, one beats a hand-drum, two handle small-sized cymbals, and three each a pair of sticks ( dandas).
Plates D and E (Bāgh Caves) show the bevy of girl-musicians with the two male dancers in their midst, forming, a complete group or a mandala of the
Hallisaka' type, referred to in the Harivamśa' when writing about the propensities of the Vțişņis for this circular dance. “The dancers express in a wreath of interwoven line and form the rhythm and music of the dance.”— (E. B. Havell, The Bagh Caves, The India Society, London, 1927).
"In this painting in the Bāgh Caves, situated on an ancient road connecting Gujarat with Malwa, depicting a music party, is to be observed a typical scene from the life of mediaeval and modern Gujarat. Probably nowhere else in India are women to be seen going round in a dance keeping time with small sticks' dandaka'or'danda' held in either hand. The peculiarity of this dance is that the women sing while they move round and dance. The Bāgh picture is unique in the pictorial history of India, as is also Gujarat in its preservation of an old rite and custom, chiefly observed during the Navarātra festival at the end of the monsoon "-(N. C. Mehta : Gujarati Painting in the 15th Century, 1931, p. 26).
Western India seems to have thrown off the suzerainty of the Gupta emperors of Magadha shortly after the death of Skandagupta ( 468 A.D.), as no silver coins of his successors are available from this territory.
Gujarat attained political independence under the leadership of Senāpati (General) Bhațakka or Bhațārka, who, with the support of the devout forces of kaula ( hereditary), Chrita ( mercenary), mitra (allies) and śreni ( guilds) types, secured sovereignty; (Cf: 'Atanaiuftampati 175941:1'). And he founded a royal dynasty at Valabhi, a well-known city on the eastern coast of Saurāṣtra.
He belonged to the lineage of the mighty Maitrakas. All the royal sealings of the Maitraka dynasty bear the name of Sri Bhatakka or Bhațārka, the founder of the dynasty. He was a Parama Māheśvara ( a great devotee of Maheśvara or Siva). A Buddhist vihāra in Saurāṣtra was named Bhatārka. Vihāra',
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