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No. 15). PEDDA-DUGAM PLATES OF SATRUDAMANA, YEAR 9 monarchs, Mahārāja Satrudamana acknowledged the supremacy of a Bhattāraka or paramount ruler. The style Bhattāraka-pada-parigrihita applied to a Mahārāja reminds us of similar epithets used in relation to certain feudatories of the Gupta emperors. We also know that, during the fourth and fifth centuries, independent monarchs of South India, including certain performers of the Abvamëdha sacrifice, enjoyed the title Mahārāja and that it was the Gupta emperors who popularised among independent rulers all over North India and partly over South India the imperial titles Paramabhattāraka and Mahārājādkirāja.
The feudatories (including those enjoying a semi-independent status) and subordinate allies of the early monarchs of the Gupta family enjoyed the title Mahäräja and were often called Paramabhattāraka-pad-amudhyāta, i.e. meditating on or favoured by the feet of the overlord. The expression pāda-parigrihita also occurs instead of pad-anudhyāla in the same context in epigrapbio records in the description of certain subordinates of the Gupta emperors. It is therefore very probable that the overlord of Mahārāja Satrudamana was a Gupta monarch. It has also to be noticed that we do not know of any other imperial power to which the Mahārāja of Simbapura could have possibly owed allegiance in the age in question while Gupta suzerainty is known to have been acknowledged in the same region by Prithivivigraba-bhattiraka about the middle of the sixth century. The absence of the name of Satrudamana's overlord in the charter under study and its date given in his own regnal reckoning instead of the Gupta era appear, however, to suggest that the king was enjoying a semi-independent status at the time of issuing the grant.
The Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta (c. 340-76 A.D.) mentions certain rulers of the Kalinga region, who were defeated by the Gupta monarch but were reinstalled by him in their respective kingdoms. Whether the rulers of that area acknowledged Gupta supremacy as a result of Samudragupta's expedition cannot, however, be determined although that is not improbable. We have also to note that the ruler of Simhapura is not mentioned in the list of kings mentioned in the Allahabad pillar inscription and that the city may have become prominent after the third quarter of the fourth century when the said epigraph was engraved. One of the rulers of the Kalinga region mentioned in the list of Samudragupta's adversaries is Damana of Erandapalla. This king can hardly, be identified with Satrudamana of Simhapura because not only are the names of the rulers but also those of their capitals are different. In any case, the combined testimony of the Pedda-Dugam plates of Satrudamana and the Sumandala plates of the time of Prithivivigraha would point to the hold of the Guptas on parts of the Kalinga country. If the area in question did not come under Gupta influence during the reign of Samudragupta, it may have been subdued by his son Chandragupta II (376-414 A.D.) or grandson Kumāragupta I (414-55 A.D.) as the later members of the Imperial Gupta family do not appear to have been powerful enough to effect the conquest of such a far off tract. But the Mahārājas of the Simhapura region must have thrown off the Gupta yoke considerably before the end of the fifth century not long after Satrudamana's reign.
Of the geographical names mentioned in the inscription, the location of Simhapura has been indicated above. Duhāgrāma seems to be no other than modern Pedda-Dugam (literally, 'the bigger Dugam') which is the find-spot of the record. The indentification of the other two villages is uncertain though they appear to have stood in the same neighbourhood. The location of Pattuvagrāma cannot be determined. The Vardhamāns agrahāra is stated to have been situated in Giri-Kalinga which seems to be the name applied to a billy district of Kalinga. In ancient times, usually the Godavari (sometimes even the Krishna) was regarded as the south-western
1 Cf. IHQ, Vol. XXII, pp. 64-65.
See Sel. Ins., pp. 283, 285, 310, 324, 328, 338. Above, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 79 ff. Corp. Ins. Ind., Vol. III, pp. 1 ff.
