Indian Antiquary Vol 42

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 277

OOTOBER, 1913.]
THE DATE OF THE MUDRA-RAKSHASA
265
THE DATE OF THE MUDRA-RAKSHASA AND THE IDENTIFICATION
OF MALAYAKETU. BY KASHI-PRASAD JAYASWAL, M. A. (OXON.), BARRISTER-AT-LAW, CALOUTTA.
The arguments of Telang! are conclusive to establish the thesis that the play could not have been written later than the eighth century A. D. Now there is a further piece of internal evidence which has been missed, and which, I think, fixes the date of the play with almost absolute certainty.
The bharata-udkya to the play names the reigning monarch: "al present (adhund) ..... .... may long reign king Chandragupta3". Who was this the then reigning king Chandragupta alluded to in the bharata-odkya ? Before the eighth century and during • period when Påtaliputra was a living towns (before 644 A. D.) there had been only three Chandraguptas: Chandragupta the conqueror of Seleucus, and the two Guptas bearing that name.
He could not have been the first. Omitting other reasons, it would be sufficient to point out that the Sakas and the Hôņas are mentioned in the plays. I attach more importance to the mention of the latter, who were absolutely unknown in the fourth century B.0.5
As the first is excluded, the identification must be limited only to the ambit of the two Guptas, out of whom I would select the latter, Chandragupta (II) the Vikramaditya. Chandragupta I was not a monarch of much importance ; his name is not associated in any of the Gupta inscriptions with the suppression of any foreign enemy, or any great deeds to elicit « comparison, as in the bharata-vákya, with Vishņu. Chandragupta II, on the other hand, did suppress the political power of the Sakan mlechchhas of Western India. Also I feel inclined to suspect a veiled defence of the scandalous murder of the Saka Satrap? in the story put forward in the Mudr-Rakshasa of the destruction of the Mlachchha Parvataka! hy Chandragupta the Manrya through the alleged agency of the visha-kanya (poisonous girl').
1 Mudra-Rakshasa (Nirnaya Sågara Press, 4th edition), Introduction, pp. 13-25. ३ मेच्छहाइज्यमाना भुजयुगमधुना संश्रिता राजमूर्तेः ।
स श्रीमद्वन्धुभृत्यश्चिरमवतु महीं पार्थिवश्चन्द्रगुप्तः। 3 Yawan Chwang (c. 644 A. D.) found Påtaliputra in ruins with a population of some 1000 persons. Besides the fact that most of the scenes are laid at Pataliputra, the patriotio speech of RAkshaga about Patalipatra indicates that at the time of the composition of the play Patalipatra was the capital:
"अयि, माय स्थिते का कुमुमपुरमपरीस्थति। प्रवीरक प्रवीरक, क्षिप्रमिदानीम् | प्राकारं परितःशरासनधरैः före of , agi: qfaffroartW: eft arg. Act II. vorso 13.
• Aot V, verse 11. . I disonas below the Hapas of the Mudrd-Rakshasa.
• In this connexion the prophecy of the Puranas as to the rise in Skambhart (Sambhar) of a popular leader, the BrAhman Kalki, who is an ordinary man in the Vayu Purana but is treated as an avaldra in later works, is significant. There seems to have been some great popular attempt made at uprooting the Sakag in Milavå and Western Rajputin about the early decades of the Gupta days, at which point the earlier Purdnas close their chronology. [The Vayu, I think, closed before the reign of Chandragupta II, probably in the early days of Samudragupta. For the dominions of the Guptas described there precede the conquesta of Samudragupta
अनुगङ्गं प्रयागच्च साकेतं मगधांस्तथा।
ATT STYTTUR THUHT: 11 Vayu-Purana 87 oh, 977.) 7 aftgt
at faoTEN TH: Tayfa TUTUR. "Chandragupta, in the anpital of the enemy, disguised ma bonutiful woman, killed the lord of the Bakas who wanted wives of others. Harsha-charita, VI. The trath seems to have been that while a war was waged by Chandragupta II against the Batrap, probably an agent of Chandragupta took advantage of some scandalous intrigue of the Satrap and killed him.
The Parvataka of the Mudra-Rakshasa probably conceals in it the historical Philippor, Alexander's Strap of the Panjab, who is recorded to have been murdered by Indian troops. Philologically Philippoe wonld be changed into Piribo, Piribao or Pirabao; and an attempt to restore Pirabo or Pirabao into Sanskrit would prodnos Parvata or Parvataka.