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98
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JUNE, 1919
CHANDRA’S CONQUEST OF BENGAL
BY RADHAGOVINDA BASAK, M.A.; CALCUTTA. In the early part of the fourth century A.D., there was a great defeat of the people of Bengal (Vaiga) hy a king named Chandra. This event is mentioned in an inscription incised in early Gupta characters on a pillar of cast iron known to historians as the "Meharauli Posthumous Iron Pillar Inscription of Chandra." There has not yet been an end of discussion as to the identity of this Chandra. The late Dr. Fleet thought that the characters of this inscription "approximate in many respects very closoly vo those of the Allahabad posthumous inscription of Samudragupta" and remarks that he should not be surprised to find at any time that it is proved to belong to him," i.e., Chandragupta I, the first maharajadhiraja of the Gupta family, of whose time we have as yet no inscriptions. Dr. Hoernle assigns the inscription to the beginning of the fifth century A.D.; and Mr. Vincent Smith, in the second edition of his "Early History of India", expressed, his conviction that the Chandra of the inscription was Chandragupta II, who, he thought, had to quella rebellion of the people of Benga! when they offered him an united resistance in battle. If the inscription could be ascribed to the time of Chandragupta II and the king Chandra be identified with the latter-it may be well said with Mr. Allan 5 that "the enemies who had united against him in the Vauga country were probably people who had taken the opportunity of his absence in the west to cast of the yoke under which his father had inid them." But Mr. Vincent Smith has since changed his opinion and has accepted the view of Mahamahopadhyâya Haraprasad Sastrí, that the Chandra of the Iron Pillar Inscription was not at all a Gapta ruler and that he should be identified with Chandra varman mentioned in the Allahabad Pillar inscription of Samudragupta's time. This Chandravarman, it should be remembered, was one of the nine kings of Åryyâvarta who were violently extirpated, during his campaign of conquests in Northern India, by Samudragupta, who thus increased his majestic power in the North. Pendit Sastri while proving this identity of Chandra of the Iron Pillar inscription and Chandravarman (king of Pushkaiana, Pokharan or Pokuna of Rajaputâna) based his arguments on two inscriptions, viz., (1) the Mândasor stone-inscription of Naravarman of the Malava era 461, and (2) the Susunia Hill inscription of Chandravarman, king of Pushkarana. From the first of these inscriptions, we have the following historical information -"This Vaishnavite inscription: was incised in 461 of the era of the Malavagara, i.e., in A.D. 404, when king parthiva) Naravarman (using the title mahdrája), son of king Simhavarman and grandson of king JavaVarman, was ruling that part of the country, i.e. Målaya." We know from epigraphic records that in A.D. 404 Chandragupta II was on the imperial Gupta throne. Hence we may safely suppose that Maharaja Naravarman was Chandragupta Il's feudatory in the Western region, probably having his head-quarters in the town of Dasapura (modern
Fleet, C.1.1., Vol. III, No. 32.
Ibid, p. 140, foot-note 1.
. 3 Ante, Vol. XXI, pp. 43-44.
4 Early History of India, 2nd edition, p. 275. 5 Indian Coins-Gupta Dynasties, Introduction, p. xxxvi.
C. Rudradda-Matila-Nagadatta-Chandravima-Ganapatinája-Nayasan - Achyuta-Nandi-Balavarman = ády-anék-áryydvartta-raja-prasabh = oddharaA = Odvritta-prabhava-mahata!"-1.21.-Fleet, C.I.1. Vol. III, No. 1.
Epi. Ind., Vol. XII, No. 35, p. 315ff. 6 Ibid, Vol. XIII, No. 9, p. 133; and Proc. of the ASB., 1895, p. 180.
