Indian Antiquary Vol 48

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

Page 103

JUNE, 1919]
CHANDRA'S CONQUEST OF BENGAL
Mândasor), just as we gather from other records that his son Viśvavarman and his son Bandhuvarman were feudatories of Kumâragupta I. The second inscription which is inscribed in early Gupta characters of the Northern variety records the dedication of a wheel in honour of a god (evidently Vishnu) named Chakrasvâmin and it only states in its two lines 10 of writing that this dedication is a pious deed (kritik) of maharaja Chandravarman, son of maharaja Simhavarman, king of Pushkarana. The use of the subordinate title of maharaja with the names of these kings shows that Pushkarana was one of the many small states that were being ruled independently before their subjugation by Samudragupta. In the first inscription we have. maharaja Naravarman as the son of Simhavarman and in the second maharaja Chandravarman as the son of the same king. This fact led Pandit Sâstrî to suggest, rightly enough, that Naravarman and Chandravarman were brothers. " It has been said before that Naravarman was a contemporary of Chandragupta II, son of Samudragupta, whereas Chandravarman was Samudragupta's contemporary. Hence it may be rightly supposed that Chandravarman was Naravarman's elder brother. The identity of Chandravarman of Samudragupta's inscription and Chandravarman, king of Pushkarana, of the Susunia Hill inscription, as established by Pandit Sâstri seems to be quite right. But there is much difficulty in proving undoubtedly that this Chandravarman and the Chandra of the Iron Pillar inscription are identical. Samudragupta probably destroyed the independence only of the nine kings of Northern India amongst whom Chandravarman was one, and allowed them after their utter defeat to rule in their respective states as Gupta feudatories. Chandra varman, his father Simhavarman, and his grandfather Jayavarman' may have had mastery over a greater part of Mâlava and had their capital at Pushkarana; and they had thus ruled independently before Samudragupta advanced in his campaign of conquests and reduced the power of the Varman family of Pushkarana by defeating its king Chandravarman and probably placing his younger brother Naravarman to the position of a feudatory chief ruling from Dasapura. It may also be supposed that Naravarman succeeded to the rulership after the death of his elder brother Chandravarman. We have said before that Naravarman's son, Viśvavarman and his son Bandhuvarman were feudatory kings under Kumâragupta I ruling in Mâlava from their capital Dasapura. From the Gangdhar Stone inscription (Fleet, No. 17) we find that Viśvavarman, son of Naravarman, was a very powerful ruler (tasmin praidsati mahin-nyipati-praviré 11. 17-18) in the year 480, evidently of the Mâlava era, and from the Mândasor stone inscription (Fleet, No. 18) we know that Bandhu varman, son of the ruler (gôpta) Viśvavarman was governing the city of Dasapura (kshitipati-vrishé Bandhuvarmmani........Dasapuram =
9 Fleet, CII, Vol. III, Nos. 17 and 18.
1 Cf. "(L 1.) Pushkaranadhipater maharaja-Simhavarmmanah putrasya (L. 2) maharaja-bri Chandravarmmanah kritik."-These lines, it should be noted, are inscribed just below the wheel on the backwall of a cave now in ruins on the hill.
We may illustrate the genealogy of the Varman family thus:
Jayavarman T Simhavarman 1
99
Chandravarman
Naravarman (461 M.E.) I Visvavarman (480 M.E.)
1 Bandhuvarman (493 M.E.)