Indian Antiquary Vol 62

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 113

JUNE, 1933 ] HISTORICAL DATA IN PADMAGUPTA'S NAVASAHASINK ACARITA
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HISTORICAL DATA IN PADMAGUPTA'S NAVASAHASANKACARITA. By Pror. V. V. MIRASHI, M.a., HEAD OF THE SANSKRIT DEPARTMENT, NAGPUR UNIVERSITY.
TAE Navasáha sánkacarita of Padmagupta, alias Parimala, is one of the few important kavyas in Sanskrit literaturo. Soon after its discovery Messrs. Zachariæ and Biihler wrote a descriptive and critical account of it in the Sitzungsberichte of the Vienna Imp. Academy of Sciences (1888), which was translated into English and published in the Indian Antiquary, vol. XXXVI (1907). The work has been edited by Pandit V. 8. Islampurkar in the Bombay Sanskrit Series (1895). It is now well known that its author, Padmagupta, was a court poet, first of Vakpati Muñja and then of his successor, Sindhuraja, the father of the illustrious Bhoja of Dhårå. Soon after its composition ite literary merits were recognised by ancient critice, and it has been drawn upon for illustrations of figures, etc., by writers on dramaturgy and rhetoric from Dhananjaya (eleventh century) downwards. Apart from its literary merits, its importance for contemporary history cannot be over-estimated, for it is one of the few kavyas in Sanskrit literature, the authors of which have given a poetio account of the events in the lives of their patrons. The direct references to historical events contained in it were collected by Dr. Bühlor in the article above referred to: “A number of princes and peoples, whom Sindhurâja is said to have conquered, are presented in X, 14-20. Among the names mentioned are found a prince of the Hôņas of the same race as he, with whom Siyaka waged war, and a prince of the Kosalas. Further is mentioned the subjection of the inhabitants of Vagada, of the eastern part of the province of Kacch, of Lata, middle and central Guja. rât, and the Muralas, of a people in Southern India, that is perhape identical with the Keralas, the inhabitants of Malabar. The word of an Indian court poet, when he speaks of his lord's victories, must not be put in golden scales. Every Indian hero must have made his dig. vijayaydtra, his march to the conquest of the world.'"1 This last remark of Dr. Bühler has been falsified in several instances by recent historical researches. Indian poets may have been fond of exaggeration but we should not brush aside their account as untrustworthy, unless it is disproved or rendered unlikely by other, incontrovertible evidence. Unfortunately no inscriptional records of the reign of Sindhuraja have yet been discovered, but from what we know of the reigns of his predecessors and successors, his wars referred to by Padmagupta do not seem to be improbable. We know, for instance, that both Siyakaand Muñja3 had waged wars on a Hûna king, and that the grandfather of Bhaskara, who engraved the Sanskrit dramas at Ajmer in the twelfth century, was born in a family of Hûna princes and was a favourite of King Bhoja.. The Hûna princes defeated by the Paramára and Kalacuri kings must have been reigning in some part of Central India. We know, again, that Bhoja's authority was acknowledged in Lata till 1086 A.D. at least. As a matter of fact, Dr. Bühler also has acknowledged that "the expeditions against the Hana, against Vågad, which belonged to the kingdom of the CAlukya of Aphilved, and against Lata where ruled the dynasty of Barapa, ...... were not at all unlikely." The same can also be said of the wars against the Muralas and Komalas. As I have shown olsewhere,& Murala need not be identified with Kerala, but must be placed in the northern part of the Nizâm's Dominions. The king of Kosala defeated by Sindhurája must have been one of the Gupta or the Sarabhapur dynasty that ruled at Sripur in the Contral Provinces.
To the above list of kings and peoples vanquished by Sindhuraja we might add the kings of Kuntala and Aparantaka or Konkana. Sindhurdja's victories over them have not
11.A., XXXVI, p. 171. 1 The Udepur Prasast of the kings of Malwa, E.I., I, p. 228. 3 Kauthern Plates of Vikram Aditya V, 1.A., XVI, p. 18 f. 4 1.A., XX, p. 201.
Proovedings of the Poona Oriental Conference-Tilakwada Platos. 6 Annals of the Bhandarkar Institute, XI, p. 369.