Jignasa Journal Of History Of Ideas And Culture Part 01

Author(s): Vibha Upadhyaya and Others
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

Page 168

130
/
Jijrasa
pride says, 'with windows, spires, beautiful terraces, ledges, statues of the nymphs of Indra and the like, supported by lovely pillars and stairs'- 'lovely chaitya-building'. A member of the same ministerial family cut the Cave No. XIII, which is called the Ghatotkacha Cave, wherein the donor gives his family history. 966 According to Hans Bakker also, the art of Ajantä can no longer be detached from the artistic achievements of the eastern Vākāțakas. On the other hand there is some evidence that important religious groups migrated from Vatsagulma to the eastern kingdom."67
Here, we do not intend to reject altogether the significance of Bakker's thesis that the kingdom of the Vākātakas is to be seen, 'on a par with the Gupta world', but to us it appears to be somewhat exaggerated preposition. As is well-known, most historians have accepted the importance of the Vākātaka age in Central India and the Deccan within the Gupta empire. Even Hans Bakker in his "Preface' to The Väkätaka Heritage has categorically stated that at the crossroads of the Indo-Aryan north and Dravidian south, the northern culture of the Guptu kingdom reached the Deccan and developed a character of its own (italics ours). The major religions of the times, Buddhism, Bhāgavatism and Maheśvarism, all had important settlements in the Vākātaka kingdom; constructions in stone, brick or rock testify to the high standards of the arts reached in Central India by the middle of the 5th century."
The prosperity of the Vākāțaka kingdom, as seen by Bakker, also presents two contradictory aspects. On the one hand, almost total absence of the Vākāțaka coins, certainly of their gold and silver coins, give the impression that the Väkätaka economy was extremely poor. Also, as shown by us in detail elsewhere," a study of the known inscriptions of the Väkätakas indicate the comparative rarity of the use of coins resulting in the large mechanisin of land-grants, growth of small village settlements and declining urban economy. But the development of Hindu temples on and around the Rāmagiri (Ramtek hill) and the Buddhist caves in Ajanta do testify to the prosperity of the Vākātaka kingdom. This contradiction may be resolved if we believe that the Vākātakas were under the political and cultural influence of the Guptas and the caves and temples which are the only proofs of this prosperity were the result of their relationship-direct or indirect with the Guptas. That this cultural florescence in the Vākātaka areas had its origins in the influence of the Gupta kings is also conceded by Walter M. Spink. However, his observation that Indian classical culture reached the very highest point in its development during the reign of Harişeņa who ruled from c. 460 to 477 A.D. is not correct as by the early years of his rule the Gupta dynasty was already on the course of disintegration. However, the cultural history of the imperial Guptas and the Vākāțakas and the monuments of their period cannot be so precisely dated since it merges at both ends in the continuous development of earlier and later periods. Be that as it may, the fact that the artistic activities of the Vākāțaka kingdom were the result of the Gupta influence necessitates some rethinking on Hans Bakker's hypothesis that the Vākāțakas were on a par with the imperial Guptas.
Appendix 2 Some Observations on K. M. Shrimali's Article entitled
"Religions in Complex Societies : The Myth of the "Dark Age" In a paper entitled "Religions in Complex Societies: The Myth of the Dark Age" published in 2007, K. M. Shrimāli has tried to show that the historical sense of K. P. Jayaswāl (whom he chooses to describe 'a so-called nationalist historian') was extraordinarily similar to that of V.A. Smith so far as their understanding of the post-Kushāņa pre-Gupta period is concerned.72 As we have already noted. Smith had opined that: