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NAGA CONTEMPORARIES OF EARLY GUPTAS 535 possibly the founder of Chandravarman-kota mentioned in the Ghugrahāti grant. Some scholars identify Pushkarana with Pokran or Pokurna in Mārwār, and further equate Sithavarman, the name of the father of Chandravarman, with Simbavarman of the Mandasor family. But there is very little to be said in support of this conjecture. No mention of Chandravarman, or reference to his exploits, is found in any epigraphic record of the Varman family of Western Mālwa. Pushkarana is really to be identified with a village named Pokharan on the Dāmodar river in the Bankura District, some 25 miles to the north-east of Susunia Hill.
Ganapati Nāga, Nāgasena and Nandi seem to have been Nāga princes. That Ganapati Nāga was a Nāga prince is evident. This ruler is also known from coins
1 Cf. Dikshit, ASI, AR, 1927-28, p. 188; S. K. Chatterji, "The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language," II, 1061 ; IHQ, I, 2. 255. Pandit H. P. Šāstri believed that this local ruler who bore the modest title of Maharaja was identical also with the mighty emperor (bhumipati prāpta aikādhirājya) Chandra of the Meharauli Iron Pillar Inscription who "in battle in the Vanga countries turned back with his breast the enemies who uniting together came against him and by whom having crossed in warfare the seven mouths of the Indus the Vāblikas were conquered." Others suggest the identification of the great Chandra with one or other of the famous Chandra Guptas of the Imperial Gupta Dynasty. But Chandra is never styled either Chandravarman or Chandra Gupta and, unlike the court poets of the Varmans and Guptas, the panegyrist of the mighty Chandra, who is said to have carried his arms to the distant corners of India, never gives the slightest hint about his pedigree. He does not even mention the name of his father. It may be noted here that the Purānas represent the Nāgas as ruling in the Jumna valley and Central India early in the fourth century A.D. We learn from the Vishnu Purāna that Nāga dynasties ruled at Padmāvati and Mathurā. A Nāga line probably ruled also at Vidiśā (Pargiter, Kali Age, p. 49). Two kings named Sada-Chandra and Chandramsa, "the second Nakhavant," are mentioned among the post-Andhran kings of Nāga lineage. One of these, preferably the latter, who was obviously a ruler of note, may have been the Chandra of the Meharauli Inscription. The Vāhlikas beyond "the seven mouths of the Indus" are apparently the Baktrioi occupying the country near Arachosia in the time of the geographer Ptolemy (Ind. Ant., 1884, p. 408). An inscription of Mahārajādhiraja Sri Chandra has been discovered on a Jaina image at Vaibhāra hill (ASI, AR, 1925-26, p. 125). The identity of this Chandra is not clear.
