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536 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
found at Mathurā,' at Pawāyā near Narwar and at Besnagar.? Nāgasena, who met his doom at Padmāvati? near Narwar on the Sindh river between Gwalior and Jhansi, is mentioned as a scion of the Nāga family in the Harsha-charita (Nāga-kula-janmanal sūrikāśrāvita mantrasya āsīdnūšo Nāgasenasya Padmāvatyām. 4 Nandi was also probably a Nāga prince. In the Purūnas Sisu Nandi and Nandiyaśas are connected with the Nāga family of Central India. We know also the name of a Nāga prince named Sivanandi.5 Achyuta was probably a king of Ahichchhatrā, modern Ramanagar in the Bareilly District. To him has been attributed the small copper coins bearing the syllables 'achyu' found at Ahichchhatrā. 6 As to the Kota-kula Rapson' draws our attention to certain coins bearing the inscription Kota. These resemble the "Sruta coins" attributed to a ruler of
1 Altekar, NHÍP, vị, 37.
2 IHQ, 1, 2, 255. Note the importance of the name of this king from the point of view of religious history. Cf. Gajamukha of the Brihat Samhitā, 58. 58. A reference to king Ganapati Nāga in the Bhāva Sataka, a late work, is more than doubtful. Gajavaktra Śri of that work is a misreading for Gata Vaktra Sri (IHQ, 1936, 135ff).
3 Padamāvati-'Padam Pawāyā (25 miles n. e. of Narwar) in the apex of the confluence of the Sindhu and the Pārā. Nāga coins have been found here ; also a palmleaf capital with an inscription of the first and second century B.C." EH1", p. 300 ASI, AR, 1915-16, pp. 101 ff.
4 "In Padmavati Nāgasena, born in the Nāga family. whose confidential deliberations were divulged by a sārika bird, met his doom."
5 Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan. p. 31. It is interesting to note that Garuda was the emblem of the Gupta kings who did much to curb the power of the Nāgas. Cf. the passage of the Junāgadh Inscription of Skanda Gupta :
Narapati bhujagānām nānadarpot phanānām
pratikrti Garudājñām nirvishim chăvakartā In the Purāņas Kộishna, the deity honoured by the Guptas, crushes the head of the serpent Kāliya.
6 Allan, Gupta Coins, xxii; CCAI, 1xxix. 7 JRAS, 1898, 449 f.
