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602 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA that were cool with the flowing and ebbing currents of water, (and) were covered with the branches of plantain trees severed by the trunks of elephants roaming through the lofty groves of palmyra palms ;-(or) even though they stood on (that) mountain (Himālaya) which is cold with the water of the rushing and waving torrents full of snow.” The "haughty foes” on seaside shores were probably the Gaudas who had already launched into a career of conquest about this time and who are described as living on the sea shore (samudr-ūśraya) in the Harābā inscription of A. D. 554. The other enemies may have included ambitious Kumārāmūtyas like Nandana of the Amauna plate.
The next king, Kumāra Gupta III, had to encounter a sea of troubles. The Gaudas were issuing from their "proper realm” which was Western Bengal as it bordered on the sea and included Karņasuvarņaand Rādhāpuri. The lord of the Andbras who had thousands of three-fold rutting elephants, and the Sūlikas who had an army of countless galloping horses, were powers to be reckoned with. The Andhra king was probably Mādhava-varman (I, Janāśraya) of the Polamuru plates belonging to the Vishņukuņdin family who "crossed the river Godāvari with the desire to conquer the eastern region”4 and performed eleven horse-sacrifices. The Śūlikas were probably the Chalukyas. In the Malākīta pillar
1 Ep. Ind., XIV, p. 110 et seq. 2 M. Chakravarti, JASB, 1908, p. 274. 3 Prabodha-chandroda ya, Act II. 4 Dubreuil, AHD, p. 92 and D. C. Sircar, IHQ, 1933, 276 ff.
5 In the Brihat-Samhitā, IX. 15; XIV. 8, the Sūlikas and Saulikas are associated with Aparānta (N. Konkan), Vanavāsi (Kanara) and Vidarbha (Berar). In Brih. Sai., IX. 21 ; X. 7, XVI. 35, however, they are associated with Gandhāra and Vokkāņa (Wakhan). A branch of the people may have dwelt in the north-west. In JRAS, 1912, 128, we have a reference to Kulastambha of the Sulki family. Tāranātha (Ind. Ant., IV, 364) places the kingdom of "Sulik" beyond "Togara" (Ter in the Deccan ?).
