________________
606 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA Mauklari, which had thrown aloft in battle the troops of the Hūņas (in order to trample them to death), he became inconscious (and expired in the fight).”
Damodara Gupta was succeeded-by his son Mahāsena Gupta. He is probably the king of Mālava, possibly Eastern Mālwa, mentioned in the Harsha-charita, whose sons Kumāra Gupta and Mādhava Gupta were appointed to wait upon Rājya-vardhana and Harsha-Tardhana by their father, king Prabhākara-vardhana of the Pushyabhūti family of Srikantha (Thānesar ). The intimate relation between the family of Malāsena Gupta and that of Prabhākara-vardhana is proved by the Madhuban grant and the Sonpat copper seal inscription of Harshia which represent Mahāsena Guptā Devī as the mother of Prabhākara, and the Aphsad inscription of Adityasena which alludes to the association of Madhava Gupta, son of Mahāsena Gupta, with Harsha.
The Pushyabhūti alliance of Malāsena Gupta was probably due to his fear of the rising power of the Maukharis.? The policy was eminently successful, and
or a descendant of, Süryavarman, the son of Iśānavarman, then it is certain that for a time the supremacy of Magadha passed from the hands of the Guptas to that of the Maukharis. The Deo-Baraņārk Inscription (Shāhābad District) of Jivita Gupta II also suggests (CII, pp. 216-218) that the Maukharis Sarvavarman and Avantivarman held a considerable part of Magadha some time after Bālāditya-deva. After the loss of Magadha the later Guptas were apparently confined to "Mālava," till Mahāsena Gupta once more pushed his conquests as far as the Lauhitya.
1 Reference to Mahābhārata, XII. 98. 46-47; Raghuvansa, VII. 53 ; Kāvyādarśa, II, 119; Rajatarangini, I.68. shows that the objections raised against the interpretation of Fleet are invalid. The significance of the touch of Surabadhus as distinct from a human being, is entirely missed by a writer in Bhand. Com. Vol. 181, and a reviewer of Dr. Tripathi's History of Ancient India.
2 And perhaps of other aggressive states mentioned in the beginning of the fourth Uchchhväsa of the Harsha-charita. The Lātas of that passage may have reference to the Kațachhuris who finally ousted the Guptas from Vidiśā in or about A. D. 608. The Katachchuri (Kalachuri ) dominions included the Lāta
