CHAPTER VI

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THE TRAIKÚTAKAS

(A.D. 250-450.)

[Two Plates.] The materials regarding the Traikútakas, though meagre, serve to show that they were a powerful dynasty who rose to consequence about the time of the middle Kshatrapas (A.D. 250). All the recorded information is in two copperplates, one the Kanheri copperplate found by Dr. Bird in 1839, [149] the other a copperplate found at Párdi near Balsár in 1885. [150] Both plates are dated, the Kanheri plate 'in the year two hundred and forty-five of the increasing rule of the Traikútakas'; the Párdi plate in Samvat 207 clearly figured. The Kanheri plate contains nothing of historical importance; the Párdi plate gives the name of the donor as Dahrasena or Dharasena 'the illustrious great king of the Traikútakas.' Though it does not give any royal name the Kanheri plate expressly mentions the date as the year 245 of the increasing rule of the Traikútakas. The Párdi plate gives the name of the king as 'of the Traikútakas' but merely mentions the date as Sam. 207. This date though not stated to be in the era of the Traikútakas must be taken to be dated in the same era as the Kanheri plate seeing that the style of the letters of both plates is very similar.

The initial date must therefore have been started by the founder of the dynasty and the Kanheri plate proves the dynasty must have lasted at least 245 years. The Párdi plate is one of the earliest copper-plate grants in India. Neither the genealogy nor even the usual three generations including the father and grandfather are given, nor like later plates does it contain a wealth of attributes. The king is called 'the great king of the Traikútakas,' the performer of the asvamedha or horse-sacrifice, a distinction bespeaking a powerful sovereign. It may therefore be supposed that Dahrasena held South Gujarát to the Narbadá together with part of the North Konkan and of the Ghát and Dakhan plateau.

[Initial Date.] What then was the initial date of the Traikútakas? Ten Gujarát copper-plates of the Gurjjaras and Chalukyas are dated in an unknown era with Sam. followed by the date figures as in the Párdi plate and as in Gupta inscriptions. The earliest is the fragment from Sankhedá in the Baroda State dated Sam. 346, which would fall in the reign of Dadda I. of Broach. [151] Next come the two Kaira grants of the Gurjjara king Dadda Prasántarága dated Sam. 380 and Sam. 385 [152]; and the Sankhedá grant of Ranagraha dated Sam. 391 [153]; then the Kaira grant of the Chalukya king Vijayarája or Vijayavarman dated Samvatsara 394 [154]; then the Bagumrá grant of the Sendraka chief Nikumbhallasakti [155]; two grants from Navsári and Surat of the Chalukya king Síláditya Sryásraya dated 421 and 443 [156]; two the Navsári and Kávi grants of the Gurjjara king Jayabhata dated respectively Sam. 456 and Sam. 486 [157]; and a grant of Pulakesi dated Samvat 490. [158]

Of these the grant dated 421 speaks of Síláditya Sryásraya as Yuvarája or heir-apparent and as the son of Jayasimhavarmman. The plate further shows that Jayasimhavarmman was brother of Vikramáditya and son of Pulakesi Vallabha 'the conqueror of the northern king Harshavardhana.' The name Jayasimhavarmman does not occur in any copperplate of the main line of the Western Chalukyas of the Dakhan. That he is called Mahárája or great king and that his son Síláditya is called Yuvarája or heir-apparent suggest that Jayasimhavarmman was the founder of the Gujarát branch of the Western Chalukyas and that his great Dakhan brother Vikramáditya was his overlord, a relation which would explain the mention of Vikramáditya in the genealogy of the copper-plate. Vikramáditya's reign ended in A.D. 680 (Saka 602). [159] Supposing our grant to be dated in this last year of Vikramáditya, Samvat 421 should correspond to Saka 602, which gives Saka 181 or A.D. 259 as the initial date of the era in which the plate is dated. Probably the plate was dated earlier in the reign of Vikramáditya giving A.D. 250. In any case the era used cannot be the Gupta era whose initial year is now finally settled to be A.D. 319.

The second grant of the same Síláditya is dated Samvat 443. In it, both in an eulogistic verse at the beginning and in the text of the genealogy, Vinayáditya Satyásraya Vallabha is mentioned as the paramount sovereign which proves that by Samvat 443 Vikramáditya had been succeeded by Vinayáditya. The reign of Vinayáditya has been fixed as lasting from Saka 602 to Saka 618 that is from A.D. 680 to A.D. 696-97. [160] Taking Saka 615 or A.D. 693 to correspond with Samvat 443, the initial year of the era is A.D. 250.

The grant of Pulakesivallabha Janásraya dated Samvat 490, mentions Mangalarasaráya as the donor's elder brother and as the son of Jayasimhavarmman. And a Balsár grant whose donor is mentioned as Mangalarája son of Jayasimhavarmman, apparently the same as the Mangalarasaráya of the plate just mentioned, is dated Saka 653. [161] Placing the elder brother about ten years before the younger we get Samvat 480 as the date of Mangalarája, which, corresponding with Saka 653 or A.D. 730-31, gives A.D. 730 minus 480 that is A.D. 250-51 as the initial year of the era in which Pulakesi's grant is dated. In the Navsári plates, which record a gift by the Gurjjara king Jayabhata in Samvat 456, Dadda II. the donor of the Kaira grants which bear date 380 and 385, is mentioned in the genealogical part at the beginning as 'protecting the lord of Valabhi who had been defeated by the great lord the illustrious Harshadeva.' Now the great Harshadeva or Harsha Vardhana of Kanauj whose court was visited by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang between A.D. 629 and 645, reigned according to Reinaud from A.D. 607 to about A.D. 648. Taking A.D. 250 as the initial year of the era of the Kaira plates, Dadda II.'s dates 380 and 385, corresponding to A.D. 630 and 635, fall in the reign of Harshavardhana.

These considerations seem to show that the initial date of the Traikútaka era was at or about A.D. 250 which at once suggests its identity with the Chedi or Kalachuri era. [162] The next question is, Who were these Traikútakas. The meaning of the title seems to be kings of Trikúta. Several references seem to point to the existence of a city named Trikúta on the western seaboard. In describing Raghu's triumphant progress the Rámáyana and the Raghuvamsa mention him as having established the city of Trikúta in Aparánta on the western seaboard. [163] Trikútakam or Trikútam, a Sanskrit name for sea salt seems a reminiscence of the time when Trikúta was the emporium from which Konkan salt was distributed over the Dakhan. The scanty information regarding the territory ruled by the Traikútakas is in agreement with the suggestion that Junnar in North Poona was the probable site of their capital and that in the three ranges that encircle Junnar we have the origin of the term Trikúta or Three-Peaked.

[Their Race or Tribe.] Of the race or tribe of the Traikútakas nothing is known. The conjecture may be offered that they are a branch of the Ábhíra kings of the Puránas, one of whom is mentioned in Inscription XV. of Násik Cave X. which from the style of the letters belongs to about A.D. 150 to 200. The easy connection between Násik and Balsár by way of Peth (Peint) and the nearness in time between the Násik inscription and the initial date of the Traikútakas support this conjecture. The further suggestion may be offered that the founder of the line of Traikútakas was the Ísvaradatta, who, as noted in the Kshatrapa chapter, held the overlordship of Káthiáváda as Mahákshatrapa, perhaps during the two years A.D. 248 and 249, a result in close agreement with the conclusions drawn from the examination of the above quoted Traikútaka and Chalukya copperplates. As noted in the Kshatrapa chapter after two years' supremacy Ísvaradatta seems to have been defeated and regular Kshatrapa rule restored about A.D. 252 (K. 174) by Dámájadasrí son of Vijayasena. The unbroken use of the title Mahákshatrapa, the moderate and uniform lengths of the reigns, and the apparently unquestioned successions suggest, what the discovery of Kshatrapa coins at Karád near Sátára in the Dakhan and at Amrávati in the Berárs seems to imply, that during the second half of the third century Kshatrapa rule was widespread and firmly established. [164] The conjecture may be offered that Rudrasena (A.D. 256-272) whose coins have been found in Amrávati in the Berárs spread his power at the expense of the Traikútakas driving them towards the Central Provinces where they established themselves at Tripura and Kálanjara. [165] Further that under Bráhman influence, just as the Gurjjaras called themselves descendants of Karna the hero of the Mahábhárata, and the Pallavas claimed to be of the Bháradvája stock, the Traikútakas forgot their Ábhíra origin and claimed descent from the Haihayas. Again as the Valabhis (A.D. 480-767) adopted the Gupta era but gave it their own name so the rulers of Tripura seem to have continued the original Traikútaka era of A.D. 248-9 under the name of the Chedi era. The decline of the Kshatrapas dates from about A.D. 300 the rule of Visvasena the twentieth Kshatrapa son of Bharttridáman. The subsequent disruption of the Kshatrapa empire was probably the work of their old neighbours and foes the Traikútakas, who, under the name of Haihayas, about the middle of the fifth century (A.D. 455-6) rose to supremacy and established a branch at their old city of Trikúta ruling the greater part of the Bombay Dakhan and South Gujarát and probably filling the blank between A.D. 410 the fall of the Kshatrapas and A.D. 500 the rise of the Chálukyas.

About 1887 Pandit Bhagvánlál secured nine of a hoard of 500 silver coins found at Daman in South Gujarát. All are of one king a close imitation of the coins of the latest Kshatrapas. On the obverse is a bust of bad workmanship and on the reverse are the usual Kshatrapa symbols encircled with the legend:

Mahárájendravarmaputra Parama Vaishnava Srí Mahárája Rudragana.

The devoted Vaishnava the illustrious king Rudragana son of the great king Indravarma.

At Karád, thirty-one miles south of Sátára, Mr. Justice Newton obtained a coin of this Rudragana, with the coins of many Kshatrapas including Visvasimha son of Bharttridáman who ruled up to A.D. 300. This would favour the view that Rudragana was the successful rival who wrested the Dakhan and North Konkan from Visvasimha. The fact that during the twenty years after Visvasimha (A.D. 300-320) none of the Kshatrapas has the title Mahákshatrapa seems to show they ruled in Káthiáváda as tributaries of this Rudragana and his descendants of the Traikútaka family. The Dahrasena of the Párdi plate whose inscription date is 207, that is A.D. 457, may be a descendant of Rudragana. The Traikútaka kingdom would thus seem to have flourished at least till the middle of the fifth century. Somewhat later, or at any rate after the date of the Kanheri plate (245 = A.D. 495), it was overthrown by either the Mauryas or the Guptas. [166]

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