South Indian Inscriptions

ABHIRAS

have risen to the status of a feudatory.¹ As the power of the Ābhīras declined, he appears to have declared his independence and begun to date his records in his regnal years, though he did not, for some years, discard his previous military title ² or the Ābhīra era which had become well established in the country under his rule.

The Kānākhērā inscription is dated in the thirteenth year of Śrīdharavarman’s reign. It contains another date at the end, the reading and interpretation of which are, unfortunately, not quite certain. As shown elsewhere,³ the correct reading of the date appears to be 102, which, being referred to the Ābhīra era, becomes equivalent to 351-52 A. C. Śrīdharavarman seems, therefore, to have declared his independence in circa 339 A. C.

Another inscription⁴ of Śrīdharavarman has recently come to light at Èran in the Saugor District of Madhya Pradesh. In this record Śrīdharavarman is seen to have discarded his previous military title and assumed instead the titles Rājan and Mahākshatrapa which, as in the inscriptions and coins of the Western Kshatrapas, signified complete independence. He has also omitted therein all reference to the Ābhīra era, perhaps because it recalled his previous submission to another power. The Èran inscription is dated in the 27th regnal year. It seems therefore, to have been put up in 365 A.C. Śrīdharavaman may have flourished from 339 A.C to 368 A.C.

Neither of these two inscriptions mentions any capital of Śrīdharavaman. That he held the Vidiśā-Ērikina territory is certain; for, his records have been found in that part of the country. It is, however, not unlikely that his rule extended farther west to the Anūpa country also, where the Ābhīra era continued in use for at least 50 years more; for, no other rule of his power and prestige is known to have flourished in Central India in that period. If this supposition is correct, Māhishmatī may have been his capital.⁵

The Ēran record is incised on a pillar, called yashti, erected by Satyanāga, the Ārakshika and Sēnāpati of Śrīdharavarman, as a memorial to the Nāga soldiers who met with a hero’s death in a battle fought at the adhisthāna of Ērikina (modern Ēran). In that record Satyanāga, who hailed from Maharastra, expressed the hope that the yashti, raised by the Nāgas themselves, would inspire future generations of warlike people to perform similar heroic deeds; for, it was a place where friends and foes met together in a spirit of service and reverence. Unfortunately, no particulars of the battle in which these Nāga soldiers laid down their lives have been preserved in the inscription. Perhaps the enemy was the ruler of some neighbouring country like Mēkalā.

The Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta mentions the Śakas and the Murundas as border chiefs who submitted to the mighty Gupta Emperor and solicited his charters confirming them in the enjoyment of their own territories.⁶ The Śaka chief is usually taken to be one of the Western Kshaptrapas; but the kingdom of the Kshatrapas lay far in the west. Besides, their rule in Malwa seems to have come to an end about the middle of the third century A. C. with the rise of the Ābhīras. The Śaka king who submitted to Samudragupta must, therefore, be identified with Sridharavarman. He may have paid homage to the Gupta Emperor some time after 365 A. C.,
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¹ It is not known whether his father held any office under Abhiras. No title is prefixed to his name, but as in the case of Īsvararāta, this negative evidence is not conclusive.
² Other instances of a similar type are the Sēnāpati Pushyamitra, the founder of the Śunga dynasty who retained his military title even after performing two Aśvamédhas(Ep. Inds., Vol. XX, p.-57), and the Mahasenapati Saka Māna who issued his coins mentioning the military title ( J. N. S. I., Vol. XII, pp. 90 ff.).
³ See below, pp. 14 ff.
⁴ No. 119, pp. 605 ff., below.
⁵ This is a tentative suggestion which may be corroborated or modified by future discoveries.
⁶ C. I. I, Vol.III, p. 8.