STRUCTURE OF THE GUPTA AND VAKATAKA POLITY: AN EPIGRAPHICAL STUDY ABSTRACT THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OP / JBottor of ^l)iIo!Sopl)p HISTORY BY MEENAKSHI SHARMA Under the Supervision of Prof. B.L. BHADANI (Chairman & Coordinator) CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AUGARH MUSUM UNIVERSITY AUGARH (INDIA) 18 May 2010 ABSTRACT In the present thesis an attempt has been made to give an updated comprehensive study of the polity under the Gupta and the Vakataka empires on the basis of epigraphical material of this period. The general plan of treatment which h^s been followed in this work is as under: * > . Chapter-I deals with the extent .'of the" Gupta empire and its geographical and political conditions under different Gupta kirigs. It describes the political atmosphere which led to the rise and foundation of the Gupta kingdom which later on developed into an empire of great magnitude. While making a precise and concise account of the conquests of Gupta rulers, this chapter focuses at the political agendas and strategies applied by them in order to extend the empire. It is shown that Gupta empire in its glorious days included not only considerable territories of the western and northern India and eastern parts of south India but also colonies in the Far East. The empire was largely constituted by states ruled by different subordinate rulers also called feudatories, important among them were the Valkhas, the Maukharies, the later Guptas, the Parivrajakas, the Uchchakalpas, the Aulikaras and the Maitrakas. These feudatories contributed in the disintegration of the Gupta empire. They gradually accumulated power and taking advantage of the political chaos, after the Huna invasion they asserted their independence, as a result of this the Gupta empire disintegrated and parcelled out into small independent kingdoms. Chapter-II is devoted to an account of the administration under the Guptas and deals with the central as well as provincial administration. It also deals with another substantive question i.e., the depth of administrative control in the Gupta empire. By comparing epigraphic texts it is also tried to establish in this chapter whether the administration of the Guptas was able to maintain a uniformity of official style in titles, terminology etc. and how much control and authority was exercised by the Gupta rulers in their administration. Besides, on the basis of epigraphic and literary evidences the rise and growth of feudal elements in the state structure of ancient India particularly of the post Maurya and Gupta period is described. Here certain broad features of feudalism including its political, social and economic concomitants have been traced in this period of Indian history. Chapter-Ill describes the role of regional subordinate dynasties in the Gupta empire and the control of paramount ruler i.e., the Gupta emperor over these dynasties. This chapter throws a flood of light on the relations between the Gupta paramount lord and their feudatories with the help of inscriptions. Besides, the rights and obligations of the feudatories of the Gupta empire are also described by corroborating Gupta inscriptions and some literary sources of the post Gupta period. Chapter-IV is devoted to the examination of the Vakataka inscriptions. The rich epigraphic information on the Vakataka kingdom within a comparatively limited region raises the issue of how far this was a unitary polity. This chapter concerns with this issue. It deals firstly with the early history of the Vakataka and attempts to solve the problem regarding their original home. Besides giving a detail description about the allies of both the branches of the Vakataka dynasty viz. Nandivardhana and Pravarapura branch and Vatsagulma branch, this chapter also tries to settle the controversies regarding their feudatories on the basis of available epigraphical data. Along with this it attempts to establish the exact position of the feudatories in the Vakataka polity. All possible attempts have been made in this chapter to give an accurate picture of the Vakataka administration. However, some important aspects of their administrative structure have either been left out or have been treated very briefly owing to the paucity of information. Chapter-V deals with the agrarian and fiscal rights of the state. It deals with the vexed question of land ownership and tries to find out whether the whole land belonged to the king or the individuals have some rights over the land in this period. Besides, it also deals with the king's prerogative over the donated lands. The chapter describes in detail some important aspects of agrarian system such as land tenure and boundary specifications and also tries to establish the magnitude of fiscal rights of the state on the basis of the evidences provided by the Gupta and Vakataka inscriptions which is supplemented by literary texts of this period. STRUCTURE OF THE GUPTA AND VAKATAKA POLITY: AN EPIGRAPHICAL STUDY THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE O^ Bottor of $l)tlogDpt)p IN HISTORY MEENAKSHI SHARMA Under the Supervision of Prof. B.L. BHADANI (Chairman & Coordinator) CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY ALIGARH MUSUM UNIVERSITY AUGARH (INDIA) 18 May 2010 iSV T8027 la IS CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDY Department of History Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh-202 002 CHAIRMAN & COORDINATOR TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN This is to certify that the thesis "Structure of the Gupta and Vakataka PoUty: An Epigraphical Study" by Meenakshi Sharma is the original research work of the candidate. I recommend that the thesis may be placed before the Examiners for evaluation. (Prof. B.L. Bhadani) Supervisor Dated: 18.05.2010 Telephones: (0571) 2703146; Fax No.: (0571) 2703146; Internal: 1480 and 1482 CONTENTS Page No. Acknowledgement i-ii Abbreviations iii-v Introduction 1-6 CHAPTER-I Extent Of The Gupta Empire 7-59 (a) Geographical and Political Conditions CHAPTER-II Administrative Structure Of The Gupta Empire 60-110 CHAPTER-III Role Of Regional Subordinate Dynasties 111-121 CHAPTER-IV Nature Of Polity Under The Vakatakas 122-160 CHAPTER-V Agrarian And Fiscal Rights Of The State 161-199 Conclusion 200-215 Bibliography 216-242 MAPS Extent of The Gupta Empire - Facing Page 59 South Asia in the Gupta - Vakataka Age c. 300-550 - Facing Page 243 India A.D. 300-500 From Inscriptions - Facing Page 244 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT It is indeed a reCiefto havefinaCCy accompCisHed the tfiesis wor^ I ta^ this opportunity to convey my sincerest gratitude to Almighty. I wouCd Ci^ to than^ my supervisor (Prof. (B.L. (Bhadani, chairman and Coordinator, Centre of Advanced Study, ^Department of History, AMV, ARgarh. "Without his encouragement, inspiration and great efforts to e:q)(ain things cCsarCy andsimpCy this wor^wouCdnot have Been possi6(Je. He aCways provided me proper and vaCuaSle guidance at each and every step during the course of this study. His seasoned guidance and generous hetp made me bring this wor^ to a fruitfuC eiu{. I aCso ejq^ress than^ to my ^Xjsupervisor <Dr. <Pushpa (Prasad ((prof, (Retd. Ww. 2006), CJiS, Department of History, AMI), Adgarh. I also irufeSted to (Prof. Irfan Ha6i6 ((Professor Emeritus) who gave vaCuaSCe suggestions and advices to me wfwnever needed. I would Ci^ to express deep sense of gratitude to my teachers nameCy (Prof (K,% Irivedi, <Prof (Ehtesamuf Hoda, <Prof AfzaC Hussain, <Prof TariqA-fimad, (Dr. S.L.H. Moini, Dr. AfaaCKfian and Dr. SumSuCHaRm %fian whose constant erwouragement I received. I am Beholden to Dr. <!^hmi VpadRyaya, Lecturer, CAS, Department of History, AMI), Atigarh who atways showed her readiness for supporting me at every step during mypainsta^ng tas^of writing thesis. (i) / feeC extremeCy gratefuC to my brotders ^harmendranatfi Sfiandifyi, %jisfina^nt SfiandUya and sister Madhuri Sfiarmafor their ^ruf advice and support whenever needed by me. My Tather Mr. <Bhoodev Sfiarma and Mother Mrs. ManjuCata Sharma have been good source of inspiration for me during this course of study. I am thankful to the Indian CounciC of HistoricaC (^search (ICH^(R) for granting me Junior ^search TeChwship which enabled me to cottect additional material and compkte this wor^ I am duty bound to than^ the staff members of the Seminar Library of CAS for their support, help and cooperation TJie name of Mr. Ifusuf Siddiqui, Mr. Arshad AR, 94.r. (BansidBar Sfiarma, Mr. MazharHusain and Mr. Salman Ahmad needs special mention in this regard. I also than^ to non-teaching staff members of CAS, Mr. JawaidM. 'Kfian, Mr. Sharafat Ad, Mr. <Faiz !Ha6i6 and Mr. TafUr AH 'Kfian. It is also my pleasant duty to remember the co­ operation extended to me by the staff of Mulana Azad Library, AMI), Aligarh, Libraries of ICH% 9^ew (Delhi and Archaeological survey of India, S^ew (Delhi It is my duty to than^Mr. Aftab Ahmad for typing my thesis carefully and diligently. (Meena^fti Sfiarma) (ii) ABBREVIATIONS AV The Age of the Va katakas ABORI Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute ASIAR Archaeological Survey of India Annual Reports BR WW Buddhist Records of the Western World C Circa CII Corpus Inscriptionum CCIM Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum CCAI Catalogue of the Coins of Ancient India Coinage The Coinage of the Gupta empire CA The Classical Age CCGD Catalogue of the Coins of the Gupta Dynasties ofSasanka, kingofGauda. CHI A Comprehensive History of India CKI Corpus ofKadamba Inscriptions DKA Purana Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age EI Epigraphia Indica EHI Early History of India EHDY The Early History of