The Huns
In spite of the heroic efforts of Skanda Gupta, the Gupta empire in its entirety did not long survive theskanda gupta coin shock it received from the uprising of the Pushyamitras and the incursions of the Huns. The hereditary character of the officialdom, particularly in some of the outlying provinces, must have let loose centrifugal forces which gathered strength as the central authority weakened owing to the onslaughts of the barbarians. There were signs of degeneration and of dissension in the imperial line itself, and the devotion of the more loyal feudatories could not save the empire from its impending doom. So far as our present knowledge goes Budha Gupta was the last emperor of the main line of the Guptas who preserved some semblance of unity in the major part of the empire. When he passed away the Huns were safely entrenched in the Sialkot region and Eastern Malwa, provinces that had owned the Gupta suzerainty since the days of Samudra Gupta.
The Huns were a race of fierce barbarians who issued from the
steppes of Central Asia and had in the fifth century AD spread in devastating hordes over some of the fairest provinces of the Roman empire in the West and the Gupta empire in India. Their early incursions into India were repulsed by Skanda Gupta, but they renewed their attacks when the great emperor was no more. Towards the close of the fifth and early in the sixth century AD the Hun suzerainty rapidly spread in all directions, thanks to the vigour and energy of Toramana and his son Mihiragula. The last mentioned ruler is known not only from inscriptions and coins, but from tradition recorded by Hiuen Tsang and Kalhana, both of whom bear witness to his tyrannical rule. He has further been identified with the White Hun King Gollas mentioned by the monk Cosmas lndikopleustes, and also with the Yetha ruler of Gandhara to whom Song Yun, the Chinese pilgrim, paid a visit in AD 520. An account of his feats is also supposed to be preserved in the Jaina stories about Kalkiraja. The expansion of the Hun rule in Central India seems to have been checked by the loyal feudatories of the Guptas, and their imperial power was finally shattered by Yasodharman of Mandasor. Petty Hun chieftains continued to rule over a circumscribed area in North-West India and Malwa, waging a perpetual warfare with the indigenous princes till they were absorbed into the Rajput population. It is significant that the new aspirants for imperial dominion in Aryavarta, Yasodharman, the Maukharis, the princes of the house of Pushyabhuti, and the Palas set much store on success against these outlandish barbarians who harassed their country as the Yavanas and Saka- Pahlavas did of old.
Yasodharman
Yasodharman probably belonged to an old family known as Aulikara whose members ruled in Malwa since the 4th century AD first as independent rulers and then as feudatories of the Guptas. He ho has left records of his achievements at Mandasor. In these he claims to have granted protection to the earth when it was afflicted by the cruel and vicious kings of the age who transgressed the rules of good conduct. He is further described as a Samrat or emperor who extended his sway over territories which even the all-conquering Gupta lords and Hun chieftains had failed to to subdue. Homage was done to him by chiefs from the neighbourhood of the Brahmaputra up to the Eastern Ghats and from the snowy heights of the Himalayas down to the Western Ocean. The Hun king Mihiragula, whose head had never previously been bowed in the humility of obeisance to any mortal, was compelled to do reverence to Yasodharman’s feet.
Portions of Malwa were governed by the Maitrakas, Kalachuris and Guptas shortly after Yasodharman. The imitation of Gupta coins and assumption of titles characteristic of kings of the Gupta family by the Kalachuris show that no wide interval separates their rule from that of the last of the Imperial Guptas of Malwa.
The dominant powers in India in the latter half of the sixth century AD were the Maukharis in the Ganges valley and the Chalukyas of the Deccan. The history of the Chalukyas will be treated in a later chapter.
The Maukharis
The Maukharis claimed descent from Asvapati of epic fame. They figured as feudatory chieftains or generals in Magadha and Rajputana from very early times and possibly came into contact with the Kadambas of South-West India. The family rose to prominence under Isanavarman, who is the first to Kumaragupta coins.jpg (38790 bytes)assume the imperial title of Maharajadhiraja or supreme king of great kings. From a record of his reign dated AD 554 we learn that he won victories over the Andhras, the Sulikas and the Gaudas. The Andhras and the Sulikas may have reference to the rulers of the Vishnukundin and Chalukya families of the Eastern and Western Deccan, while the Gaudas, whose “proper realm” lay not far from the sea, are apparently the people of Bengal. Isanavarman also came into conflict with the later Gupta king, Kumara Gupta, probably the third or fourth monarch of that name. The son of the latter is represented as “breaking up the proudly stepping array of mighty elephants, belonging to the Maukhari, which had thrown aloft in battle the troops of the Huns”. It is clear that the Maukharis, like Skanda Gupta and Yasodharman, carried on the struggle against the foreign invaders, the destruction of whose power was necessary to realise their dream of restoring the fallen fabric of imperialism in Northern India.
Isanavarman was followed by at least three other princes, Sarvavarman, Avantivarman, and Grahavarman. The last-mentioned ruler was a son of Avantivarman. He married Rajyasri, daughter of Prabhakaravardhana and his more celebrated brother Harsha. But the alliance could not save the Maukhari ruler from destruction at the hands of the “wicked lord of Malava “, who has been plausibly identified with Deva Gupta of the inscriptions of Harsha. Rajyasri, the widowed Maukhari queen, was cast into prison at Kanauj. The death of Grahavarman was avenged by his brother-in-law Rajyavardhana, the eldest son and successor of Prabhakaravardhana. But Rajyavardhana himself was killed by Sasanka. It has been alleged by the court poet of Thaneswar that Rajyavardhana was “allured into confidence by false civilities on the part of (Sasanka) the king of Gauda, and then weaponless, confiding and alone, despatched in his own quarters”. The truth of this unconfirmed statement may be doubted.
