DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

312 TRIBAL ALLIANCES OF THE, GUPTAS [
wedded to the allied Vakataka (a tribal name, perhaps also Pakotaka)
king, another political marriage of the series. The first known record
of the latter house was by a rich but private Vakataka gakapati householder,
who made a donation to the Buddhist foundation at Amaravati about 150
B.C. (EL 15-261-8). The first Vakataka king Vindhyasakti preceded the
Guptas. The initial secret of Gupta expansion was just that they were
unrestricted by tribal or caste usage, to the extent of building up the
professional army necessary for tribute collection. The heterogeneous
marriage alliances developed somewhat later, both for political aims and
to gain patent of nobility. The Licchavis, 7 for example, were treated as a
low caste almost beyond the pale (Ms. 10.22) by some brahmins ; in
Buddhist and Jain tradition, they still retained a very high place. Licchavi
political and military importance had vanished before Asoka. Extracts
from a lost play, the Devi-candragupta of Visakhadatta, and a stanza
quoted in the ninth chapter of Rajasekhara’s Kavyamimamsa refer to
a romantic exploit by a Gupta prince, who disguised himself to kill
the Khasa (or Saka) chief that held the queen, his elder brother’s
wife, as hostage. He later married the widowed queen, whose name is
given as Dhruvadevi or Dhruvasvamini. Remarkably enough, Dhruvadev!
is the name of a queen of Candragupta II, mother of Kumaragupta (Fleet
10, 12, 13) who succeeded his father and was succeeded by the martial
Skandagupta. Her personal seal impression with the name
Dhruvasvamini has passed unnoticed among the Basrah finds
(ancient Velali; JBORS 5.1919.303 ; AS/ Ann. 1903-4 p. 107 + pi. xl) .*
There may be something in the play’s garbled report, for contemptuous
references to a Gupta who killed his own brother and
married the widow may be seen in later chapters (El. 7.38 ; 18.248).
It is tantalizing to get so vague a glimpse of a romantic episode in what has
* A terra-cotta seal found at Basarh (JBORS. 5.303 ; Ann. Rep. Arch. Sur. India, 1903-
4, plate 40), the ancient Vaisali, seems to belong to this queen. It gives her name in - the
exact form of the lost play, as Dhruvasvamini. If the Bhavisyottara-purasa quotations
given by some (e.g. M. Krishna-machariar, Hist. Classical Skt. Literature, Madras-
Poona 1937 intr. pp. cii-civ) could be verified, preferably in a critical edition from all the
extant manuscripts, we should learn a bit more about the Guptas ; but the passages are
of extremely doubtful authenticity, even for a purana.