[20] As the date of Droṇasiṃha’s investiture is about a.d. 520 it is necessary to consider what kings at this period claimed the title of supreme lord and could boast of ruling the whole earth. The rulers of this period whom we know of are Mihirakula, Yaśodharman Vishṇuvardhana, the descendants of Kumáragupta’s son Puragupta, and the Gupta chiefs of Eastern Málwa. Neither Toramáṇa nor Mihirakula appears to have borne the paramount title of Parameśvara though the former is called Mahárájádhirája in the Eraṇ inscription and Avanipati or Lord of the Earth (= simply king) on his coins: in the Gwálior inscription Mihirakula is simply called Lord of the Earth. He was a powerful prince but he could hardly claim to be ruler of “the whole circumference of the earth.” He therefore cannot be the installer of Droṇasiṃha. Taking next the Guptas of Magadha we find on the Bhitári seal the title of Mahárájádhirája given to each of them, but there is considerable reason to believe that their power had long since shrunk to Magadha and Eastern Málwa, and if Hiuen Tsiang’s Báláditya is Narasiṃhagupta, he must have been about a.d. 520 a feudatory of Mihirakula, and could not be spoken of as supreme lord, nor as ruler of the whole earth. The Guptas of Málwa have even less claim to these titles, as Bhánugupta was a mere Mahárája, and all that is known of him is that he won a battle at Eraṇ in Eastern Málwa in a.d. 510–11. Last of all comes Vishṇuvardhana or Yaśodharman of Mandasor. In one of the Mandasor inscriptions he has the titles of Rájádhirája and Parameśvara (a.d. 532–33); in another he boasts of having carried his conquests from the Lauhitya (Brahmaputra) to the western ocean and from the Himálaya to mount Mahendra. It seems obvious that Yaśodharman is the Paramasvámi of the Valabhi plate, and that the reference to the western ocean relates to Bhaṭárka’s successes against the Maitrakas.—(A.M.T.J.) [↑]
[23] In a commentary on the Kalpasútra Daṇḍanáyaka is described as meaning Tantrapâla that is head of a district. [↑]
[24] Ind. Ant. VII. 66; IV. 174. [↑]
[27] Kumárápála-Charita, Abu Inscriptions. [↑]