Q1.
Do you remember Queen Prabhāvatī Gupta of the Vākāṭakas (Chapter 7 of Part 1 of this textbook)?
Answer
Yes — she was the Gupta princess who married into the Vākāṭaka dynasty of the Deccan and then ruled it as regent for her sons after her husband’s death. She was the daughter of the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II, and her rule is known from her own land-grant inscriptions.
Why the chapter reminds you of her here. The Vākāṭakas were the great power of the Deccan in the age before this chapter begins. Their end is what clears the stage: “Once that dynasty came to an end, several mighty kingdoms were locked in a contest for supremacy (Fig. 3.16)” — the Chālukyas, Rāṣhṭrakūṭas, Pallavas, Pāṇḍyas, Cheras and Cholas.
She matters for two more reasons that the chapter builds on:
- She shows a woman exercising real royal power — the same point the chapter makes later for Queen Diddā of Kashmir and Tribhuvana Mahadevi I of the Bhauma-Karas in Odisha, who issued land grants under the title ‘Paramabhaṭṭārikā Mahārājādhirāja Tribhuvana Mahādevī’, ‘supreme sovereign empress, great queen of the three worlds’.
- She shows north and south already linked by marriage and alliance. The pattern continues in this chapter: Harṣha allies with the Varmans of Kāmarūpa, the Pāṇḍyas ally with the Chālukyas and the Pallavas.
Tip: when the book asks “do you remember…?”, it is telling you the two chapters are meant to be read together. Keep Part 1’s ‘The Gupta Era’ open beside this chapter — the Guptas end there and this chapter begins in the space they leave.