320 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XVU, 
amely Hari , Adity and Isvaraman were simply 
Maharajas.| Adityavarman’s wife was Harsha Gupta,' prob- 
ably a sister of king Harsha Gupta. The wife of his son and 
successor Isvaravarman was also a Gupta princess named Upa 
Gupta.! Iganavarman, son of Isvaravarman a Upa 
Gupta, claims victories over the Andhras, the Silikas and the 
Gaudas and is the first to assume the imperial title of 
Mabarajadhiraja. It was this which probably brought him 
into conflict with king Kumara Gupta III. Thus began a 
duel between the Maukharis and the Guptas which ended only 
when the latter with the help of the Gaudas wiped out the 
Maukhari power in the time of Grahavarman, brother-in-law 
of Harsha. 
e have seen that Isanavarman’s mother and grand- 
mother were Gupta princesses. The mother of Prabhakara- 
vardhana the other empire builder of the second half of the 
sixth century was also a Gupta princess.” It seems that the 
Gupta marriages in this period were as efficacious in stimulat- 
ing imperial ambition as the Lichchhavi marriages of more 
ancient times. 
mara Gupta III claims to have ‘‘ churned that for- 
midable milk-ocean, the cause of the attainment of fortune, 
among kings.”® This was not an empty boast, for the 
Maukhari records do not claim any victory over the Guptas. 
e son and successor of this king was Damodara Gupta. 
He continued the struggle with the Maukharis and fell fighting 
against them. ‘‘ Breaking up the proudly stepping array of 
mighty elephants, belonging to the Maukhari, which had 
thrown aloft in battle the troops of the Hinas (in order to 
trample them to death), he became unconscious (and expired 
in the fight).”’4 
Damodara Gupta was succeeded by his son Mahasena 
Gupta. He is the king of Malwa mentioned in the Harsha- 
charita whose sons, Kumara Gupta and Madhava Gupta, were 
appointed to wait upon Rajyavardhana and Harshavardhana 
by their father, king Prabhakaravardhana of the Pushpabhiti 
family of Srikantha (the district round Thanésar). The 
intimate relations between the family of Mahasena Gupta and 
that of Prabhakaravardhana is proved by the Madhuban 
grant and the Sonpat Copper Seal Inscription’ of Harsha 
which represent Mahasena Gupta, Devi as the mother of 
o 
1 Op. cit., p. 220. 2 Op. cit., p. 232. 3 Op. cit., p. 206. 
4 Epigraphia Indica. I, p. 67 et seq. . 
§ Fleet, C.1.I., p. 232. 
