AULIKARAS OF DASAPURA.
The Aulikaras were the rulers of western Malwa (the northwest of Central India). They were an ancient India’s tribal clan from the Maurya period. They emerged as rulers between the 4th-century CE and 6th-century CE. in the Malwa region of central India near mandsaur, Western Madhya Pradesh, Southeastern Rajasthan and Northeastern Gujarat. Two royal houses belonging to this clan ruled over the present-day Western Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh state as feudatories of the Gupta Empire, from c. 350 CE to 550 CE.
The inscriptions of Aulikaras provide evidences that they were Hindus who has built several Shiva, Surya and Vishnu temples, as well as Buddhist monasteries, in western Madhya Pradesh and east Rajasthan.
There are two royal families lineage of
Aulikaras.
The first royal house, which ruled from Dashapura comprised the following kings: Jayavarma, Simhavarma, Naravarma, Vishvavarma and Bandhuvarma. Another royal house, comprised of following kings in the order of succession: Drumavardhana, Jayavardhana, Ajitavardhana, Vibhishanavardhana, Rajyavardhana and Prakashadharma, who defeated Toramana and Yashodharman son and successor of Prakashadharma also belonged to this house This was king Yashodharma, who had defeated Mihirakula and freed the Malwa region from the Hunas.
Inscription number 28.
Mandasor Stone Inscription of the Time of Naravarman. -Malava (Vikrama) year 461 (= 404 A.D.)
Historian D. C. Sircar assumed them as a clan of the Malavas. This clan settled in the Dasheraka region (present-day western Malwa) in the course of their migration from the North-West.
Earliest information regarding the first royal house is known from two inscriptions of Naravarma, the Mandsaur inscription dated Malava Samvat 461 (404 CE) and the Bihar Kotra inscription dated Malava Samvat 474 (417 CE). The founder of this house is Jayavarma. He was succeeded by his son, Simhavarma, who is mentioned as a Kshitisha. His son and successor Naravarma is mentioned as a Parthiva. ( Maharaja)
Naravarma was succeeded by his son Vishvavarma, who is mentioned in the Gangadhar Stone Inscription, which records construction of a Matrika temple by his minister Mayurakshaka. Mayurakshaka also constructed a temple dedicated to Vishnu. Vishvavarma was succeeded by his son Bandhuvarma. He was a feudatory of the Gupta emperor Kumaragupta 1. It was during his reign, a temple dedicated to Surya was constructed by the guild of silk-weavers at Dashapura in the Malava Samvat 493 (436 CE).
The temple was renovated in 473 CE by the same guild.
Most probably the Kalachuris succeeded the Aulikaras, as the Kalchuri kings Krishnaraja and his son Shankaragana are found ruling over the same region immediately after the Aulikaras. The Maitrakas too may have been successors of the Aulikaras
Footnote-1
1. Father of Isvavarman (infra, III . 30 )and grand-father of Bandhuvarman (supra,II,23, Pl.14-15) .
2. Krita or Krita was an early name of the vikrama era ( See Badva stone Pillar (Yupa) Inscription of the
Maukharis, Krita year 295 (=238 A.D.) (see Supra II, 81)
Provenance: A hamlet on the bank of the siwana, near Mandasor (ancient Dasapura), Madhya Pradesh.
Script: Brahmi, Central Indian variety of the Southern Class.
Language: Sanskrit.
Metre: vv.1-13 अनुष्टुब
References: Haraprasad shastri, Ep.Ind. XII, pp.315-21, D.C. Sircar, sel.Inss.. I, pp-397-98.
Footnote-2.
1. From the facsimile in Ep.Ind., XII, facing pp.320.
2. The concept of thousand headed Purusha is found in the Purusha sukta of the Rigveda (X.90) and the Atharvaveda (XIX.6). Here he is identified with vishnu. Note
that a small gap is left at the end of each half verse by way of punctuation
3. आम्नात = handed down.
Footnote-3.
1. Read आश्चिन अश्वोज
is the Prakrit form of Sanskrit आश्वयुज or अश्वयुज = आश्विन
2. Sircar rejects the identification by Sastri of this Simhavarman with the father of Chandravarman of
Susunia inscription. Some scholars conjecture that Naravarman was a feudatory of Simhavikranta or
Simhavikrame, i.e. Chandragupta II.
3. Shastri: ज्ज There is an unnecessary projection below ज
4. Shastri: स्त्रावम् The concept, that the gods, the goddesses and the entire world are part of Krishna’s body has obviously been taken from the Gita.
Here it has been treated in the novel imagery of a malarupaka.
English Translation of the inscription.
L1.1-5 Success ! Salutation to that Purusha with thousand heads
and immeasurable soul, who sleeps on the waters of the four oceans as on a bedstead.
on the arrival of the auspicious year, four hundred increased by sixty one of the celebrated (era) named
Krita and handed down by the illustrious Malava tribe
on the approach of the auspicious rainy season, which delights the minds of men, When there commenced the
festival of sakkra, approved of yore by krishna, and the earth, garlanded by corn, shines with lustre to an
increased degree, being adorned by kasa lovers and standing crops of paddy and Fodder.
On the auspicious fifth day of the waxing moon, in the month of Asvina,
in this delightful and auspicious time while the illustrious Maharaja Naravarman, the ruler of the earth, powerful like the king of gods, and with
gait as overpowering as that of a lion, whose desires were increasingly fulfilled owing to the repeated accumulation of merit in the past (births) and who was the virtuous son of simhavarman and the
grandson of king Jayavarman was governing the world
L.5-10: With the object of exemplifying the merit of that administrations satya, the virtuous son of Vanavriddhi, the virtuous grandson of Jayas the
virtuous son of Jayamitra, the daughter of Balasura, bestirring himself for the acquisition of merit, his
mind being forcibly drawn to (such a course) oeing to the habit acquired in previous existences whose
efforts were intensified by the weight of fame and merits who honoured Friends, servitors and those in
distress, who was as the moon in his own family,
whose wealth and even life was made over to the gods and the Brahmanas, who was endowed with great
compassion, who acquired his great wealth by lawful means and who finding this world of the living to be transitory like the water of the mirage, like a dream, like the lightening and the flame of the lamp, took refuge in Vasudeva, the granter of
protection, the habitat of the creation, the
immeasurable, the birthless, all pervading, who (like a tree) gives heaven as its noble fruit.
whose charming young shoots are the celestia damsels, whose many branches are the heavenly
cars, who drops honey (in the shape) of rain from the clouds– –.
(1. Better read सात्कृता: or सडन्गता:)
Inscription number 29..
Bihar kotra stone Inscription of the time of Naravarman.
Malava (Vikram) year 474 ( = 417 A.D.)
Provenance: Bihar-Kotra, Raygarh District M.P.
Script: Late Brahmi of the Southern class.
Language: Sanskrit
References S.N. Chakravarti, Ep.Ind. XXVI, pp.130 ff.
D.C. Sircar, sel, Inss., I, pp.399.
English Translation of the inscription.
Success ! On the second day of the bright fortnight of (the month of) sravana, in the year four hundred and
seventy four (in the reign) of sri Maharaja Naravarman (of the) Aulikara (dynasty), this watering hole was caused to be dug for the beneflt of the congregation of monks,
coming from all the four quarters by Virasena, the noble son
of Bhattimahara. May it quench the thirst of all creatures.
1
From the facsimile in Ep.Ind., XXVI.