Prabhakaravardhana (also known as Prabhakara Vardhana) was a king of

Thanesar Thanesar city or old Kurukshetra city is a historic town and an important Hindu pilgrimage sites, Hindu pilgrimage centre in Kurukshetra district of the States and territories of India, state of Haryana in North India, northern India. It is loca ...

in northern India around the time of the decline of the

Gupta Empire The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gol ...

. According to the historian R. C. Majumdar, he was the first notable king of the

Vardhana dynasty The Pushyabhuti dynasty (IAST: Puṣyabhūti), also known as the Vardhana dynasty ruled in northern India during 6th and 7th centuries. The dynasty reached its zenith under its last ruler Harsha Vardhana (c. 590–647 CE), and the Empire of Hars ...

but the fourth ruler from the family, who are also referred to as the Pushpabhutis. He had been preceded by his father,

Adityavardhana Adityavardhana was a king of Thanesar in northern India around the time of the decline of the Gupta Empire. He was the third ruler of the Pushyabhuti dynasty, and father of Prabhakaravardhana. Adityavardhana's father was Rajyavardhana I and his gra ...

, grandfather Rajyavardhana I and great-grandfather, Naravardhana, but inscriptions suggest that Banabhatta, the seventh-century bard and chronicler of the Vardhanas, may have been wrong to call these earlier rulers kings and that they may instead have been mere feudatory rulers of minor significance. Prabhakaravardhana's father, Adityavardhana, had formed an alliance with Mahasenagupta of

Magadha Magadha was a region and one of the sixteen sa, script=Latn, Mahajanapadas, label=none, lit=Great Kingdoms of the Second Urbanization (600–200 BCE) in what is now south Bihar (before expansion) at the eastern Ganges Plain. Magadha was ruled ...

against the

Maukhari The Maukhari dynasty (Gupta script: , ''Mau-kha-ri'') was a post-Gupta dynasty who controlled the vast plains of Ganga-Yamuna for over six generations from their capital at Kannauj. They earlier served as vassals of the Guptas and later of Harsha ...

dynasty. He was married to Mahasenagupta, who was probably the sister of this Gupta king who bore the same name. Through these arrangements he had much enlarged the family's estates. It is because of this territorial expansion that, while Adityavardhana bore the title of ''

maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, an ...

'', his son was able to use the higher rank of ''maharajadhiraja''. In turn, Prabhakaravardhana further extended Vardhana control, using aggressive tactics that resulted in him probably ruling over the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

and part of

Malwa Malwa is a historical region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic upland north of the Vindhya Range. Politically and administratively, it is also syno ...

. Aside from defeating rulers in

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

Gandhara Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...

and

Sind Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

, he also resisted the invasion of the

Hunas Hunas or Huna (Middle Brahmi script: ''Hūṇā'') was the name given by the ancient Indians to a group of Central Asian tribes who, via the Khyber Pass, entered the Indian subcontinent at the end of the 5th or early 6th century. The Huna Kin ...

, as reported by the 7th century writer

Bāṇabhaṭṭa Bāṇabhaṭṭa ( sa, बाणभट्ट) was a 7th-century Sanskrit prose writer and poet of India. He was the ''Asthana Kavi'' in the court of the emperor Harsha, who reigned c. 606–647 CE in north India, first from Sthanvishvara (Than ...

.The Cambridge Shorter History of Indi
p.105
/ref> The date of death of Prabhakaravardhana is variously stated: according to Majumdar, it was in 604 CE but some sources, such as the military historian Kaushik Roy, say 606 CE, and others state 605. He was married to

Yasomati Yasomati (died 604 or 605 or 606 CE) was an ancient Indian queen as the chief wife of King Prabhakaravardhana of Thanesar. Name Yasomati is also known as Yasovati, and as Yasomati Devi ("devi" meaning 'goddess'). Since the "s" in the common Eng ...

, who became ''

sati Sati or SATI may refer to: Entertainment * ''Sati'' (film), a 1989 Bengali film by Aparna Sen and starring Shabana Azmi * ''Sati'' (novel), a 1990 novel by Christopher Pike *Sati (singer) (born 1976), Lithuanian singer *Sati, a character in ''Th ...

''. Prabhakaravardhana and Yasomati had three children. Their eldest son,

Rajyavardhana Rajyavardhana, also known as Rajya Vardhan, was the eldest son of Prabhakarvardhana and member of the Pushyabhuti dynasty. He ascended the throne after his father's death and was succeeded by his younger brother, Harsha. Contemporary information ...

, succeeded to the throne and was in turn succeeded by the younger son,

Harsha Harshavardhana ( IAST Harṣa-vardhana; c. 590–647 CE) was a Pushyabhuti emperor who ruled northern India from 606 to 647 CE. He was the son of Prabhakaravardhana who had defeated the Alchon Huna invaders, and the younger brother of Rajyav ...

; their daughter, Rajyashri, married

Grahavarman Grahavarman was a king of Kannauj around the early seventh-century CE. He came from the Maukhari dynasty and succeeded his father, Avantivarman. Grahavarman married Rajyashri, the daughter of the ruler of Thanesar, Prabhakar Vardhana. The marria ...

of the Maukhari dynasty that ruled

Kannauj Kannauj ( Hindustani pronunciation: ənːɔːd͡ʒ is a city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city's name is a corrupted form of the class ...

References

Notes Citations Bibliography * * * * * * * {{refend 6th-century Indian monarchs 7th-century Indian monarchs Pushyabhuti dynasty

See also

References