Sharvavarman (

Brahmi script Brahmi (; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' ...

: 𑀰𑀭𑁆𑀯𑁆𑀯𑀯𑀭𑁆𑀫𑁆𑀫𑀸 , Gupta script: Sharvavarman in the Asirgarh seal

''Śa-rvva-va-rmmā'', complete form: ''Śarvavarman Indra Bhattarika'') was a ruler of the

Maukhari dynasty 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 ...

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 ...

. He ruled circa 560-575 CE and had the title of " Mahārājādhirāja", "King of Kings" i.e. "Emperor". Shavavarman may have been the greatest of the Maukhari emperors, invading

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 ...

circa 575 CE and defeating the Later Guptas kings Damodaragupta and Mahasenagupta, which made him ruler of the entire

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

Asirgarh and Nalanda seals

Shavavarman was the son of

Ishanavarman Iśanavarman ( Gupta script: , ''Ī-śā-na-va-rmmā'') was the first independent Maukhari ruler of Kannauj. He was a very powerful king, and adopted the title of ''Maharajadhiraja''. Early life Ishanavarman was the son of the powerful Maukhari ...

. He and the chronology of his family are rather well known, because of a copper seal he created: the

Asirgarh Asirgarh Fort is an Indian fortress ''(qila)'' situated in the Satpura Range about north of the city of Burhanpur, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Because the fortress commands a pass through the Satpuras connecting the valleys of the ...

seal. The seal reads: Several other nearly identical seals of Sharvavarman were also discovered in Nalanda. The content of the seals is identical, but small variations indicate that they come from different molds.

Reign

King Khosrow sits before the chessboard, while his vizir and the envoy of Qannuj are playing chess

Sharvarman was an important rival of the Late Guptas king Mahasenagupta (r. c. 562-601 CE) during the period 575-585 CE. With the end of Hunnic power in India, new contacts were established between India and the Sasanian Empire. Intellectual games such as

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

and

backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...

demonstrated and celebrated the diplomatic relationship between Khosrow I and a "great king of India." The

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...

of the Indian king invented chess as a cheerful, playful challenge to King Khosrow. It seems that the Indian ruler who sent the game of chess to Khosrow may have been Śarvavarman, between the beginning of Śarvavarman's reign in 560/565 and the end of Khosrow's reign in 579, When the game was sent to Iran it came with a letter which read: "As your name is the King of Kings, all your emperorship over us connotes that your wise men should be wiser than ours. Either you send us an explanation of this game of chess or send revenue and tribute us."Canepa 2009, p. 181 Khosrow's grand vizier successfully solved the riddle and figured out how to play chess. In response the wise vizier created the game backgammon and sent it to the Indian court with the same message. The Indian king was not able to solve the riddle and was forced to pay tribute. Sharvavarman was succeeded by his son Avantivarman, as indicated by the "Sohanag seal of Avantivarman".

References

Works

Modern works

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ishanavarman 6th-century Indian monarchs