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Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...
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The Vasishtha (
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...
: Vāsiṣṭha) dynasty ruled in the
Kalinga Kalinga may refer to:
Geography, linguistics and/or ethnology
* Kalinga (historical region), a historical region of India
** Kalinga (Mahabharata), an apocryphal kingdom mentioned in classical Indian literature
** Kalinga script, an ancient writ ...
region of eastern India in the fifth century CE. Their territory included parts of the present-day northern
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
. They were one of the three minor dynasties that emerged after the decline of the
Gupta
Gupta () is a common surname or last name of Indian origin. It is based on the Sanskrit word गोप्तृ ''goptṛ'', which means 'guardian' or 'protector'. According to historian R. C. Majumdar, the surname ''Gupta'' was adopted by se ...
power in the area, the other two being the
Matharas and the
Pitrbhaktas.
Genealogy
The Vasishtha king Anantavarman is known from his Siripuram and
Srungavarapukota
Srungavarapukota popularly known by its abbreviated form S.Kota is a neighbourhood in the district of Vizianagaram, India. S.Kota is located on Visakhapatnam – Araku road.
The town was upgraded from gram panchayat to Nagar Panchayat in the ye ...
copper-plate inscriptions. These epigraphs describe him as a son 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 ...
Prabhanjanavarman, and a grandson of Maharaja Gunavarman.
Thus, three rulers of the dynasty are known:
* ''Maharaja'' Gunavarman
* ''Maharaja'' Prabhanjanavarman
* ''Parameshvara'' Anantavarman
Territory
The Siripuram and Srungavarapukota inscriptions of Anantavarman were issued from Devapura and
Pishtapura respectively. In Siripuram inscription, his grandfather Gunavarman is described as the lord of Devapura. The city was presumably the capital of a region called Devarashtra (within Kalinga), which Anantavarman inherited from his ancestors. Devarashtra is identified as the present-day
Yelamanchili
Elamanchili is a town in Anakapalli district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipality and also the mandal headquarters of Elamanchili mandal. The town is spread over an area of , which is under the jurisdiction of Visakhapatnam ...
taluka
A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...
.
According to the
Allahabad Pillar inscription, the
Gupta
Gupta () is a common surname or last name of Indian origin. It is based on the Sanskrit word गोप्तृ ''goptṛ'', which means 'guardian' or 'protector'. According to historian R. C. Majumdar, the surname ''Gupta'' was adopted by se ...
emperor
Samudragupta
Samudragupta (Gupta script: ''Sa-mu-dra-gu-pta'', (c. 335–375 CE) was the second emperor of the Gupta Empire of ancient India, and is regarded among the greatest rulers of the dynasty. As a son of the Gupta emperor Chandragupta I and the Li ...
defeated the kings of Devarashtra and Pishtapura during his southern invasion. It appears that Gunavarman became a sovereign of Devarashtra after the decline of the Gupta rule in the region.
Religion
Unlike the
Vaishnavite
Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...
Matharas, Anantavarman was a
Shaivite
Shaivism (; sa, शैवसम्प्रदायः, Śaivasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the Supreme Being. One of the largest Hindu denominations, it incorporates many sub-traditions rangin ...
. His inscriptions describe him as ''parama-maheshvara'' (devotee of Shiva).
Inscriptions
The following copper-plate inscriptions of the Vasishtha kings are known:
All the records are in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
language, written in a southern variety of the
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' o ...
.
References
Bibliography
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*
{{ref end
External links
Vasishtha inscriptions
Dynasties of India
Kalinga (India)