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            The Later Guptas Post-Cupta Kingdoms in North India

            From around the middle of sixth century A.D. till about 675 A.D. the kings who ruled Magadha were known as Magadha Guptas or Later Guptas. However, it is not clear what connection they had with the Imperial Guptas of the earlier period.

The Aphsad inscription from Gaya gives the names of 8 Gupta Monarchs:

            (I) Krishnagupta
            (2) Harshagupta
            (3) Jivitagupta
            (4) Kumaragupta
            (5) Damodaragupta
            (6) Mahasenagupta
            (7) Madhavagupta and
            (8) Adityasena

            The Later Guptas entered into matrimonial alliances with other contemporary ruling families. For example. Harshagupta married his sister to a Maukhari king. Throughout this period the Later Giiptas remained engaged in battle with one enemy or the other. For esample, Harshagupta had to fight the tlunas; his son Jivitagupta tough1 against Lichchhavis of Nepal and Gaudas of Bengal: and Jivit~lgupta's wccessor king Kumaragupta defeated Maukhari King Isanarvarman.

            The next king Damodaragupta, son of Kumaragupta, was defeated and killed by Maukhari king Sarvavarman and lost a portion of Magadha. For some time the successors of Damodaragupta retreated to Malwa because of the Maukharis but they again established their supremacy in Magadha.
Their most powerful ruler was Adityasena, who ruled in Magadha in 672 A.D., a date which seems to occur in one of his inscriptions. The Later Gupta power survived the empire of Harshavardhana and Adityasena signalised his accession to power by the performance of a horse sacrifice. According to the Aphsad inscription, his empire included Magadha, Anga and Bengal. It is just possible that his kingdom included a portion of eastern Uttar Pradesh. He was a Parama-Bhagavata and got a temple of Vishnu constructed. The Later Gupta line came to an end with the expansion of the power of the Gaudas of Bengal westward. But the Gaudas themselves were subdued by Yasovarman of Kanauj. Besides the abovementioned dynastic powers the other important states that emerged in the
post-Gupta period were those of the:
.* Maitras of Valabhi in Gujarat Gurjaras in Rajputana and Gujarat Gaudas in Bengal
Varmans in Kamrup (Assam) Mana and Sailodbhava families in Orissa.

            The Maitraka kings of Valabhi had initially been under the overlordship of the Imperial Guptas and they gradually established their own supremacy. The founder of the Gurjara kingdom was Harichandra whose three successors ruled till about 640 A..D. Gauda. the region of north and north-west of Bengal was ruled by Sasanka, a contemporary and archrival of Harshavardhana, as an independent kingdom in the early seventh century A.D. The
Prayagaprasasti recording the achievements of the Gupta ruler Samudragupta refers to two kingdoms in Assam : Kamarupa and Davaka. Kamarupa became an important political
region in north-eastem India from the middle of the fourth century A.D. Pushyavarman
probably founded, around this date, the first historical royal family of Assam. This family ruled for twelve generations till the time of Bhaskaravarman who was a contemporary and an ally of Harshavardhana of Kanauj and ruled in the first half of the seventh century A.D. Although there is evidence that some local rulers of Orissa owed allegiance to Imperial Gupta rulers towards the end of Gupta rule, two autonomous kingdoms emerged in Orissa in the second half of the sixth century A.D. One was the Mana kingdom which extended from Balasore to Puri district and the other was the kingdom of the Sailodbhavas of Kongoda, which extended from hilkala ke to Mahendragiri mountains in Ganjam district. Both kingdoms suffered setbacks because of the rise of Sasanka of Bengal and Harshavardhana of Kanauj.