page_title: Samudragupta
section_title: Frontier kings and tribes
hierarchical_section_title: Samudragupta / Military career / Frontier kings and tribes
caption_attribution_description: English: Samudra Gandhara coin, Punjabi mint Circa CE 350-375
context_page_description: Samudragupta was a ruler of the Gupta Empire of Ancient India. As a son of the Gupta emperor Chandragupta I and the Licchavi princess Kumaradevi, he greatly expanded his dynasty's political power.
  The Allahabad Pillar inscription, a prashasti composed by his courtier Harishena, credits him with extensive military conquests. It suggests that he defeated several kings of northern India, and annexed their territories to his empire. He also marched along the south-eastern coast of India, advancing as far as the Pallava kingdom. In addition, he subjugated several frontier kingdoms and tribal oligarchies. His empire extended from Ravi River in the west to the Brahmaputra River in the east, and from the Himalayan foothills in the north to central India in the south-west; several rulers along the south-eastern coast were his tributaries.
  Samudragupta performed the Ashvamedha sacrifice to prove his imperial sovereignty, and according to his coins, remained undefeated. His gold coins and inscriptions suggest that he was an accomplished poet, and also played music. His expansionist policy was continued by his son Chandragupta II.
context_section_description: The Allahabad Pillar inscription mentions that rulers of several frontier kingdoms and tribal oligarchies paid Samudragupta tributes, obeyed his orders, and performed obeisance before him. The inscription explicitly describes the five kingdoms as frontier territories: the areas controlled by the tribes were also probably located at the frontier of Samudrgupta's kingdom.
  Historian Upinder Singh theorizes that the relationship of these frontier rulers to the Gupta emperor had "certain elements of a feudatory relationship". According to historian R. C. Majumdar, it is likely that Samudragupta's conquests in Aryavarta and Dakshinapatha increased his reputation to such an extent that the frontier rulers and tribes submitted him without a fight.
  The frontier kingdoms included:
  Samatata, located in the present-day Bengal.
  Davaka, located in present-day Assam.
  Kamarupa, located in present-day Assam.
  Nepala, located in present-day Nepal. According to one theory, Nepala here refers to the Licchavi kingdom, whose rulers may have been the maternal relatives of Samudragupta.
  Karttripura, probably located in the present-day Uttarakhand: the inscription appears to name frontier kingdoms in  geographical order proceeding from Bengal to Assam to Nepal; Uttarakhand would be next in the sequence. A now-obsolete theory identified Karttripura with Kartarpur in present-day Punjab, but Kartarpur was established much later, in the 16th century, by Guru Arjan.
  The tribal oligarchies included:
  Malavas: During Samudragupta's period, they were probably headquartered at Karkota-nagara (present-day Nagar Fort in Rajasthan), where several thousands of their coins have been discovered.
  Arjunayanas: Their coins have been found in the Mathura region. According to numismatist John Allan, the Arjunayanas resided in the triangle connecting the present-day Delhi, Jaipur and Agra.
  Yaudheyas: They ruled the area between the Sutlej and the Yamuna rivers after the Kushans. They seem to have become Samudragupta's tributaries.
  Madrakas: They are generally placed between the Ravi and the Chenab rivers.
  Abhiras: Epigraphic and literary evidence suggests that they ruled in western India during Samudragupta's period.
  Sanakanikas: They appear to have ruled the region around Udayagiri in present-day Madhya Pradesh. An inscription found at Udayagiri refers to a Sanakanika chief as a feudatory of Chandragupta II: this chief and his two predecessors are described as "Maharajas", which suggests that Samudragupta allowed the Sanakanika chiefs to rule as his governors after conquering their territory.
  Kakas: They may have been the rulers of the area around the Sanchi hill, which has been mentioned as Kakanada in ancient inscriptions.
  Prarjunas They may be identified as the Prarjunakas mentioned in the Arthashastra, but their location is uncertain. Various theories place them in central India, including around the present-day Narsinghpur or Narsinghgarh in Madhya Pradesh.
  Kharaparikas: They may be same as the "Kharaparas" (literally "thief" or "rogue") mentioned in a 14th-century stone inscription found at Batiyagarh (or Battisgarh) in Damoh district. These Kharaparas are variously identified as an indigenous tribe or freebooters of this region.
  Some later sources suggest that the Kharaparas were a foreign tribe (possibly Mongols), and the Dingal-language texts use the word "Kharapara" as a synonym for "Muslim", but such an identification is not applicable to Samudragupta's period.
  There is also some speculation about the Kharaparikas being same as the Gardabhilas mentioned in the Puranas, as the words "Khara" and "Gardabha" both mean "donkey" in Sanskrit. However, very little is known about the Gardabhilas from historical sources.
caption: Coin minted in the Punjab area with the name "Samudra" (Gupta ashoka s.svgGupta allahabad mu.jpgGupta allahabad dr.jpg Sa-mu-dra), derived from the style of late Kushan Empire coinage. These atypical coins follow the fall of the last Kushan ruler Kipunada, and just precede the coinage of the first Kidarite Huns in northwestern India. Circa CE 350–375.[64][65]
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