The Indian Power that Defeated the Huns : The Aulikaras

When we talk about the Indian powers that fought and defeated the Huns, it is the Guptas that come to our mind. But apart from the Guptas, we learn that the Aulikaras also played an important role in defeating the Huns. We know from the inscription of the Aulikaras that two Aulikara kings, Prakash Dharman and Yashodharman defeated the two famous Hunnic rulers. The first was Torman So because of this, I think it is important to know about who these Aulikaras were and what was their early history. Before talking about the details, it is important to know that defining the Aulikara history is an extremely difficult task. This is because there is no single uninterrupted Aulikara line. Today, most historians believe that there were at least four Aulikara dynasties. Of these four, two were ruling dynasties and two were associate dynasties. Now in this video, I will mainly focus on the ruling dynasties of the Aulikaras. Now when we look at the Aulikara inscriptions, we find that most of the Aulikara inscriptions are located in the Mandasaur region. So because of this, historians believe that the center of the Aulikara authority was the region of Mandasaur area. In the ancient times, this region or the city of Mandasaur was called Dashapura. So Dashapura was the center of the Aulikara authority. Now coming to the early history of the Aulikaras, most historians today believe that the Aulikaras originated from the Malavagana. This Malavagana was a Kshatriyagana. In the Mauryan times, the Malavagana was situated on the banks of river Ravi in the Punjab region. And around the start of 1st century AD, these Malavas moved from the region of Punjab to eastern Rajasthan. Here, their base became the region of Bharatpur. We can say this because from the same region, archaeologists have found coins which bear the legend Malavanam Jayah Malavaganasya Jayah. So it is quite evident that these Malavas had now established their authority in the Bharatpur region. Now with this establishment of the Malav authority in this area, we find that they had come in conflict with the western Kshatras. During this time, the western Kshatras controlled a large part of western India. So it was quite natural that these two powers would soon collide. In the end of 2nd century AD, we see that in the conflict between the western Kshatras and the Malavaganas, the Malavas were able to significantly increase their territory. The Malavas extended their authority southwards and they not only conquered the region up to Chittor but in central India, they were also able to make significant inroads. This was mainly because of the civil war that happened within the western Kshatra kingdom. Now we all know that in the 3rd and 4th century AD, the authority of the western Kshatras started to diminish and this allowed the Malavas to extend their foothold in central India. The region which now became the base of the Malavas was the region of western part of central India. This region would later bear their name. We know this region as Malava. So the name Malava comes from the Malavagana. It is in the same period and roughly from the same region, we have an inscription which for the first time mentions the term Aulikara. The inscription is dated to around 403 to 405 AD and it was found north of Bhopal. Now here the term Aulikara is associated with a king whose name was Naravarman. And from the same region, we have found inscriptions of other kings who probably belonged to the same dynasty as that of Naravarman. This suggests that at this time which is the period of early 5th century, the base of the Aulikaras was not the region of Mandasaur. It was the region east of Mandasaur. Although the region of Mandasaur was not the base of the Aulikaras at this time but during the reign of Naravarman, the region of Mandasaur had come under the authority of the Aulikaras. There are some scholars who argue that this region of Mandasaur was given to the Aulikaras by the Guptas because of the help which these Aulikaras provided. Now what was the help which these Aulikaras could provide to the Guptas? So if you remember your Gupta history correctly, you will know that this period of 403 to 405 AD is when Chandragupta II had launched a campaign against the Western Kshatras. So the argument is that these Aulikaras provided help to the Guptas against the Western Kshatras and in return, these Guptas gave the territory of Mandasaur to the Aulikaras. Basically, Chandragupta II gave this territory. Now it also means that the Aulikaras were at this time had become the feudatory of the Gupta Empire. Now coming back to Naravarman and his dynasty, from the inscriptions which we have, we can make this genealogical chart. And here what we see is that the last ruler of this dynasty is someone called Bandhuvarman. About Bandhuvarman, we know from an inscription that he ruled the region of Mandasaur up until 436 AD. After this, we do not know what happened to the Aulikaras and Bandhuvarman. From whatever little evidence which we have, it appears that from 436 AD to around 468 AD, this region of Central India was greatly troubled. The cause of this trouble, in my view, was a power that had threatened the Gupta Empire. We know from an inscription of Skandagupta that during the reign of Kumaragupta, the Gupta Empire was not only threatened by the Hunas, there was another power that had threatened the Gupta Empire. And in my view, this another power that had threatened the Gupta Empire was active in this region and this power had played a significant role in the downfall of this Aulikara dynasty. From the inscription of Skandagupta, we learn that Skandagupta was able to defeat this power. And what we also see is that in the region of Mandasaur, we can also see the change. Here, an inscription is found that is dated to 467-468 AD. And here, someone called Bhoomipati Prabhakar was ruling the region of Mandasaur. Bhoomipati Prabhakar claims that he is the feudatory of the Gupta Empire, which means that the Guptas were able to retake this region from this power that had threatened them. Now, what happened to the Aulikaras, we do not know. Most scholars believe that this Prabhakar was not related to the Aulikaras. So, we do not have any trace of what happened to the Aulikaras. Now, around 500 AD, we find that in the neighbouring region, a great battle was fought in which the Hunas were able to defeat the feudatory of the Guptas. With this defeat, the Huna ruler Torman was able to establish his authority in large parts of western and central India. This included the region of Mandasaur also. Sometimes later in the 6th century, we have inscriptions where two rulers are claiming that they are Aulikaras. These two rulers are Prakash Dharman and Yashodharman. They also claim that they have defeated the Hunas. So, the fact that these two rulers are claiming that they are Aulikaras suggests that most likely, these rulers belonged to the same line as that of Naravarman. So, this is what some scholars had believed earlier. But in 1983, an inscription called Risthal inscription of Prakash Dharman was found. In this inscription, Prakash Dharman claims that he had defeated the Huna ruler Torman and apart from this, he also provides us the list of his predecessors. Now, we would assume that because Prakash Dharman calls himself Aulikara, his list would be similar to the list of Naravarman's dynasty and this is what most scholars had believed. But when we look at this list of Prakash Dharman, we find that it is quite different from the list of Naravarman's dynasty which suggests that these two dynasties of the Aulikaras were different and that is why historians use the term later Aulikaras for the dynasty of Prakash Dharman and they use early Aulikaras for the dynasty of Naravarman. Now, you might be asking what was the relation between these two dynasties. The answer to this is that there is a long debate about this. But most scholars believed that these two Aulikara line belonged to the same clan as that of the Aulikaras but they were of two different families. So, this is the explanation which some scholars have provided. But we should remember that presently, we do not have exact reasoning of what was the relation between these two dynasties. Now, coming to the time of Prakash Dharman, we know from this Rishtal inscription that he had defeated the Huna ruler Torman in around 515 AD. After Prakash Dharman, we have his son whose name is Yashodharman. Yashodharman in his inscription claims that he had defeated the Huna ruler Mihirkula. Apart from this, Yashodharman also claims that he had conquered more territories than the Guptas or the Huns. This is clearly an exaggeration. But what is true is that these Aulikaras had reached their peak during the time of Yashodharman. But what is interesting about the reign of Yashodharman is that after him, we do not have any trace of the Aulikaras. We do not know what happened to the Aulikaras after the reign of Yashodharman. So, this rapid rise of Aulikaras in the reign of Yashodharman and their decline is brilliantly summed by the historian R.C. Majumdar. He writes about Yashodharman that he rose and fell like a meteor. Now if you want to know more about the Huna invasion, do watch this playlist.