A Forgotten Princess
Prabhavati Gupta, a Philosopher Queen?
I have been reading, listening and thinking about the Gupta empire a lot lately. I recently read somewhere that ‘history is not about dates, it’s about people’ and I find that this is a wonderful way to describe a very important field of study. I remember watching Ponniyin Selvan in the theatres a couple of years ago and getting absolutely enthralled, excited and engrossed by the stories of power struggle between the Cholas and the Pandyas, the people who occupied these positions of power and how their lives and their decisions affected the lives of so many others. Power always confuses me, scares me and maybe that’s why it fascinates me so much— this would explain my strange preoccupation with the life and personality of Indira Gandhi when I was in my final year, college.
I have always loved the stories of Mahabharata, which is probably the most magnificent account of one of the greatest struggles of power sharing. Even the side-stories and flashbacks are so interesting. The story of Shakuntala-Dushyanta is such a romantic love story. Arjuna is one of the most consummate, beautiful demigods ever, and I think Achilles is directly inspired from him (Homer never credited Vyasa did he?). The little poeticism in something as trivial as King Shantanu falling in love with Satyavati a fisherwoman because of her fragrance is so compelling. He used to call Satyavati “Matsyagandha” as she used to smell of fish. Can you imagine loving someone so much you even love that they smell like fish? Of course, I love the Bhagavad Gita (which is a part of the Mahabharata) that not only explains philosophical concepts related to the universe, consciousness and existence but also provides practical advice on how to live life. But at its heart, Mahabharata is a great poetic epic about the struggle for power and supremacy; after all, it is the story of a battle, probably the most devastating the world has ever seen.
I think for me “power” means the ability to influence other people’s thoughts and actions through politics, spirituality or knowledge. By that definition, everyone holds a certain amount of power in society: a teacher, a politician, a spiritual guru, an administrator or even a layperson by virtue of being in relationship with other people. I think every person has a worldview and a vision of how they want the society to be organised and what the future should look like; power merely gives them the tool to achieve that. A teacher can get a step closer to manifesting their quixotic idea of the world by shaping the thoughts of their students, a politician can do so more directly by policymaking and so can an administrator. Why I find power confusing and perhaps a little scary is because it is so very easy to get egoistic if one has power. It is very difficult to always prioritise the greater good (dharma) and the vision of an ideal society without falling into the trappings of the lower self and the little “I” that could corrupt one’s intentions.
I have always been perplexed at exactly how much does an individual with power influence the course of history. Is it correct to pin the blame of the direction a particular community, family, dynasty or clan took because of the decisions made by a few at the higher echelons of power or were the commoners colluding too? Did a layperson have any say or influence in the direction the history of a place took? Collectivist school of thought believes that it is the circumstances that create a monarch and give them decision-making powers so more often than not, the decisions of a monarch reflect the conditions and aspirations of the society and its people. However, I can’t help but feel intrigued by the personalities and individualistic traits of some of the people who acquire these seats of power and contribute substantially to the story of an empire, the fate of a civilisation. This blog shall focus on one such person specifically: Queen Prabhavati Gupta who belonged to one of the greatest empires of India, the Gupta empire.
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Refer to this, this and this as the sources from which I derive the content of this blog. Nicknamed “the Philosopher Queen” by a few historians (a reference to Plato’s concept of ‘philosopher king’), Prabhavati was the daughter of a Naga queen and a Gupta king. She got married below her status to ensure amity between the Gupta empire and the Vakataka kingdom and after the death of her husband King Rudrasena II, she ruled over the Vakataka kingdom directly for at least fifteen years as her son was too young to take power. Even after the crown prince Divakarasena reached his sixteenth year, she did not relinquish power and there is no sign of him getting the title of ‘Maharaja’. Her continued political and administrative dominance was perhaps simply due to Prabhavati Gupta’s love for power. She even groomed her own daughter to marry her step-uncle Ghatotkacha to ensure that the Vakataka reign remains with the Guptas but her plans never came to fruition as Ghatotkacha’s nephew Skandagupta eliminated him, which re-established hostilities between the Vakatakas and the Guptas.
Prabhavati was the most powerful person of the time (390– 410 CE) as she also made substantial land grants— a power that was strictly limited to the emperor. She was a great queen, an intelligent, shrewd woman and a master at statecraft who took the Vakataka empire to its zenith. A fascinating trivia about her is that Prabhavati retained her maiden surname and issued seals under the name “Prabhavati Gupta” and not in her husband’s name “Prabhavati Sena”. Additionally, while she assigned the title “Maharaja” to her late husband Rudrasena II, she ensured that her father, Chandragupta II, was referred to as “Maharaja Adhiraja”, the king of all kings. After her marriage to Rudrasena II, she was accompanied by one of the greatest poets of ancient India to Nagardhan fort: Mahakavi Kalidasa was a part of her royal entourage. An interesting fact is that because Prabhavati was so engaged in administration of the empire— not only consolidating but also expanding the power— her children were brought up by Kalidasa. He cultivated in them a love for literature and supervised their education which explains why Pravarasena would go on to compose a version of Ramayana in Prakrit language.
On the powers that the queen enjoyed, archaeologist Virag Sontakke says, “Despite getting married into a Shaivite family, queen Prabhavatigupta was so powerful that she had the freedom to choose and worship a deity of her choice, in this case, Lord Vishnu. This is rare for those times. Besides, she also propagated Vaishnav practices and beliefs in Nagardhan.”
Some pictures of Pravarasena’s beautiful palace based on brick architecture at Pravarapura, Mansar fort (Pravarasena was Prabhavati’s successor):
