Western Vakatakas: The Creators of Ajanta (3rd CE - 6th CE)

‘Washim’ is a name that few Indians have heard of. Located around 215 km east of Aurangabad city, in Washim district of Maharashtra, it is like any other Indian town with haphazard constructions, bazaars and traffic. So it is hard to imagine that more than 1,600 years ago, this was the fabled city of Vatsagulma, capital of one of the richest kingdoms in India of its time, the Western Vakatakas. And yet, the Western Vakatakas, one of ancient India’s most important dynasties, would have been forgotten had it not been for their greatest construction – the Ajanta Caves. Lakhs of tourists and pilgrims from around the world visit these caves each year. But few know of the Western Vakataka dynasty without whose patronage this marvel of Indian art would not have been built. What is even more interesting is that the Vakataka kings were Hindu Shaivites and yet endowed the most magnificent Buddhist caves complex ever built in India. The story of the Vakatakas begins far from the lands they would rule, in the region of Bundelkhand, which straddles parts of present-day Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Historian A M Shastri in his book The Age of the Vakatakas (1992) identifies their origin with the village of Nachna or Nachna-kl-talai in Panna District of Madhya Pradesh. The founder of the dynasty was a ruler named ‘Vindhyashakti’. Some time around the middle of the 4th century, when Gupta Emperor, Samudragupta, established his rule over Bundelkhand, a section of the Vakataka army and nobility, under King Rudrasena I, travelled down the Dakshinapatha and established their capital in Nandivardhana (40 km north-east of present-day Nagpur city), and founded the Eastern Vakataka dynasty. Meanwhile, Sarvasena I, grandson of the dynasty’s founder Vindhyashakti I, established his own kingdom in Vatsagulma (Washim), south-west of Nandivardhana and 215 east of Aurangabad city, on what is today called the ‘Ajanta Plateau’. His descendants were known as the ‘Western Vakatakas’. The Wardha River served as the border between the two kingdoms. Tale of Two Kingdoms Historically, the Wardha River was always considered the dividing line between the two regions of Vidarbha. The area to the east of the river was the ‘Jungle Prant’ known for its thick forests and tribes, while the west was what was then considered a ‘civilized’ area, noted for its rich black soil, thriving cities and trade routes. This demarcation would continue till as late as the mid 18th century, when the Maratha rulers of the Bhonsle dynasty made Nagpur (in the heart of Jungle Prant) their capital and encouraged settlers to cut forests and ‘civilise’ the area. This regional difference was reflected in the kingdoms of the Eastern and Western Vakatakas. Noted historian Hans Bakker in his book The Vakatakas (1997) writes extensively about the marked difference between the two kingdoms, which can be seen in epigraphical evidence. While the inscriptions of the Eastern Vakataka dynasty speak of kings who are praised for their upright, reliable and solid rule and were considered ‘the paragons of the dharma’, the inscriptions of their relatives - the Western Vakataka dynasty - tell a very different story. The Western Vakataka inscriptions refer to a world of courtiers, in which ministers took over the day-to-day worries of governance in order to allow the king to become 'free from care' so that he could engage 'himself in the enjoyment of pleasures, acting as he liked'. While the Eastern Vakatakas were compared to ‘righteous Yudhistira’ , the Western Vakataka kings were compared to gods like ‘Indra, Rama and Hara (Shiva)’. The Western Vakataka Court was a world of sensuous pleasures and sophisticated refinement. ...