Question

Analyse the achievement of sasanka?(in 200 word)

Answer 1

Nothing is definitely known about Sasanka's early life. Possibly he was a feudatory under the Gupta emperor. Later, taking advantage of the decline of the Gupta Empire he began to rule over Gauda independently. Sasanka established his capital at Karnasuvarna near Berhampore in the district of Murshidabad.

Sasanka, a brave warrior, included different territories of Bengal into the kingdom of Gauda, but this could not satisfy his lust for conquest of kingdoms. He then conquered Magadha, Utkal, Kangod in the district of Ganjam, etc.

He entered into a long drawn warfare with Harshavardhana of Kanauj, who, however, could not do any harm to the kingdom of Gauda during Sasanka's lifetime.

Sasanka acted first and annexed Magadha and also conquered Banaras. When the Maukharis king Prabhakarvardhana died, Devagupta of Malaya accompanied by Sasanka attacked the isolated Kanauj. Maukharis king Grahavarman was killed, the widow queen Rajashree was imprisoned and the city of Kanauj captured and plundered. Thus Gauda, Malwa became the master of Kanauj. In order to take vengeance of the murder of his brother-in-law Grahavarman and rescue his sister Rajyasri, the Thaneswar king Rajyavardhana advanced with a strong contingent and defeated Malwa king Deva Gupta, but himself waskilled by Sasanka. Thus Sasanka remained the lone master for the time being. The story regarding how Sasanka killed Rajyavardhana still provokes controversy among the scholars. The contemporary analysis’s Banabhatta and Hiuen-Tsang were the partisans of Harsha, who definitely had personal prejudices against Sasanka. Possibly Sasanka defeated Rajyavardhana in open and fair fight. But at the same time Dr. D.C. Ganguly and Dr. R.G. Basak accepted the theory of Sasanka’s treachery.