काव्यमीमांसा (महाकवि राजशेखर - कवि-रहस्य एवं देश-विभाग सटीक)

NINTH ADHYĀYA 193 contracted a humiliating treaty when he was attacked and defeated by a S'aka invader. By this treaty he was compelled to surrender his crowned queen Dhruvadevi. When the king consented to sacrifice his queen in order to save himself and his subjects, Chan- dragupta his younger brother to save the honour of his family volunteered to go to the enemies' camp under the guise of queen Dhruvadevī and killed the S'aka king. For further information refer to the Nāṭyadarpaṇa; pp. 223–253, of the Journal of the B. O. R. S. 1928 and the Journal Asiatique for Octo.–Dec. 1923. In the verse quoted by Rājaśekhara, however, the king is named as S'rīśarmagupta or S'rīsenagupta and the invading king is reported as Khasādhipati instead of S'rīrāmagupta and S'akādhipati respectively. On the strength of the evidences adduced above the readings as खस and शर्मगुप्त here may be taken as scribe's errors for शक and रामगुप्त respectively which seem to be the correct names. It is also suggested in the above mentioned journals on the evidence of the Devīcandragupta, Sañjan copper-plates, and some coins of Candragupta and Dhruvadevī, that Candragupta II must have married Dhruvadevī the queen of his brother Rāmagupta after killing him. But the verse quoted by Rājaśekhara, however, has no direct connection with the incident referred to above. But this verse certainly makes valuable contribution to the controversy regarding Rāmagupta's history by clearing two points: namely, the identification of the particular S'aka king who invaded Rāmagupta's territory and the identification of Candragupta. The words खसाधिपति, यस्मात् and तस्मिन्नेव हिमालये in this verse undoubtedly show that खस king as spelt in the Mss of the Kāvyamīmāṁsā may be better identified with one of the Kuṣāṇa kings of the Western Punjab and not with the S'aka Kṣatrapas either of Mathura or Malwa and that the war between the खस king and Rāmagupta or S'armagupta took place exactly in the portion of the Himālayas lying between the two kingdoms. In this case the word शक in the Harṣacarita and Devīcandragupta may be taken to denote the खस or Kuṣāṇa king as the term शक is often loosely used to denote even the non-S'aka foreign tribes. The word कार्तिकेय also in this verse may refer to Skanda- gupta of the Gupta dynasty who is addressed in this verse and is २५