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
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