seems to have died out, and their place was taken by the foreign dynasty
of the Kshaharatas, the Saka satraps of Surashtra (Kathiawar), who in
120 had mastered Ujjain and Gujarat and had built up a rival kingdom to
the north. Since about A.D. 40 the coast cities had been much enriched
by trade with the Roman empire, which both the Satavahanas and the
satraps did much to encourage; but after the fall of Palmyra (273) and
the extinction of the main Kshaharata dynasty (c. 300) this commerce
fell into decay. The history of the century and a half that follows is
very obscure; short-lived Saka dynasties succeeded one another until,
about 388, the country was conquered by the Guptas of Magadha, who kept
a precarious tenure of it till about 470, when their empire was
destroyed by the White Huns, or Ephthalites (q.v.), who, after
breaking the power of Persia and assailing the Kushan kingdom of Kabul,
poured into India, conquered Sind, and established their dominion as far
south as the Nerbudda.
Under the Hun tyranny, which lasted till the overthrow of the White Huns
on the Oxus by the Turks (c. 565), native dynasties had survived, or new
ones had established themselves. In Kathiawar a chief named Bhatarka,
probably of foreign origin, had established himself at Valabhi (Wala) on
the ruins of the Gupta power (c. 500), and founded a dynasty which
lasted until it was overthrown by Arab invaders from Sind in 770.[1] The
northern Konkan was held by the Mauryas of Puri near Bombay, the
southerly coast by the Kadambas of Vanavasi, while in the southern
Deccan Chalukyas and Rashtrakutas struggled for the mastery. A new
power, too, appeared from the north: the Gurjaras (ancestors, it is
supposed, of the Gujar caste), who had probably entered India with the
White Huns, established their power over Gujarat and (c. 600) overran
north-eastern Kathiawar, made the raja of Valabhi their tributary, and
established a branch at Broach (585-740). During the short-lived empire
of Harsha (d. 647 or 648), Malwa, Gujarat and Kathiawar were subject to
his sway; but the southern boundary of his kingdom was the Nerbudda,
south of which the Chalukyas in the 7th century, having overcome the
Rashtrakutas and other rivals, had absorbed the smaller kingdoms into
their empire. In 710-711 (92 A.H.) the Arabs invaded India, and in 712
conquered and established themselves in Sind; they did not, however,
attempt any serious attack on the Gurjara and Chalukya empires,
confining themselves to more or less serious raids. In 770 they
destroyed the city of Valabhi and, as already mentioned, brought its
dynasty to an end. Meanwhile the Chalukyas, after successfully
struggling with the Pallavas (whose capital was taken by Vikramaditya
II., c. 740), had in their turn succumbed to their ancient rivals the
Rashtrakutas, who succeeded to the bulk of their dominions, including
Gujarat, where they had set up a branch line. For some two centuries (c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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