Maitrakas

Abstract

The Maitraka dynasty was one of the royal lines which gained strength in the western part of North India in the period from the sixth to the eighth centuries; they ruled from their capital Valabhī over Surāṣṭra, i.e., the Kathiawar Peninsula in Gujarat. The most reliable sources for the reconstruction of the sociopolitical history of the Maitrakas are epigraphic records. These inscriptions were almost exclusively copper‐plate charters, recording royal endowments of land in favor of religious donees, and containing panegyric descriptions of the royal family. Besides evidence for repeated collateral succession, the genealogies of the Maitrakas contain mainly conventional, metaphorical praise of ideal kingship, with the obvious goal of demonstrating that the rulers fulfilled the requirements of perfect kings. From the seventh century, the genealogical accounts of the Maitrakas, the naming conventions, and the use of religious epithets illustrate their anxiety regarding the homogenization of the presentation of their dynastic tradition. Sixteen out of nineteen Maitraka kings were exclusively labeled as “highly devoted to Śiva.” The Maitraka endowments, however, reveal a patronage pattern that predominantly favored Brahmins (with no apparent institutional Śaiva or Vaiṣṇava affiliation) and Buddhist monasteries (for monks and nuns). The kings of this dynasty only made very few endowments for Hindu temples. Despite the role Gujarat played in the medieval history of Jainism, no Maitraka grants in favor of Jaina institutions have been discovered so far.