12 Facts About Pravarasena II

Pravarasena II was a ruler of the Nandivardhana-Pravarapura branch of the Vakataka dynasty.

Pravarasena II was the son of Rudrasena II and Prabhavatigupta, the daughter of the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II.

Pravarasena II married his son, Crown Prince Narendrasena, to a "daughter of a king of Kuntala" named Ajjhitabhattarika.

Pravarasena II's reign appears to have been quite peaceful on the whole, as neither his own records nor those of his successors refer to any military exploits of the king.

However, R in his twenty-third regnal year, Pravarasena II had entered into the territory of the Gupta empire with his army, as he issued an inscription while encamped at Tripuri on the northern bank of the Narmada River.

Hans Bakker interprets this to mean that Pravarasena II had invaded the Gupta dominions to bring back his sister, possibly due to a conflict within the Gupta empire in which Ghatotkachagupta, supported by the Vakatakas and the Nagas, had been eliminated by his upstart nephew Skandagupta.

Pravarasena II's administration was characterized by the appointment of officials styled Senapati as either viceroys or as a kind of "high commissioner" to oversee subordinate states within the Vakataka realm.

Unlike his parents who were Vaishnavites, Pravarasena II was an ardent Shaivite who was known throughout his long reign as Paramamaheshwara, meaning a devout worshipper of Maheshwara or Shiva.

Pravarasena II boasted that he had established the conditions of the Kritayuga on earth by the grace of Shiva.

Pravarasena II was particularly attached to her tutelary deity of Ramagirisvamin on the hill at Ramtek.

Pravarasena II has often been credited with authoring a Maharashtri Prakrit poem named Setubandha or Ravanavaho which details the exploits of Rama in Lanka against the demon-king Ravana.

The last of Pravarasena II's surviving inscriptions was issued in his thirty-second regnal year, which was probably sometime in the 450s.