Davaka (Skt. *Ḍavāka) was a kingdom of ancient Indian subcontinent, located in current central region of

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

state. The references to it comes from the 4th century Allahabad pillar inscription of

Samudragupta Samudragupta (Gupta script: ''Sa-mu-dra-gu-pta'', ( 335–375 CE) was the second emperor of the Gupta Empire of ancient India. A military genius and a patron of arts, he is regarded among the greatest rulers in Indian history. As a son of th ...

, where it is mentioned as one of five frontier kingdoms of the

Gupta Empire The Gupta Empire was an Indian empire during the classical period of the Indian subcontinent which existed from the mid 3rd century to mid 6th century CE. At its zenith, the dynasty ruled over an empire that spanned much of the northern Indian ...

Davaka in the Allahabad Pillar inscription

Other references are the Shung-Shu History of the

Liu Song dynasty Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern dynasties (南朝宋) in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties peri ...

, where the kingdom is named ''Kapili'' (now the name of a river); the Gachtal stone pillar inscription written in Kamrupi Prakrit. N. K. Bhattasali has identified it with

Dabaka Dabaka ( ), also called Doboka or Dobaka ( ), is a town in Hojai district (formerly in Nagaon district) of Assam state in India. It is a commercial place situated in the central part of Assam. Demographics Indian census, Dabaka had a populat ...

in modern

Hojai district Hojai District is a district in Assam, India. It was formed on 15 August 2015. The headquarters of the district is situated at Sankardev Nagar, which is about 8 km away from Hojai town. Hojai District was formed from three tehsils of N ...

, with the kingdom associated with the Kopili- Kolong river valley. Historians such as B. N. Puri (1968) and P. C. Choudhury (1959) claim that it was absorbed much earlier in the first half of the 5th century during the reign of Kalyana Varman (422–446). Its capital was located near Kopili river. In the year 428 AD, an ambassador was sent to China by Davaka king, whose name according to Chinese sources is Yuegnai or Yu Chai. Gatchal Stone Pillar inscription mention that the Yavana(Muslim) crossed the boundary to move east to reach Davaka in 1362 (saka 1284). A river (identified as Yamuna) that floods during April-May helped naval forces to drive away enemies.

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Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{refend Kingdoms of Assam

See also

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