Place · Vakataka capital · India
Nagardhan
The Vakataka-period political centre at Nagardhan in Nagpur district, Maharashtra, 5 kilometres from Ramtek — the 4-5th century Vakataka dynasty's eastern-branch capital Nandivardhana, excavated by the Vidarbha Research Society under D.R. Mane and the Deccan College team from 2015. The excavations have uncovered the Vakataka royal palace foundations, a 5-century Shaiva temple complex, over 20 Vakataka-period coins (one of the few surviving Vakataka coinage finds), terracotta seals and sealings. The Vakatakas ruled a Deccan empire from the 4th-6th centuries, were allies and rivals of the Guptas (Prabhavatigupta, Chandragupta II's daughter, married Vakataka king Rudrasena II around 388 CE), and patronised the Ajanta Cave paintings (Caves 16, 17 and 19 were Vakataka commissions). Nagardhan excavations help restore the Vakataka Deccan to the map.
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Tradition
- Deccan archaeology and Maratha history
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 21.300, 79.000
Connections (2)
- Vakataka capitalRamtek
Nandivardhana, now Nagardhan, was a Vakataka capital below the sacred hill of Ramtek, whose temples the dynasty and their Gupta relatives endowed — Prabhavatigupta, Chandragupta II's daughter, ruled here as regent for over a decade and her inscriptions are among the principal Vakataka records. Ramtek is also where Kalidasa's Meghaduta is traditionally set, which gives the hill a literary claim alongside the dynastic one.
- Ancient VidarbhaPauni
Pauni's Satavahana-period stupa with its carved railing and the Vakataka capital at Nagardhan are two layers of the early urban and Buddhist landscape of Vidarbha — a region that had cities, a stupa tradition and a major dynasty, and which drops almost entirely out of the standard account of Indian history between the Mauryas and the Chalukyas.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Nagpur district”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
Open Nagardhan in the repository →