Mahasenagupta
king of Magadha (562–575) and King of Malwa (575–601)
Mahasenagupta was King of Magadha from 562 until his defeat in 575 and thereafter the King of Malwa until his death in 601. He belonged to the Later Gupta dynasty of Magadha.
Just before his death, Mahasenagupta sent his sons Kumaragupta and Madhavagupta to Thanesar, where they became companions of Rajyavardhana and Harshavardhana. Madhavagupta was made the Kannauj vassal of Magadha after the war. In Malwa, he was succeeded by his son Devagupta, who was defeated by Rajyavardhana of Kannauj in 605.
Reign
In order to counter the hostility of the Kingdom of Kannauj, near the start of his reign he allied himself with the Kingdom of Thanesar by giving his sister's hand in marriage to Adityavardhana. Mahasenagupta went to war with the Kamarupa Kingdom around 575 during a period of anarchy in Bengal, and defeated the king of Kamarupa, Susthitavarman.
However, he soon faced two disastrous invasions following this event. A king of the Deccan, Kirttivarman I of the Chalukya royal family, subdued Anga, Vanga, Kalinga and Magadha. The Tibetan ruler, Namri Songtsen (AD 570–618) successfully campaigned into central India (modern day Bihar and perhaps also Uttar Pradesh).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Mahasenagupta” is king of Magadha (562–575) and King of Malwa (575–601). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Mahasenagupta, king and Magadha, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “king of Magadha (562–575) and King of Malwa (575–601)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q130191842. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mahasenagupta” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.