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Pravarasena II

King of the Vakataka dynasty

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ27642102
Source-derived summary

Pravarasena II (r. c. 420 – 455 CE) was a ruler of the Nandivardhana-Pravarapura branch of the Vakataka dynasty. He was the son of Rudrasena II and Prabhavatigupta, the daughter of the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II. He succeeded his brother Damodarasena as Maharaja. Pravarasena's reign seems to have been mostly peaceful and prosperous, and is noted for an efflorescence of religious patronage.

Chronology

That all of Pravarasena's extant records are dated in terms of regnal years (rather than any calendar era), the precise era of Pravarasena's reign remains disputed. The only record that provides a firm chronological basis for Vakataka dynastic history is the Hisse-Borala stone inscription of Devasena, a ruler of the Vatsagulma branch, which contains a precise calendar date of year 380 of the Saka era (corresponding to 457/58 CE). Due to the absence of any earlier records that can be precisely dated, different historians have proposed differing dates for Pravarasena's reign, though it is widely agreed that he had a fairly long reign of over three decades and that he ruled mainly in the first half of the fifth century. The following are some recently proposed dates for the reign of Pravarasena II:

c. 420 – 455 according to Ajay Mitra Shastri.

c. 422 – 457 according to Hans Bakker.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Pravarasena II” as king of the Vakataka dynasty. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current 213-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 0300. The account is most persuasive where Pravarasena, King and Vakataka can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as king of the Vakataka dynasty. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

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 Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q27642102. VIAF identifies the subject as 50109498. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Pravarasena II”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Pravarasena II primary sources, Pravarasena II archive and Pravarasena research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Pravarasena II”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Pravarasena II” 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.