Prithivishena II

Prithivishena II (IAST: Pṛthivīṣeṇa; ) was a ruler of the Nandivardhana-Pravarapura branch of the Vakataka dynasty. He succeeded his father Narendrasena as Maharaja. Prithivishena II is the last known king of the main Vakataka line, which is no longer attested after his reign.

Early life Prithivishena was born to Narendrasena and his wife Ajjhitabhattarika, a princess of Kuntala. He was probably born while his father was still a Crown Prince during the reign of Pravarasena II, Prithivishena's grandfather. A.S. Altekar suggests that when Prithivishena was a youth of about 20 years, he aided his father in repulsing the Nalas of the Bastar region who had invaded the Vakataka kingdom.

Reign Prithivishena's inscriptions refer to him twice rescuing the "sunken fortunes of his family". It is unclear what these two instances were. Altekar suggests that the first instance was the aforementioned repulsion of the Nalas during the reign of Prithivishena's father, and the second instance relates to war with the aggressive Traikutaka king Dahrasena, who is known to have performed an ashwamedha horse sacrifice and whose growing kingdom bordered the Vakataka realm on the west. However, we have no details of any of the wars which might have involved Prithivishena.

Prithivishena was a Vaishnavite who was described as a Parama-bhagavata or devout worshipper of Bhagavat (i.e. Vishnu). Vishnukundin coins have also been found at Vakataka sites in the Gondia district. On the basis of this evidence, Ajay Mitra Shastri believes that the Vishnukundin king Madhavavarman II Janashraya, who is known to have married a Vakataka princess, took control of a large portion of the former Vakataka kingdom and extended his conquests as far as the Narmada River immediately after the death of Prithivishena. Hans Bakker has a similar view and holds that Prithivishena had to accept a significant Vishnukundin presence in his realm to resist the Nalas, and those Vishnukundins became politically dominant over parts of the erstwhile Vakataka kingdom following Prithivishena's death.