The Vākāṭaka Dynasty, of which the very name and existence had been utterly forgotten for many centuries, was brought to the knowledge of students of ancient Indian history by the publication in 1836 of a copper-plate grant from the Central Provinces. Since that date a few more inscriptions on stone or copper have been discovered at various times and places, and the little known about the dynasty is derived solely from those records. No extant coin can be assigned to the Vākāṭaka princes, who must have used as currency the monetary issues of other powers. We are ignorant of the derivation of the name Vākāṭaka, and are unable to say whether the kings were indigenous or of foreign descent. Nor do we know for certain the locality in which the dynasty took its rise. It is not mentioned in literature, although it seems to be the subject of an obscure allusion in the Purāṇas, which contain in the section dealing with the dynasties of Vidiśā, etc., the passage translated by Mr. Pargiter from his eclectic text, as follows:—

“Hear also the future kings of Vidiśā. Bhogin, son of the Naga king Seṣa, will be king, conqueror of his enemies' cities, a king who will exalt the Nāga family. Saducandra, and Candrāṁśa who will be a second Nakhavant, then Dhanadharman, and Vaṅgara is remembered as the fourth. Then Bhūtinanda will reign in the Vaidiśa kingdom.