, identified by some scholars with the Pravareshwara temple complex founded by Pravarasena II. from Mansar, currently housed in the
National Museum, New Delhi. The image was likely produced during the reign of Pravarasena II, who was known to be a devout Shaivite. Unlike his parents who were
Vaishnavites, Pravarasena was an ardent
Shaivite who was known throughout his long reign as
Paramamaheshwara, meaning a devout worshipper of
Maheshwara or
Shiva. This return to the older religious tradition of the Vakatakas likely indicates that Pravarasena was no longer under the heavy influence of the Vaishnavite Guptas. Pravarasena boasted that he had established the conditions of the
Kritayuga (Golden Age) on earth by the grace of Shiva. Pravarasena's influential mother Prabhavatigupta remained active in public life for much of his reign. As a devout Vaishnavite, Prabhavatigupta made a number of religious grants and does not seen to have been dissuaded by her son's Shaivite tendencies. She was particularly attached to her tutelary deity of Ramagirisvamin on the hill at Ramtek. While most of Pravarasena's religious donations aimed at increasing the merit, life, power, victory, and rule of the king himself, in his Patna Museum Plate all the religious merit is said to accrue to the Queen Mother, i.e. Prabhavatigupta. In his twenty-third regnal year, Pravarasena made a grant for the spiritual welfare of both his mother and himself, in this life and the next. A number of locales emerged during the reign of Pravarasena as important religious centers. The sacred hill compound at Ramagiri, located north of Nandivardhana, had developed into a sort of official state sanctuary dedicated to
Vishnu and his
avatars, primarily due to the patronage of Prabhavatigupta. The site of Mansar, located about five kilometers west of Ramagiri, contains a brick temple that has been attributed to Pravarasena. A Shiva image of extraordinary quality was found at the site, indicating that it may have been a major Shaivite center. The Mansar temple complex may be identical to the Pravareshwara temple complex, which was founded by Pravarasena and which served as an important state sanctuary of the Vakataka kingdom, perhaps meant to be a Shaivite equivalent of the Ramagiri complex. A place known as Narattangavari also seems to have developed into an important religious center, as Pravarasena probably went on pilgrimage to the site and is known to have issued his
Tirodi grant from there which is mentioned in
Tirodi copper plates. He also made Ilichpur grants to brahmins which are mentioned in
Chamak copper plates. Patronage of religious establishments, temples, and
brahmins constituted an important aspect of Vakataka kingship. The endowment of brahmins with tax free land on the periphery of the kingdom may have served to spread and reinforce the
dharmic religious and social order. During Pravarasena's reign, such notions of dharmic kingship seem to have percolated down to the local feudatory rulers as well. The feudatory Kondaraja proved his worth to Pravarasena, his sovereign, by granting land to one thousand brahmins. Another feudatory ruler named Narayanaraja requested a donation be made to a religious feeding house or
sattra. Pravarasena has often been credited with authoring a
Maharashtri Prakrit poem named
Setubandha or
Ravanavaho which details the exploits of
Rama in
Lanka against the demon-king
Ravana. Due to the poem's Vaishnavite themes (as Rama was regarded to be an avatar of Vishnu) in contrast to Pravarasena's own avowed Shaivism. However, Pravarasena appears to have had quite a good relationship with his Vaishnavite mother and Vaishnavite sites continued to flourish during his reign, suggesting that Pravarasena may have had a more ecumenical approach to religion despite his own marked preference for worshipping Shiva. At the time, there was perhaps not much bigotry associated with the divisions Shaivite and Vaishnavite. ==Final days and succession==