Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c25.2

c25.2

The original capital of the Gupta empire seems to have been Pāṭaliputra (the modern Patna), and it is not improbable that the inscr. *Licchavayaḥ* which occurs on the *rev.* of Candragupta's gold coins together with the name of his queen Kumāradevī may denote that she belonged to a royal family of Licchavis previously reigning at Pāṭaliputra (BÜHLER, WZKM. V, 225 ff.; SMITH, JRAS. 1893, p. 81). When a great extension of the empire took place by the conquest of the kingdom of the Kṣatrapas of Surāṣṭra and Mālwa in the reign of *Candragupta II Vikramāditya*, c. 410 A. D., it is probable that the capital was transferred, either permanently or occasionally, to a more central position at Ayodhyā (SMITH, JRAS. 1893, p. 86). At its greatest extent the Gupta empire seems to have comprised the whole of Northern India, with the exception of the Panjāb (SMITH, JBA. 1894, p. 178), which, no doubt, continued to be ruled by the Kuṣanas.