Indian Epigraphy c15.t18.10

c15.t18.10

Harṣa’s regnal reckoning, continued by this erstwhile feudatories who became independent rulers after his death, developed into an era. This is suggested by the inscriptions of the so-called Later Guptas. That the Later Gupta prince Mādhavagupta, son of Mahāsenagupta, was a subordinate of Harṣa is suggested by Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita, according to which the Mālava princes Kumāragupta and Mādhavagupta (sons of Mahāsenagupta) took shelter at the Thanesar court during the rule of Harṣa’s father Prabhākaravardhana (apparently after Mahāsenagupta’s death when the throne of Mālava was usurped by Devagupta) as also by verse 18 of the damaged Aphsad inscription of Mādhavagupta’s son Ādityasena, king of Magadha.¹ It is not impossible that Ādityasena, who later claimed imperial dignity,² began his life as a feudatory of Harṣa. Thus the use of the Harṣa era in the Shahpur inscription¹ of the year 66 falling in Ādityasena’s reign is easily explained. Magadha formed a part of Harṣa’s empire and was no doubt using the regnal reckoning of that monarch during his reign. The Shahpur inscription shows that the Later Gupta successors of Harṣa in that country continued to use the same reckoning at least for some years after the end of Harṣa’s rule.