The Age of the Imperial Guptas c4.103

c4.103

The names of several officers of Candragupta II are known to us from the inscription of his time. The Sanakānīka chief, whose name has been lost in the Udaygiri inscription of the year 82 was evidently an officer of the Gupta empire as he held the rank of a *Mahārāja*. Virasena alias Śāba of the undated Udaygiri Cave inscription was another minister (*Anvaya-prāpta-sācivyo*) evidently hereditary.³ The name of another minister is known to us from the Karamdanda inscription of the year 117. A Brāhmaṇa named Śikharasvāmin was a second minister of Candragupta II, but held the rank of a *Kumārāmātya*.¹ The only other point worth notice in the reign of Candragupta II is the seal of his queen Dhruvasvāminī, discovered at Basarh, the ancient Vaiśālī. In this seal the queen calls herself "The Great Queen, the illustrious Dhruvasvāminī, the wife of the Mahārājādhirāja, the illustrious Candragupta, the mother of the Mahārāja, the illustrious Govindagupta."² It is impossible to understand now why the great queen calls herself the mother of Govindagupta only and not that of her eldest son the emperor Kumāragupta I. She is acknowledged as the mother of Kumāragupta I in the Bilsad pillar inscription of the year 96,³ and the official seal of the infant emperor Kumāragupta II⁴ as well as the semi-official inscription on the pillars at Bihar⁵ and Kahaon.⁶