The Age of the Imperial Guptas c4.12

c4.12

One important factor was lost sight of at the time of the decision of the point. The Gaya copper plate of Samudragupta, issued in the 9th year of his reign was regarded as spurious by the late Dr. J. F. Fleet. When his work was published our knowledge of Indian Epigraphy was not so extensive as it is now. Our knowledge of the form of Imperial Gupta land-grants was limited to the Indor-khera inscribed copper plate of the time of the emperor Skandagupta in 1883. The Natore or Dhanaidaha plate of Kumāragupta I, the six Damodarpur plates of the emperors Kumāragupta I, Budhagupta and Bhānugupta and finally the three Faridpur plates of the kings Dharmāditya and Gopachandra have thrown a flood of light on the procedure of issuing grants of land or deeds recording transfers of the same. In the face of this mass of new evidence it is impossible to believe at the present day that the Gaya copper plate grant of the 9th year of Samudragupta is forged. It cannot be regarded as spurious in the same light as the Sudi plates and in the writer's opinion it is genuine. According to the established custom to be found in Gupta inscriptions, we should regard the date of this inscription as one expressed in the Gupta era; *i.e.*, it was issued in 328-29 A.D. If Samudragupta was reigning in the 9th year of this era then it would be more natural to suppose that this era was counted from the date of the accession of Samudragupta's father, Candragupta I, the liberator of the people of Magadha, who, according to a consensus of opinion amongst scholars, died after a very short reign.