The Age of the Imperial Guptas c4.141

c4.141

Skandagupta warded off the first blow during the life time of his father. The second blow also he parried with difficulty. The strain on the treasury was enormous and the emperor was compelled to debase the gold coinage like his father. The subsequent history of the reign of Skandagupta is not known to us. But the Hūṇa invasions continued and most probably Skandagupta lost his life in trying to stem the mighty flood of the third invasion. We know from the Kahaum inscription that Skandagupta was alive in 141 G.E. when a man named Madra dedicated five images of the Ādikartṛs or Tīrthaṅkaras on a stone column in the village of Kakubha in the modern tahsil of Deoriya in the Gorakhpur district.¹ Silver coins were issued by Skandagupta in G.E. 145. In G.E. 146, when Śarvanāga was the deputy governor (Viṣayapati) of the Antarvedī or the country between the Ganges and the Jumna a Brāhmaṇa named Devaviṣṇu gave some land for the maintenance of a lamp in a temple of the Sun in the town of Indrapura (perhaps the same as Indor Khera in the Anupshahr tahsil of the Bulandshahr district) built by the Kṣatriyas Achalavarman and Bhrukuṇṭhasimha at the same place.² The latest known date of the emperor Skandagupta is the year G.E. 148=467-8 A.D., to be found on certain silver coins.³