The Age of the Imperial Guptas c4.164

c4.164

Two of his inscriptions have been discovered at Sārnāth, near Benares, but they are of no historical interest as they record dedications of images of Buddha by a Buddhist monk. The Damodarpur plates contain two transfers of land which took place in his reign. From the inscription on the first of these plates we learn that during the reign of Budhagupta the Uparika Brahmadatta, with the title of Mahārāja, was the Viceroy of the division (bhukti) of Puṇḍravardhana. A villager named Nābhaka applied for the sale of some land, free of revenue, for the settlement of some Brāhmaṇas and the sale was recorded in this inscription. At the time of the issue of the second plate the Uparika Mahārāja Jayadatta was the Viceroy of the division of Puṇḍravardhana and under him an Āyuktaka was the governor of a district (viṣaya) of Koṭivarṣa. At this time the Nagara-Śreṣṭhin¹ Ṛbhupāla applied for some land, probably unsettled (apradā) land, on the Himalayas in the village of Doṅgāgrāma for the purpose of building two temples to the gods Kokāmukha-svāmin and Śveta-Varāha-svāmin and for the establishment of one Nāma-liṅgam and according to this application some homestead (vāstu) land was sold to him and a transfer recorded on this plate.² In G.E., 165=484-85 A.D., Budhagupta was recognised as the sovereign of Mālava. In that year a Viceroy named Suraśmicandra was ruling the country between the Jumna (Yamunā) and the Narmadā. In that year a Brāhmaṇa named Mātṛviṣṇu, who held the title of Mahārāja and his brother Dhanyaviṣṇu, who were the great-grandsons of the Ṛṣi Indraviṣṇu, grandsons of Varuṇaviṣṇu and sons of Hariviṣṇu erected a flag-staff (dhvaja-stambha) of the god Janārdana.¹ This inscription is a very important record for later imperial Gupta chronology as it enables us to determine the approximate date of the Hūṇa conquest of Mālava. Budhagupta issued a silver coinage of the Central Indian type but these coins also are very rare. The British Museum contains only three specimens and one of these three bear the latest date of this monarch, G.E. 175=494-95 A.D.