The Age of the Imperial Guptas c4.167

c4.167

We do not know who succeeded Budhagupta. But in G.E. 224=543-44 A.D., a king named Bhānugupta was acknowledged as the emperor in Northern Bengal. An inscription on a pillar discovered at Eran mentions the same Bhānugupta. In G.E. 191=510-11 A.D., the king Bhānugupta came to Eran with a subordinate chief named Goparāja and fought a great battle in which Goparāja was killed. The latter's wife mounted the funeral pyre and evidently the pillar was erected on that spot. A comparison of the Eran pillar inscription of G.E. 165, the pillar inscription of G.E. 191 and that on the great image of the Boar incarnation dedicated at the same place in the first year of the Hūṇa king Toramāṇa enables us to deduce the date of the conquest of Northern Mālava by the Hūṇa king Toramāṇa. It has been noted above that in the Eran pillar inscription of G.E. 165, the brothers Mātṛviṣṇu and Dhanyaviṣṇu erected a flag-staff of Janārdana. It has also been noted that a great battle was fought at Eran by an emperor named Bhānugupta in G.E. 191.¹ We find that Dhanyaviṣṇu alone, after the decease of his elder brother Mātṛviṣṇu, erected a temple of the Boar incarnation of Viṣṇu. This inscription is incised on the breast of colossal image of the Varāha incarnation of Viṣṇu. The temple and the image are still lying at Eran.² From these three inscriptions we can deduce the following facts :—