The Age of the Imperial Guptas c4.75

c4.75

The Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta contains only one other point of interest. In line 23 it is stated that "The Daivaputras, Shāhis, Shāhānushāhis, Śakas and Muruṇḍas" as well as the people of Siṃhala submitted to Samudragupta. This particular passage cannot be properly understood as yet. We know from Kuṣāṇa inscriptions that the titles Devaputra, Ṣāhi and Ṣāhānusāhi were used by the Imperial Great Kuṣāṇas. In the inscription of the year 8 from Mathurā Kāṇiṣka I uses the titles Mahārāja, Rājātirāja and Ṣāhi.¹ He uses the title Devaputra in a number of inscriptions.² This title is also used by Huviṣka.³ While Vāsudeva I is known to have used this title at least once.⁴ The title Ṣāhanuṣāhi appears to be the result of an attempt to translate or transliterate the Persian word Šāhānšāh. So far it has not been found in any Indian inscription but it is extremely familiar to us from Kuṣāṇa coin-legends from the time of Kāṇiṣka I to that of Vāsudeva I.⁵ It is also to be found in a corrupt form on the coins of Vāsudeva II and Kāṇiṣka II.⁶ The general tendency of scholars is to take each of the names in the compound Daivaputra, etc., in the Allahabad pillar inscription to denote a separate chief. But the use of the first three titles, Devaputra, Ṣāhi and Ṣāhanuṣāhi indicate that they were used by the Imperial Great Kuṣāṇas only and it is extremely probable that in the time of Samudragupta also they were used by the one and the same prince, the successor of Kāṇiṣka I and Vāsudeva I who ruled over Mathurā and the Panjab. The Śakas may be taken separately to denote the later Western Kṣatrapas of Kathiawad. The Muruṇḍas are certainly a different tribe who are known from literary sources as well as inscription. It is clear therefore from 1.23 of the Allahabad pillar inscription that a descendant of the Imperial Great Kuṣāṇas continued to rule in some parts of North-Western India and was not destroyed by Samudragupta. The full significance of their existence in the 4th century A.D., will be understood when we come to Rāmagupta.