The Age of the Imperial Guptas c5: Appendix I. The Tumain and Mandasor Inscriptions
The Age of the Imperial Guptas c5
- Language
- English
Appendix I. The Tumain and Mandasor Inscriptions
c5.2
The writer is indebted to Mr. M. B. Garde for the following information about the Tumain inscription of G.E. 116 and the newly discovered Mandasor inscription of V.S. 524. Mr. Garde will edit both of these inscriptions at some subsequent date:—
c5.3
Tumain Inscription of G.E. 116.—This record does not mention Govindagupta at all. It mentions Candragupta II, Kumāragupta I, and then a prince or chief named Ghaṭotkacagupta. This Ghaṭotkacagupta cannot be the father of Candragupta I as he was living in G.E. 116. Unfortunately that portion of the inscription which recorded the relationship of Ghaṭotkacagupta to Kumāragupta I is not preserved and therefore it is extremely difficult to say in what relation they stood. It is possible that this Ghaṭotkacagupta was either a younger brother or son of Kumāragupta I and was the governor of Mālava at that time.
c5.4
The Mandasor inscription of V.S. 524.—It is not quite clear from the wording of this inscription whether Govindagupta was alive in V.S. 524=467 A.D. or not. The inscription records the erection of a Stūpa and an Ārāma and the excavation of a well (Kūpa) by one Dattabhaṭa, son of Vāyurakṣita, who was the general of Govindagupta. Further, this Dattabhaṭa is styled the Commander-in-chief of a king named Prabhākara who is called "The destroyer of the enemies of the Gupta dynasty" (Gupt-ānvay-āri-druma-dhumaketuḥ). King Prabhākara is not known to us from any other source. He appears to have been a local chief or the Governor of Daśapura or Mandasor. This inscription passes over Kumāragupta I and Skandagupta, which may indicate that Govindagupta or the chiefs of Mālava did not recognise these two emperors.
c5.5
APPENDIX II.
c5.6
MATHURA PILLAR INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF CANDRAGUPTA II OF THE YEAR 61.
c5.7
The writer is indebted to Mr. D. B. Diskalkar, M.A., Curator, of the Mathura Museum for the following information regarding an inscription of Candragupta II discovered in a garden near the Hardinge Gate of Mathura city by Rai Bahadur Pandit Radha Krishna, the practical founder of the Mathura Museum and his nephew Pandit Bhola Nath. The record is inscribed on a small stone pillar square in section at the bottom but octagonal in the middle. The inscription covers five out of eight faces of the octagonal shaft and consists of seventeen lines. It is damaged in different parts, the most regrettable damage being to the part which bore the date in regnal years, as this is the only inscription of the early Gupta emperors, which was dated both in the Gupta era and in a regnal year. The inscription is Śaiva and on one side of the pillar is to be found a naked figure of a Śivagaṇa (which Mr. Diskalkar takes to be that of Bhairava).
c5.8
The inscription opens with the name of the Bhaṭṭāraka-Mahārāja-Rājādhirāja Candragupta, the worthy son (satputra) of the Bhaṭṭāraka-Mahārāja-Rājādhirāja Samudragupta. The date in the Gupta era is expressed both in numerals as well as in words. The object of this inscription is to record the building of Śaiva temple, named Kapileśvara by a Śaiva ascetic in which the latter dedicated a statue (?) of his spiritual preceptor. The last portion of the inscription contains a request to the emperor to protect the grant made for the worship of the deity and for charity at the temple.
c5.9
The great importance of the record lies in the fact that it supplies us with a very early date in the reign of
c5.10
APPENDIX II.
c5.11
Candragupta II as G.E. 61 = 380-81 was hitherto supposed to fall in the reign of Samudragupta. The discovery of Rāmagupta in the *Devī-Candraguptīyam* of Viśākhadatta proves that there was some interval, however little, between Samudragupta and Candragupta II. It appears now that the late Dr. V. A. Smith was substantially correct in assigning c. 375 A.D. as the date of the accession of Candragupta II, though at that time the oldest known date of Candragupta II was G.E. 82 = 401-2 A.D. Samudragupta's death and Rāmagupta's accession may therefore be placed tentatively in c. 370 A.D.
Linked texts (1)
- Devīcandragupta — Viśākhadatta, Sanskrit