The Age of the Imperial Guptas c6.6.1

c6.6.1

The term *Kumārāmātya* has been literally translated as “Princes’ Minister.”² But a little comparative study shows that this translation is untenable: because whatever its original meaning might have been, in the beginning of the 4th century A.D. it had acquired a new significance. In the first place we find that even the highest ministers were *Kumārāmātyas*. The Brāhmaṇa Śikharasvāmin, who was the minister (*Mantrin*) of Candragupta II and his son Pṛthiviṣeṇa, who was the minister of Kumāragupta I, were both *Kumārā*- mātyas.¹ During the reign of Kumāragupta I, the governor of the district of Koṭivarṣa was a Kumārāmātya named Vetravarman.² At some time during the rule of the Gupta emperors in Eastern Bengal a Kumārāmātya had been appointed Governor of the Suvvuṅga viṣaya, but his descendants continued to use the seal of the office of the Kumārāmātya even after attaining independence and a later descendant used this seal even in the 8th century.³ The seals discovered by the late Dr. T. Bloch throw a very brilliant flood of light on the bureaucracy of the Gupta empire, and especially on the different classifications in the ranks of Kumārāmātyas. Bloch discovered only three specimens of seals of ordinary Kumārāmātyas. On these seals the figure of Lakṣmī, standing inside a lotus-pond, attended by two dwarfs holding objects, which look like moneybags, occupies the upper halves. The legend on these seals is simply Kumārāmāty-ādhikaraṇasya. Dr.