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The Age of the Imperial Guptas c7: Chapter III. Religious and Literary Revival

The Age of the Imperial Guptas c7

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Chapter III. Religious and Literary Revival

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The monarchs of the Gupta dynasty will be remembered for ever for the great reformation they brought about in Orthodox Hindu society and religion. From their inscriptions, coins, and seals they are distinctly Vaiṣṇavas. In the majority of their inscriptions and coins they are styled *Parama-Bhāgavata*. The emblems on their personal and official seals, Garuḍa and Lakṣmī, the vehicle and consort of Viṣṇu, also indicate that they were ardent Vaiṣṇavas. There is no indication of any of the kings from Candragupta I to Bhanugupta having leant towards any other Indian faith. They are clearly different from the Vardhanas of Thanesar in this respect. The inscriptions of the dynasty clearly indicate a revival of Hinduism or the Orthodox Brahmanical religion and a corresponding decline in the two remaining religions of India. From other inscriptions we learn that Jainism was still lingering in Mathurā but that the days of its prosperity were finally over. As no other material is available for the study of the religious history of the Gupta Empire we must return to a further study of the inscriptions of the period. There is no indication of a leaning towards any particular sect in the Allahabad pillar inscription save and except that Hariṣeṇa was a Hindu and probably a Śaiva. The fragmentary condition of the Eran pillar makes it difficult to assign it to any Hindu sect, but the sense is sufficiently clear to mark it as Hindu. The new Mathurā inscription of G.E.

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61 of the reign of Candragupta II is Śaiva. The Udayagiri cave inscription of G.E. 82 is clearly non-sectarian but the carvings of the cave, which are contemporary, prove that the donor, the Sanakānīka chief, whose name is mutilated, was a Vaiṣṇava. The undated Udayagiri cave inscription of the time of Candragupta II records the dedication of a Śaiva cave-temple by his minister Virasena of Pāṭaliputra. The fragmentary Gaḍhwa inscription of G.E. 88 is distinctly Hindu, though the sect can not be determined. The only Buddhist inscription of the reign is the Sanchi pillar inscription of the year 93. No Jain inscriptions of the time of Samudragupta or Candragupta II have been discovered so far. The two inscriptions from Gaḍhwa, belonging to the reign Kumāragupta I, though fragmentary, are distinctly Hindu and the Bilsad pillar inscription in the Eta district of the U.P. is also Hindu. It refers to some work by a Brāhmaṇa named Dhruvaśarman in a temple of the god Mahāsena or Kārtikeya in G.E. 96. In G.E. 113=432-3 A.D. a Jain image was dedicated by a Jain lady named Sāmāḍhyā at Mathurā. This is the earliest known Jain inscription of the Gupta period.. In G.E. 129 an image of Buddha was dedicated at Mankuwar in the Karchhanā Tahsil of the Allahabad district by a Buddhist *Bhikṣu* named Budhamitra. Three known inscriptions belonging to the reign of Kumāragupta I are on copper plates discovered in Bengal.

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The earliest of them, discovered at Dhanaidaha in the Rajshahi district, is very fragmentary, but is dated G.E. 113. The references to Brāhmaṇas leave no doubt about the fact that the object of the record was some contract between Hindus.¹ The first and second Damodarpur plates of G.E. 124 and 129 are distinctly Hindu or Brahmanical as they refer to *Agnihotras* and *Mahāyajñas*. The great Junagaḍh rock inscription of Skandagupta is distinctly Vaiṣṇava as it opens with an invocation to the god Viṣṇu. The second part of this inscription records the erection of a temple of Viṣṇu by Cakrapālita, son of the Viceroy Parṇadatta. The inscription on the stone pillar at Kahāum in the Deoriya Tahsil of the Gorakhpur district is the second Jain record of the Gupta period. It records the erection by a man named Madra of a pillar with five images of the *Ādikartṛs* or *Tīrthaṅkaras* in G.E. 141. The last inscription of the time of Skandagupta is Hindu. In the copper plate discovered at Indor Khera in the Bulandshahr district, a Brāhmaṇa, named Devaviṣṇu, records the gift of some money for the maintenance of a lamp in a temple of Sūrya in G.E. 146.

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¹ Epi. Ind. Vol. XVII, pp. 347-8.

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In the troublesome period which followed the death of the Emperor Skandagupta and which is occupied by the ephemeral reigns of the three shadow Emperors, we get only two inscriptions, both of which belong to the reign of the infant emperor Kumāragupta II. Only one of them is dated and that is a Buddhist inscription recording the erection of an image of Buddha in G.E. 154 during the reign of the Emperor Kumāragupta II by a Buddhist monk named Abhayamitra.¹ The great seal of Kumāragupta II discovered at Bhitari in the Ghazipur district is much bigger than the seal of Samudragupta attached to the Gayā plate of G.E. 9. It bears the complete genealogy of the Gupta Emperors from Śrī-gupta to Kumāragupta II and is distinctly Vaiṣṇava on account of the presence of the figure of Garuḍa in the upper part and the term *Parama-bhāgavata* applied to Candragupta II.²

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¹ Annual Roport of the Archæological Survey of India, 1914–15, pp. 124–5.

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² Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1889, LVIII, p. 89.

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During the reign of Budhagupta the empire was once more re-united. The earliest inscription of Budhagupta’s reign is Buddhist. It records the erection of an image of Buddha by the same Buddhist monk Abhayamitra in G.E. 157. The Damodarpur plates of the time of Budhagupta are distinctly Hindu. The third plate of G.E. 163 records the sale of some land for the settlement of some Brāhmaṇas in G.E. 163 to a village-elder named Nābhaka. The fourth plate records the sale of some *Vāstu* and *Khila* land to the Nagara-śreṣ- thin Ṛbhupāla for building two temples for the gods Kokāmukha-svāmin and Śveta-Varāha-svāmin and the attached store-rooms. The last known inscription of the reign of Budhagupta records the erection of a flag-staff of Viṣṇu in G.E. 165 by the *Mahārāja* Mātṛviṣṇu and his brother Dhanyaviṣṇu. The fifth Damodarpur plate is also a Hindu record because by it a religious trust was created in favour of the god Śveta-Varāhasvāmin in the forest of Koṭivarṣa by Amṛtadeva of Ayodhyā in G.E. 224. The Eran pillar inscription of the reign of Bhānugupta is non-sectarian. There remain a number of dated records which do not mention the names of the Emperors, but which can be referred to the reigns of well known Emperors of the Imperial Gupta dynasty. The Udayagiri cave inscription of G.E. 106 must be referred to the reign of Kumāragupta I and is a Jaina inscription. The Sanchi inscription of G.E. 131 is a record of the reign of Kumāragupta I and is a Buddhist record. It commemorates the gift of fifteen gold coins from the interest of which one Bhikṣu was to be fed daily and three lamps to be lighted in the sanctum (*Ratnagṛha*) by the lay worshipper Harisvāminī. The Mathurā image inscription, if it is to be referred to the Gupta era, of the year 135 falls within the reign of Kumāragupta I and is a Buddhist inscription. Similarly the Kosam image inscription of the *Mahārāja* Bhīmavarman of G.E. 139 must be referred to the reign of Skandagupta. So also the Gadhwa inscription of G.E. 148 must be referred to the reign of the same Emperor.

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In this long list of inscriptions only four are Jaina and less than half-a-dozen Buddhist. This enormous preponderance of Hindu or Brāhmanical records prove definitely that Hinduism had benefitted greatly at the cost of the rival sects. There is one class of records which do not contain dates or names of Emperors but which can be referred to the Gupta period very definitely on the basis of palæography. These are the votive inscriptions of the Gupta period discovered during the last two decades at Sarnath, the Buddhist Benares. The Sarnath inscriptions of this period do not mention the names of Gupta Emperors except in three solitary instances, the Buddha image of the reign of Kumāragupta II of G.E. 154 and two similar images of the reign of Budhagupta of G.E. 157. Is it the beginning of the Buddhist custom of refusing to recognise a non-Buddhist King in permanent records? The inscribed images from Sarnath, though they do not furnish any data for the political history of the Gupta period, afford us ample material for the study of the evolution of artistic activity of the Benares School of Sculpture. Incidentally they prove the truth of Fa-Hsien's statement that Buddhism continued to flourish side by side with Hinduism. The same can not be said of Jainism; that religion was distinctly on the decline. Even in great centres of the Jaina faith like Mathurā the dedication of Jaina images in the Gupta period was a rare event. The recent discovery of a copper plate at Paharpur in the Rajshahi district of Bengal proves that the eradication of Jainism from North-Eastern India was very rapid. According to Mr. K. N. Dikshit M.A., the discoverer, the inscription on this copper plate is dated G.E. 159 = 478-9 A.D. and therefore it must be referred to the reign of Budhagupta. It records the donation of some land by a Brāhmaṇa couple for the maintenance of worship in a Jaina Vihāra or establishment of Nirgrantha ascetics presided over by Guhanandin at the Village of Vaṭa-Gohali. This inscription does not mention the name of the reigning Emperor Budhagupta though he is expressly mentioned as such in the third Damodarpur plate of G. E. 163. A century after the fall of the Imperial Guptas, Yuan Chwang mentions naked Jaina mendicants in the temples of North Bengal. But in the Pāla period there is hardly any evidence of Jaina influence in Bengal as only half-a-dozen Jaina images have been discovered throughout the length and breadth of that province.

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The preponderating influence of Hinduism over other sects in the Gupta period is felt to some extent in Sanskrit literature. The majority of the Purāṇas were recast during the Gupta period. A Purāṇa ought to consist of the following parts :—

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“ (1) Sarga, the evolution of the universe from its material cause; (2) Pratisarga, the recreation of the universe from the constituent elements into which it is merged at the close of each aeon (*Kalpa*) or day in the life of the Creator, Brahmā; (3) *Vamça*, the genealogies of God and Rishis; (4) *Manvantara*, the groups of ‘great ages’ (*Mahāyuga*) included in an aeon, in each of which mankind is supposed to be produced anew from a first father, Manu; (5) *Vamçānucharita*, the history of the Royal families who rule over the earth during the four ‘ages’ (*yuga*) which make up one ‘great age.’”¹

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¹ Cambridge History of India Vol. I. p. 296.

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Now, only a few Purāṇas are complete with all the five divisions. Such Purāṇas which contain the *Vamçānucarita* prove that the majority of them were finally redacted during the Gupta period. Seven only out of the existing eighteen Mahāpurāṇas contain accounts of the kings who have reigned or who, in the prophetic form in which the authors of these works have recast their narratives, will reign in the historical period. The historical genealogies in these works are based on very ancient and reliable sources. The accounts of kings were written from the songs of heralds (*Sūtas*) of the Vedic period who, like the *Chāraṇs* of mediaeval Rajputana, were the chroniclers of the genealogies of kings and their deeds. The *Sūtas* were Kṣatriyas. But, after the fall of the Kṣatriyas, these songs, called *Gāthās* and *Nārāśaṃsīs* fell into the hands of Brāhmaṇa compilers, who, ignorant of the past, confused the accounts and in many cases omitted particular genealogies or left them incomplete, in order to make room for modern legends to prove the sanctity of some new holy place. Pargiter, who has analysed the Pauranic accounts very carefully, has proved that the accounts of the dynasties which followed the Andhras, are given in a very summarised form; “When the Kingdom of the Andhras has come to an end there will be kings belonging to the lineage of their servants; 7 Andhras, and 10 Ābhīra kings; also 7 Gārdabhins, 18 Śakas. There will be 8 Yavanas, 14 Tuṣāras, 13 Muruṇḍas, 11 Maunas.

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“The Śrīparvātīya Andhras will endure 52 years; the 10 Ābhīra kings 67 years; the 7 Gārdabhins will enjoy the earth 72 years; the 18 Śakas 183 years. The 8 Yavanas will enjoy this earth 87 years. The earth is remembered as belonging to the Tuṣāras 7000 years. The 13 future Muruṇḍas along with low caste men, all of Mleccha origin, will enjoy it 103 years. When they are overthrown by time there will be Kilakila kings.

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“Then after the Kilakilas Vindhyaśakti will reign. He will enter upon the earth after it has known these kings 96 years.” Different Purāṇas differ in their accounts. The Matsya, the Vāyu and the Bhaviṣyat give almost identical accounts and is closely followed by the Bhāgavata. Names are to be found again, later on, in the accounts of the Kingdom of Vidiśā. Subsequent accounts are all confused and we are presented with the following dynastic list in the fourth century A.D.:--

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"Nine Nāka kings will enjoy the city Campāvatī; and 7 Nāgas will enjoy the charming city of Mathurā. Kings born of the Gupta race will enjoy all these territories, namely, along the Ganges, Prayāga, Sāketa and the Magadhas."

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That the Paurānic accounts of the dynasties of the fourth century A.D., is correct can be proved from contemporary epigraphic and numismatic evidence. The last King of the Nāga dynasty of Nalapurā (Nārwar) and Padmāvatī (Pawāyā), (some of the texts of the Purāṇas read Padmāvatī, instead of Campāvatī). Gaṇapati Nāga issued copper coins, which clearly belong to the fourth century A.D. and he is mentioned in the Allahabad inscription of Samudragupta as one of the kings of Northern India, who were overthrown by that king. The account of the Gupta empire, as given in the Vāyu, Bhavishyat, Viṣṇu and the Bhāgavata Purāṇas agree with the known inscriptions. The Gupta Kingdom in its earliest stage, e.g., during the reign of Samudragupta consisted of Bengal, Bihar, Eastern part of the United Provinces and perhaps a small portion of the modern Central Provinces. This kingdom consisted of the valley of the Ganges (Anu-Gāṅga), the valley of the Yamunā (Prayāga), Oudh (Sāketa) and South Bihar (*Magadha*). The detailed evidence, which enabled Sir Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar to reconstruct the chronology of the Andhras or the Sātavahanas, is wanting in the case of the Guptas. It is clear from the nature of the Pau-rānic evidence that the Guptas were the last dynasty of the kings of the middle country who were known to the final redactors of the *Matsya*, *Vāyu*, *Viṣṇu*, *Brahmāṇḍa* and the *Bhāgavata* Purāṇas. Therefore it can be stated that the final redaction of most of the reliable Purāṇas took place before the disruption of the Gupta Empire.

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This final redaction of the Purāṇas was one of the minor results of the activities of the Brāhmaṇas of Northern India in the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. Their principal work was the reform of Hinduism or the Orthodox Brāhmanical religion from the state of torpor into which it had fallen during the long rule of the barbarians. The rise of Northern Buddhism during the reign of Kāṇiṣka I and the creation of a pantheon of superior and inferior deities in it had constituted that religion into a very formidable rival of Orthodox Hinduism. Deprived of Imperial patronage during the long centuries which followed the dismemberment of the Śuṅga empire, the priestly classes were unable to retard the total break-up of castes or to do anything which would make the now unintelligible religion of the Vedic Aryans more acceptable to the masses. We do not know much about the condition of the Orthodox Brahmanical religion during the five centuries which intervened between the fall of the Imperial Śuṅgas and the rise of the Guptas. The inscriptions of the Scythian period are in the majority of cases Jaina and Buddhist and if epigraphical evidence is to be relied upon solely for the reconstruction of the history of our sacred literature then we must admit that Brahmanism was not a popular or flourishing religion in Mathurā or the Western part of the United Provinces. The majority of inscriptions discovered in the district of Mathurā and its immediate neighbourhood prove that more than ninety per cent of the sacred edifices in that locality were Buddhist and Jaina from the 1st century B.C. till the 4th century A.D. It is true that one inscription belonging to the year 24 of the reign of Vāsiṣka records the erection of sacrificial posts for the great Aśvamedha sacrifice, but this is a solitary instance. Inscriptions concerning the Orthodox Brahmanical religion or deities are very few in number and indicate that the public patronage of this religion had almost ceased.

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With the consolidation of the power of the Imperial Guptas in Northern India the situation changes at once. The majority of records discovered up to date are Brahmanical and not Jaina or Buddhist. It cannot be denied even for a moment that State patronage went to Brāhmaṇas only, though there is no direct evidence to prove this statement. The indirect evidence is to be found in the five Damodarpur and the four Faridpur plates, all of which refer to settlements of land on Hindu gods or Brāhmaṇas.

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The attempt of the Brāhmaṇas to re-establish the religion of the Vedic Aryans can be seen from the performance of the *Aśvamedha* by Samudragupta and his grandson Kumāragupta I The performance of the *Agnihotra* and the five great sacrifices by Brāhmaṇas in the Koṭivarṣa district also indicate the initiation of Vedic sacrifices in the jungle country in Northern Bengal where they were not known before. But Vedic sacrifices no longer appealed to the masses and therefore a very large number of images were carved. The worship of images in India most probably became widespread after the introduction of Northern Buddhism during the rule of the great Kuṣāṇas. How widespread the worship of images had become will be found in a next chapter. The most popular gods were Viṣṇu, Śiva, and Śurya. But forms of these deities with which we are familiar were not so widely diffused as they are now. For example the standing image of Viṣṇu with four hands is rare among Gupta sculptures. We find Viṣṇu either in the form of some of the incarnations or riding on Garuḍa. The later *Avatāras* such as Paraśurāma, Rāmacandra and Balarāma, Buddha and Kalkin are unknown. The most popular *Avatāra* was the Boar (*Varāha*). The Damodarpur plates mention the White Boar *Śveta-Varāha-svāmin*. Koka-mukha-svāmin is most probably Śiva and Durgā, as in the case of the Kosam image dedicated in G.E. 139.¹ The phallic emblem of Śiva (*liṅga*) is fairly common. The ordinary modern *liṅga*, which is a cylinder with a round edge top is also known. Such is the *liṅga* dedicated by Pṛthivīṣeṇa, the commander-in-chief of Kumāragupta 1 at Karamdanda in G.E. 117. The shaft is circular with a round top but the lower part is octagonal and the inscription is incised on this portion. But the *Eka-mukha-liṅga* was more common. In these *liṅgas* there is a human face on the body of the shaft. The later *Caturmukha-liṅga* is rare in the Gupta period. *Eka-mukha-liṅgas* of the Gupta period are very common in Benares city and in the shrine of the Akṣaya vaṭa inside Allahabad fort. Such are the magnificent *liṅgas* discovered by the writer at Śaṅkargaḍh and Khoh in the Nagod State of the Baghelkhand Agency of Central India,² and the gigantic specimen discovered during the excavation of the Gupta temple found on the plateau of Bhumra in the same State. This *liṅga* is one of the largest known and was discovered inside the sanctum.³

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¹ *Annual Report of the Archæological Survey of India* 1913-14, p. 264, *Pl. LXX (b).*

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² *Progress Report of the Archæological Survey of India, Western Circle for the year ending 31st March, 1920, pp. 101-5, Pl. XXVIII-XXIX.*

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³ *Ibid., for the year ending 31st March, 1921, pp.96-7, Pl. XXII (b).*

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The seals discovered by Bloch, Spooner, and Marshall at Vaisali and Bhita help us to determine the nature of some of the principal Hindu shrines of the Gupta period. The most important of them still existing is that of the Foot-print of Viṣṇu at Gaya. The Bloch collection contains a magnificent specimen of the seal of the shrine. The upper part bears the mace, an ornamental symbol perhaps a triśūla, a conch, a wheel and the symbols of the Sun and the Moon. Among these the mace, conch and the wheel are the special emblems of Viṣṇu. The legend is Śrī-Viṣṇupada-svāmi-Nārāyaṇa.¹ The seal of the temple of Amrātakeśvara Śiva at Benares comes only second in importance because that shrine is no longer in existence. The seal bears on its upper part a liṅga with a Yoni-paṭṭa and there is a Triśūla on each side. According to the Matsya Purāṇa Amrātakeśvara was one of the eight principal Śaiva shrine of Benares. It was so famous that the Ahom kings of Assam built a temple of Śiva of that name in the village of Ramsa in the Kamrup district.² The god is mentioned in a eighteenth century inscription on Kāmākhyā hill in the same district.³ Spooner found many seals of temples at Vaiśālī but none of them are so important as those mentioned above. Such is the seal of the temple of Rājadharmeśvara in which the emblem is not clear.⁴ The seal of the temple of Ārāmikiśvara belongs to the Gupta period though Spooner thought it earlier in date. The emblems are a vase, two trees and a combined triśūla and a battle-axe (paraśu). At least two specimens were discovered at Vaiśālī but the locality is not known to us.¹ The third seal is unfortunately mutilated but the legend is very interesting as it mentions a tīrtha or a holy place.² The fourth specimen is far more interesting as it is a seal of a temple of the Sun-god. The upper part is occupied by a fire-altar, which is an emblem characteristic of the connection between fire worship and Sun worship. Spooner saw Iranian influence in this emblem.³ Marshall found a similar seal at Bhita but there is some difference in the legend. The Vaiśālī seal reads *Bhagavato Adityasya* "(the seal of the temple) of the lord Śun," but the term *Bhagavato* is omitted in the Bhita specimen, which may mean that it is the seal of a person and not a temple.⁴ Though Spooner's discussion of the origin of Sun worship is biassed some of his observation are correct. The cult of the Sun has almost disappeared from India now, but the images of that deity, discovered all over India and over long centuries from the first to the twelfth, prove that at one time prior to the Musalman conquest it had a firmer hold on the people of our country. Images of the Sun are fairly numerous in the Gupta period and are to be found both as separate images and as decorative figures in *Chaitya*-windows or plaques. These sculptures will be discussed in a subsequent chapter but the seals indicate that the cult of the Sun god was still very popular in the Northern India. This is proved by the popularity of the altar of the Sun, which appear on Sassanian and Scytho-sassanian coinage, and on private seals of the Gupta period. In the Vaiśālī collection of 1903-4 there are at least four seals with this altar. Marshall also discovered four seals at Bhita in 1908-9 with the Fire-altar. Spooner discovered a few in 1913-14 with many different varieties of the altar, the most important of which is No. 607.

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¹ Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1903-4. p 110, No. 31, Pl. XL 3.

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² Ibid., pp. 104, 110; Pl. XL 2.

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³ Origin of the Bengali Script, University of Calcutta, 1919, Pl. X.

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⁴ Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India 1913-14, p. 135 No. 226.

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¹ *Ibid.*, p. 142, Nos. 369, 396; *Pl.* XLVIII.

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² *Ibid.*, p. 143, No. 449.

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³ *Ibid.*, pp. 118-20, 149. No. 607; *Pl.* XLIX.

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⁴ *Ibid.*, 1911-12, p. 58, No. 98, *Pl.* XXI.

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Works on Hindu ritual of the Gupta period have not been discovered as yet and therefore it cannot be stated definitely whether the modern Hindu ritual had its origin in this period or not. There seems to be some ground for supposing that the present Hindu ritual was evolved out of the old Vedic ritual during this period.

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The revival in and the reform of the Brahmana-nical or the Hindu religion is also evident from the subdivisions of castes in North-eastern India. Generally speaking castes and sub-castes in the Eastern part of the United Provinces, the North-eastern part of the Central Provinces, the whole of Bihar and Bengal do not correspond to the caste system of the Punjab, Rajputana, or Malwa on the one hand and Gujarat and the Mahārāṣṭra on the other hand. We are not speaking of such provinces of Southern India in which Dravidian languages are still exclusively spoken. In such provinces of Northern, Central, and Western India where Indo-Aryan languages are spoken the caste system can be divided into three great divisions :—

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I. The North-eastern castes.

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II. The castes of the Punjab and Northern Rajputana.

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III. The castes of Southern Rajputana, Malwa, and Northern Gujarat. By the term Northern Gujarat is meant the ancient province of Uttara-lāṭa consisting of the Kaḍi Prānt of the dominions of the Gaikwad of Baroda, the Māhi-kaṇṭhā States, the Southern part of the Mallāni district of the Jodhpur State and the corresponding portion of the district of Thar and Parkar of Sindh, consisting of the desert taluqas of Mithi, Diplo and Nagar-Pārkar. The caste system of British Gujarat, which is Dakṣiṇa-Lāṭa is slightly different.

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IV. The castes of Southern Gujarat or the districts of Broach and Surat, Northern Konkan consisting of the districts of Thana, Kolaba and Ratnagiri, as well as that of the Mahārāṣṭra.

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The difference in the caste system is to be noticed on the following points only :—

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I. The absence of a pure Kṣatriya caste and the approximation to it of various royal families.

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II. The division of the Vaiśya community into two great groups, the Vaṇika proper with their sub-divisions and a very large number of functional sub-castes who are regarded as Śūdras but are really Vaiśyas.

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III. The divisions of Śūdras into three separate groups:—

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(i) The higher Śūdras,

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(ii) the intermediate Śūdras, and

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(iii) the lowest Śūdras and untouchables.

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Such differences in the caste system of the Eastern and Western Provinces of Northern India point to one conclusion: that the castes and sub-castes and of the North-eastern Provinces were changed and reclassified long after the last reduction of the *Mānava-Dharma-Śāstra* and these classifications were changed when the Hūṇas conquered the whole of the Western Provinces of Northern India and the West-central districts of Central India. To go deeper into the subject is impossible within the limited compass of this treatise. The castes of Northern Gujarat suffered a second change on account of the obliterating influence of militant Jainism of the period of Hemacandra Sūri and his royal patrons Kumārapāla and Siddhārāja Jayasiṃha of Aṇahilapāṭaka. No further changes in the basic rules of the castes of the North-eastern Provinces were needed up to the end of the 12th century, even when the people abandoned Mahāyāna proper and the obscene and revolting rites of Kāla-Cakra-Yāna and Vajrayāna under the Pālas of Bengal.

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The gods worshipped, though practically the same as of modern Hindu India were slightly different both in shape and in name. The worship of Viṣṇu was universal as at the present day but the form in favour in the Gupta period was slightly different. Except among the sculptures recently discovered by Mr. K. N. Dikshit M.A. of the Archæological Survey of India, Eastern Circle at Paharpur in the Rajshahi district of Northern Bengal, images of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are absolutely unknown in the Gupta period. Even bas-reliefs representing the life of Kṛṣṇa, as described in the 10th Skandha of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, are exceedingly rare. The only specimen known is the huge image unearthed at Sarnath and supposed by Rai Bahadur Pundit Dayaram Sahni as an image of Kṛṣṇa holding the Govardhana mountain, which is a case of mistaken identification.¹ More importance is given to the worship of the Avatāras, “incarnations” of Viṣṇu than to Kṛṣṇa. Among the Avatāras the Boar incarnation appears to have been regarded as more important than any other. The deities mentioned in the Damodarpur plates are Śveta-Varāha-Svāmin and Kokā-Mukha-Svāmin. Śveta- Varāha-Svāmin is undoubtedly the Boar incarnation of Viṣṇu but Kokā-Mukha-Svamin is still unknown. Most probably it was an image of Śiva and Pārvatī. The cave excavated by the Sanikānīka chief, who was the son of the Mahārāja Viṣṇudāsa, contained two images, one of the four-armed Viṣṇu attended by his wives and another of Durgā as Mahiṣa-mardini.¹ The undated cave inscription of Candragupta II at Udayagiri records the dedication of the cave as a temple of Śiva by one Vīrasena, a hereditary minister. But the Varāha cave, though uninscribed, is distinctly a Vaiṣṇava shrine belonging to the early Gupta period.² In the same group at Udayagiri is to be found the colossal image of Viṣṇu lying on the snake-king Ananta twelve feet long.³ The popularity of the Boar incarnation of Viṣṇu can be gauged from the erection of the great Boar by Mahārāja Dhanyaviṣṇu, the younger brother of the deceased Mahārāja Matṛviṣṇu in the first year of the reign of the Hūna king Toramāṇa, which marks the end of the Gupta period proper. In this period two forms of the Boar incarnation were adopted (1) a man with a Boar's head, and (2) a real boar as at Khoh in the Nagod State.⁴ Other examples of the incarnations of Viṣṇu, belonging to this period, are to be found at Kaman in the Bharatpur State. There is a fragment bearing the Fish, Tortoise, Boar, Man-Lion and Dwarf incarnations. Most probably the series was complete.¹ The oldest image of the four-armed Viṣṇu is to be found in the Udayagiri cave mentioned above. The next specimen was that the dedication of which was recorded in the inscription of the emperor Skandagupta at Bhitari in the Ghazipur district to which a village was granted.² During the reign of the same emperor Cakrapālita, the son of Parṇadatta, the Viceroy of Kathiawad, after the restoration of the great dam of the Sudarśana lake, erected a temple of Viṣṇu and dedicated an image of Cakrabhṛt, “the wielder of the Discus.”³ The last example of the dedication of an image of Viṣṇu is that of the colossal image at Eran in the Sagar district of the Central Provinces to which a flag-staff (*Dhvaja-stambha*), was dedicated in the year 165 during the reign of the emperor Budhagupta by the *Mahārāja* Mātṛviṣṇu and his younger brother Dhanyaviṣṇu.⁴

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¹ Not included in the Catalogue of the Museum of Archæology at Sarnath.

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¹ *Gupta Inscriptions*, p. 22.

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² *Cunningham-Archæological Survey Reports*, Vol. X, p. 48-49.

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³ *Ibid.*, p. 52.

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⁴ *Progress Report of the Archæological Survey of India for the year ending 31st March, 1920*, p. 106, pl. XXIX.

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¹ *Ibid.*, 1919, pp. 64-5, pl. XXIV.

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² *Gupta Inscriptions*, pp. 53-56.

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³ *Ibid.*, pp. 55-56.

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⁴ *Ibid.*, pp. 69-90.

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The earliest example of a Śaiva sculpture belonging to the Gupta period has been found at Mathura. The second is the figure of Mahiṣamardinī in the cave at Udayagiri near Sanchi excavated in G.E., 82,⁵ with those of the Seven Mothers. The third instance is the temple dedicated by Virasena.¹ The fourth instance is the *Linga* dedicated under the name of Pṛthivīśvara by Pṛthivīṣeṇa, the minister and commander-in-chief of the emperor Kumāragupta II, which is now preserved in the Lucknow Museum. It is the only known instance of a *Linga* belonging to the Gupta period which is neither a natural *Linga* nor a *Mukha-liṅgam*.² It was dedicated in G.E. 117. The Bilsad pillar inscription of the year 96 mentions the dedication of a temple of Mahāsena or Kārtikeya at Bilsad in the Eta district and this may also be counted among instances of Śaiva temples and images.³ The *Nāma-liṅgam* mentioned in the fourth Damodārpur plate is the next instance.⁴ The most beautiful Śaiva sculptures, with the exception of those discovered at Benares, were found at Kaman, whence they have been removed during recent years to the Ajmer Museum. Such is the great *Caturmmukha-liṅgam* with figures of Viṣṇu, Brahmā, Śiva, and Sūrya on its four sides. The earliest bas-relief representing the marriage of Śiva and Pārvatī discovered in India also came from Kaman to this Museum. The remaining examples of Śaiva sculptures are the *Mukha-liṅgas* discovered by the writer at Khoh and Bhumra in the Nagod State. The Khoh and the Bhumra *Liṅgas* are *Eka-mukha-Liṅgas*. The Khoh specimen is undoubtedly one of the best specimens of portraiture ever discovered amongst specimens of Gupta art.¹ It is certainly far superior in this respect to the gigantic *Eka-mukha-Liṅga* discovered in the interior of the temple at Bhumra.² The use of natural *Liṅgas* appears to have ceased before the beginning of the Gupta period proper, because all *Liṅgas* which can be definitely assigned to the Gupta period are either plain shafts or *Eka-mukha* and *Caturmmukha-Liṅgas*.

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⁵ Cunningham-*Archæological Survey Report* Vol. X, p. 50.

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¹ *Ibid.*, p. 51-52.

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² *Epi. Ind.*, Vol. X, pp. 71-72.

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³ *Gupta Inscriptions*, pp. 43-45.

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⁴ *Epi. Ind.*, Vol. XV, p. 139.

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¹ *Progress Report of the Archæological Survey of India, Western Circle for the year ending 31st March 1920, pl. XXIX.*

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² *Memoirs of the Archæological Survey of India, No. 16; the temple of Siva at Bhumara, pl. XV(c).*

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After Viṣṇu and Śiva the next important deity in Hinduism of the Gupta period is Sūrya. The worship of this deity has practically disappeared from modern Hinduism and with the exception of solitary shrines in important holy places like Gayā and Benares, temples dedicated to the Sun god are extremely rare. In the Gupta period inscriptions prove the existence of a number of shrines of Sūrya. The earliest record which mentions this deity is the Indor Khera copper plate inscription of the time of the emperor Skandagupta. From this inscription we learn that there was a temple of the Sun at Indrapura, a town in the *Antarvedī* or the Ganges-Junina Doab, built by two Kṣatriyas named Acalavarman and Bhrukuṇṭhasimha.³ There was a great temple of the Sun god in the ancient city of Daśapura in Mālava, modern Mandasor in the Malwa Prānt of the dominions of the Mahārāja Śinde. During the reign of Kumāragupta I, when Mahārāja Bandhuvarman was the Governor of Daśapura, this temple was built by the Guild of silk-weavers from their accumulated wealth. After 36 years, when it had fallen into disrepair, it was rebuilt by the same Guild in V. S., 529 = 471 A. D.¹ Images of the Sun god are common. The most beautiful example of the representation of the Sun god is to be found in a medallion discovered at Bhumra where the figure is of the type of a Scythian king.² It is robed exactly like Kāṇiṣka³ as seen in his statue discovered at Mat in the Mathura district. There are no horses in the Bhumra medallion but there are seven such on the Liṅga from Kaman in the Ajmer Museum.⁴ In this case the Sun god is squatting on his haunches like the unknown Kuṣāṇa statue from Mat.⁵ In many cases the forms of Hindu gods and goddesses are totally unlike their present forms. Mahiṣamardinī, now called Durgā, is represented with ten hands at the present day, with eight or twelve in the mediaeval period (800-1200

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³ *Gupta Inscriptions pp. 70-71.*

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¹ Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 80-87.

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² Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India No. 16, pl. XIV (a).

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³ Coomaraswamy—History of Indian and Indonesian Art, pl. XVIII, Fig. 65.

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⁴ Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western Circle for the year ending 31st March 1919, pl. XXVI.

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⁵ Coomaraswamy--History of Indian and Indonesian Art. pl. XVIII, Fig. 64.

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A. D.), with four hands at Badami¹ in the sixth century, is to be found with the same number of hands in Gupta sculpture proper, *e.g.*, at Bhumra. Similarly in the case of Vaiṣṇava sculptures the image of Viṣṇu seated on the coils of the snake Ananta is to be found at Badami² and on the door lintel of the later Gupta temple at Deogadh but no where else in later times. Such images are not worshipped at the present day and very probably became obsolete after the close of the Gupta period.

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¹ *Memoirs of the Archæological Survey of India*, No. 25, *Basreliefs of Badami*, pl. II *b*.

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² *Ibid.*, *pl.* XVII *a*.

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That Buddhism was flourishing is proved beyond doubt by the great mass of decorative sculpture and number of images discovered at Sarnath alone of all places. There cannot be any doubt about the fact that Sarnath or Buddhist Benares was included in the empire of the early Guptas up to the end of the reign of Bhānugupta. Therefore it cannot be explained for what reasons the Gupta era and the names of most of the Gupta emperors, with the exception of Kumāragupta II and Budhagupta, are omitted in the votive inscriptions of Benares while Candragupta II is mentioned by name and Gupta era is used in the Sanchi inscription of the year 93³ and the Gupta era used without the name of the reigning emperor Kumāragupta I in the Sanchi inscription of 131.⁴ Even the Mankuwar Buddha discovered in the Allahabad district mentions Kumāragupta I as the ruling emperor in the year 129.¹

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³ *Gupta Inscriptions*, *pp.* 31-32.

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⁴ *Ibid.*, *pp.* 261-2.

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¹ Ibid., pp. 46-47.

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Jaina inscriptions of the Gupta period betray a certain peculiarity. In the Kahaum pillar inscription of the reign of Skandagupta, the emperor is mentioned by name and the date given in the Gupta era. It records the erection of a stone pillar with five images of the principal Jaina Tīrthaṅkaras (Ādi-kartṛs). In the majority of ancient and mediaeval Caturmukhas or Pratimā-sarvatobhadrikā only four Jinas are represented. Even on the facets of modern Jaina Caumuhās or Merus four, eight, and twelve are the usual numbers. Odd numbers, specially five is unknown to Jaina Iconography. Bhagwanlal Indraji suggested that they are the images of Ādinātha, Śāntinātha, Neminātha, Pārśvanātha, and Mahāvīra-Varddhamāna.² From the year 135 onwards though the Gupta era is used, votive Buddhist and Jaina inscriptions found in Mathurā do not mention any king, whether Buddhist or Hindu.

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² Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 66-8.

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A class of terra cotta plaques, so long surmised to be representations of the goddesses of Fertility, Fecundity or the mother goddess, can now be recognised as representations of Śiva and Durgā. The terra cotta plaques in the collection of Major B. D. Basu, I.M.S. (retired) when compared with the stone figure of Śiva and Durgā dedicated by Mahārāja Bhīmavarman in G.E., 139 prove the truth of this statement.¹

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¹ Annual Report of the Archæological Survey of India 1913-14, pp. 262-4 ; pl. LXXb-c.

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Very little was known of the condition of plastic art in ancient Ḍabhāla, mediæval Ḍahala, Jubbulpur and Rewa in the upper Narmadā-Tons valley. The fortunate discovery of an inscribed image at Dhuan Dhar near the falls of the Narmadā at Bhera Ghat or the Marble Rocks has proved that in the 2nd century A.D., plastic art was yet in its nascent stage. One such image was introduced in later times into the circular temple of the Sixty-four Yoginis. This temple contains images of three different dates of which the inscribed images, described by me in my memoir on the Haihayas of Tripurī and their monuments, were dedicated by queen Nohalā, wife of Lakṣmaṇarāja.² Earlier than these there are several images in this circular temple all of which are standing and uninscribed.³ These images evidently belong to the Gupta period, when the Parivrājaka Mahārājas and the chiefs of Ucchakalpa ruled over the country between the rivers Tons and Narmadā. The evolution of the human figure in this country, as evidenced by the Dhuan Dhar images discovered by the late Mr. H. Panday and the 10th century images of the Cedī period, would point out that the intermediate images must belong to the Gupta period.

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² Memoirs of the Archæological Survey of India, No. 23, pp. 79-91.

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³ Ibid., p. 86, Nos. 49-52.

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