The Age of the Imperial Guptas c7.16

c7.16

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.