The Age of the Imperial Guptas c7.23

c7.23

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.