Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c19.s4.19

c19.s4.19

The apotheosis of deceased rulers is strikingly illustrated by the practice of erecting *Devakulas* or "Royal galleries of portrait statues." The most famous of these structures was the *Devakula* of the *Pitāmaha* (grandfather) of Huvishka referred to in a Mathurā inscription.² The existence of royal *Devakulas* as well as ordinary temples, and the presence of the living *Devaputra* probably earned for Mathurā its secondary name of "The city (?) of the gods."¹