Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c20.s1.7

c20.s1.7

Traces of "Gupta" rule in Magadha proper, or some neighbouring tract down the Ganges, are found as early as the second century A.D. I-Tsing, a Chinese pilgrim, who travelled in India in the seventh century A.D., mentions a Mahārāja **Śrī Gupta** who built a temple near Mṛigasikhāvana "which was about forty yojanas to the east of Nālandā, following the course of the Ganges."'¹ I-Tsing's date would place him about A.D. 175.² Allan rejects the date, and identifies Śrī Gupta, with Gupta the great-grandfather of Samudra Gupta, on the ground that it is unlikely that we should have two different rulers in the same territory, of the same name, within a brief period. But have we not two Chandra Guptas and two Kumāra Guptas within brief periods? There is no cogent reason for identifying Śrī Gupta of *cir.* A.D. 175, known to tradition, with Samudra Gupta's great-grandfather who must have flourished about a century later.