Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c20.s3.2

c20.s3.2

² The epithet *Sarva-rājo-chchhettā* found on Kācha's coins shows that he was in all probability identical with Samudra Gupta. Cf. Smith, *Catalogue*, 96; IA, 1902, 259f. For another view see Smith, *JRAS*, 1897, 19; Rapson, *JRAS*, 1893, 81; Heras, *Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute*, Vol. IX, p. 83f. To us it is unthinkable that the style "uprooter of all kings" could have been assumed by a Gupta monarch other than the one who is actually credited with that achievement by a contemporary inscription, before the events presupposed by the expression had actually happened. In the Poona plates we find the epithet applied to Chandra Gupta II, son of Samudra Gupta, along with many other designations of the latter. But it should be remembered that the plates in question are not official records of the Guptas themselves. In no official epigraph of the Imperial Guptas is the style "*Sarva-rājo-chchhettā*" applied to any other king except Samudra Gupta. The application of the term to Chandra Gupta II in the Poona Plates is due to the same carelessness which led the writer to describe Chandra Gupta I as a mere *Mahārāja* (and not *Mahārājādhirāja*). A comparison of the Āmgāchhi record with the Bāṇagaḍ Inscription shows that writers of *Praśastis* not unoften carelessly applied to a later king eulogies really pertaining to a preceding ruler.