Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s1.1

c22.s1.1

It is now admitted on all hands that the reign of Skanda Gupta ended about A.D. 467.¹ When he passed away the empire declined,² especially in the west, but did not wholly perish. We have epigraphic as well as literary evidence of the continuance of the Gupta empire in parts of Central and Eastern India in the latter half of the fifth as well as the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. The Dāmodarpur plates, the Sārnāth Inscriptions³ and the Eraṇ epigraph of Budha Gupta prove that from A.D. 477 to 496 the Gupta empire extended from Bengal to Eastern Mālwa. The Betul plates of the *Parivrājaka Mahārāja* Saṁkshobha, dated in the year 199 G. E., *i.e.*, 518 A.D., 'during the enjoyment of sovereignty by the Gupta King,'⁴ testify to the fact that the Gupta sway at this period was acknowledged in Dabhālā, which included the Tripuri *Vishaya* (Jabbalpur region).¹ Another inscription of Saṁkshobha found in the valley near the village of Khoh in Baghēlkhaṇḍ, dated in A.D. 528, proves that the Gupta empire included some of the central districts even in A.D. 528.² Fifteen years later the grant of a village in the Koṭivarsha *Vishaya* (Dinājpur District) of Puṇḍravardhana-bhukti (roughly North Bengal) 'during the reign of *Paramadaivata* (the Supreme Divinity) *Parama-bhaṭṭāraka* (the Supreme Lord) *Mahārājādhirāja* (King of Kings) *Śrī . . . . . Gupta*,'³ shows that the Gupta dominions at this period included the eastern as well as the central provinces. Towards the close of the sixth century a Gupta king, a contemporary of Prabhākara-vardhana of the Pushyabhūti⁴ family of Śrīkaṇṭha (Thānēsar), was ruling in "Mālava."⁵ Two sons of this king, Kumāra Gupta and Mādhava Gupta were appointed to wait upon the princes Rājya-vardhana and Harsha of Thānesar. From the Aphsaḍ inscription of Ādityasena we learn that the fame of the father of Mādhava Gupta, the associate of Harsha,¹ marked with honour of victory in war over Susthitavarman, doubtless a king of Kāmarūpa, was constantly sung on the bank of the river Lohitya or Brahmaputra. This indicates that even in or about A.D. 600 (the time of Prabhākara-vardhana) the sway of kings bearing the name Gupta extended from "Mālava" to the Brahmaputra.²