Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s2: Section II. Puru Gupta and Narasiṁha Gupta Bālāditya
Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s2
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Section II. Puru Gupta and Narasiṁha Gupta Bālāditya
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We shall now proceed to give an account of Skanda Gupta's successors. The immediate successor of the great emperor seems to have been his brother **Puru Gupta.** The existence of this king was unknown till the discovery of the Bhitarī seal of Kumāra Gupta II in 1889, and its publication by Smith and Hoernle.¹ The seal describes Puru Gupta as the son of Kumāra I by the queen Anantadevī, and does not mention Skanda Gupta. The mention of Puru Gupta immediately after Kumāra with the prefix *tat-pād-ānudhyāta* "meditating on, or attached to, the feet of" (Kumāra), does not necessarily prove that Puru Gupta was the immediate successor of his father, and a contemporary and rival of his brother or half-brother Skanda Gupta.² In the Manahali grant Madanapāla is described as *Śrī-Rāmapāla-Deva-pād-ānudhyāta*, although he was preceded by his elder brother Kumārapāla. In Kielhorn's Northern Inscription No. 39, Vijayapāla is described as the successor of Kshitipāla, although he was preceded by his brother Devapāla.³
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¹ JASB, 1889 pp. 84-105.
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² The omission of Skanda's name in the Bhitarī seal of his brother's grandson does not necessarily imply that the relations between him and Puru's family were unfriendly as suggested by Mr. R. D. Banerji (*cf. Annals of the Bhand. Ins.*, 1918-19, pp. 74-75). The name of Pulakeśin II is omitted in an inscription of his brother and Yuvarāja Vishṇuvardhana (Sātārā grant, *Ind. Ant.*, 1890 pp. 227f). The name of Bhoja II of the Imperial Pratīhāra dynasty is not mentioned in the Partabgarh Inscription of his nephew Mahendrapāla II, but it is mentioned in an inscription of his brother Vināyakapāla, the father of Mahendrapāla. Besides, there was no custom prohibiting the mention of the name of a rival uncle or brother. Maṅgaleśa and Govinda II are mentioned in the inscriptions of their rivals and their descendants. On the other hand even an ancestor of a reigning king was sometimes omitted, *e.g.*, Dharapaṭṭa is omitted in his son's inscription (Kielhorn, *N. Ins.*, No. 464).
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³ Kielhorn, *Ins. No.* 31.
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Puru Gupta seems to have been succeeded by his son **Narasimha Gupta Bālāditya**. This king has been identified with king Bālāditya whose troops are represented by Hiuen Tsang as having imprisoned the tyrant Mihirakula. It has been overlooked that Hiuen Tsang’s Bālāditya was the immediate successor of Tathāgata Gupta,¹ who was himself the immediate successor of Bud(d)ha Gupta,² whereas Narasiṁha Gupta Bālāditya was the son and successor of Puru Gupta who in his turn was the son of Kumāra Gupta I and the successor of Skanda Gupta. The son and successor of Hiuen Tsang’s Bālāditya was Vajra³ while the son and successor of Narasiṁha was Kumāra Gupta II. It is obvious that the conqueror of Mihirakula was not the son of Puru Gupta but an altogether different individual.⁴ The existence of several kings of the eastern part of the *Madhyadēśa* having the *biruda* Bālāditya is proved by the Sārnāth Inscription of Prakaṭāditya.⁵ Narasiṁha Gupta must have died in or about the year A.D. 473. He was succeeded by his son Kumāra Gupta II Kramāditya by queen Mitradevī.¹
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¹ *Life of Hiuen Tsang*, p. 111. *Si-yu-ki*. II, p. 168.
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² *Fo-to-kio-to*. Beal, Fleet and Watters render the term by Buddha Gupta, a name unknown to imperial Gupta epigraphy. The synchronism of his second successor Bālāditya with Mihirakula proves that Budha Gupta is meant. We have other instances of corruption of names, *e.g.*, Skanda is transformed into Skandha in several Purāṇic lists of the so-called Andhra dynasty.
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³ *Yuan Chwang* II, p. 165.
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⁴ Drs. Bhaṭṭasāli and Basāk, who uphold the identification of Hiuen Tsang’s Bālāditya with the son of Puru Gupta do not apparently attach due weight to the evidence of the *Life of Hiuen Tsang*, p. 111, which, as we shall see later on, is corroborated by the combined testimony of the Sārnāth inscription of Prakaṭāditya and the *Ārya-Mañju-śrī-mūla-kalpa*. The evidence of these documents suggests that Hiuen Tsang’s Bālāditya was identical with Bhānu Gupta and was the father of Prakaṭāditya and Vajra.
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⁵ *CII*, p. 285. A Bālāditya is mentioned in the Nālandā Stone Inscription of Yaśovarman (*Ep. Ind.*, 1929, Jan., 38) and also a seal (*Śrī Nālandāyām Śrī Bālāditya Gandhakuṭī*, *MASI*, 66 38).
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¹ It is suggested in *Ep. Ind.*, xxi, 77 (clay seals of Nālandā) and *ASI, AR*, 1934-35, 63, that the name of Kumāra Gupta's mother has to be read as Mitradevī and not Śrīmatī devī or Lakshmīdevī.
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The coins of Narasiṁha and his successor belong to two varieties of the Archer type. One class of these coins was, according to Allan, apparently intended for circulation in the lower Ganges valley, and the other may have been issued in the upper provinces. The inclusion of Eastern India within the dominions of Bālāditya (Bālakhya) and Kumāra (II) is vouched for by the *Ārya-Mañjuśrī-mūla-kalpa*.²
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² Ganapati Sāstrī's ed., p. 630. *Cf.* Jayaswal, *Imperial History*, 35.
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*Bālākhya nāmasau nṛipatir bhavitā Pūrva-deśakaḥ*
*tasyāpareṇa nṛipatiḥ Gauḍānāṁ prabhavishṇavaḥ*
*Kumārākhyo nāmataḥ proktaḥ so'pir atyanta dharmavān.*