Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s2.1

c22.s2.1

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