Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s2.5

c22.s2.5

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