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Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s4: Section IV. Budha Gupta

Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s4

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Section IV. Budha Gupta

c22.s4.1

For Budha Gupta, now known to have been a son of Puru Gupta¹ we have a number of dated inscriptions and coins which prove that he ruled for about twenty years (A.D. 477-*c.* 495).

c22.s4.2

¹ Seal of Budha Gupta (*MASB*, No. 66, p. 64).

c22.s4.3

Two copper-plate inscriptions discovered in the village of Dāmodarpur in the district of Dinājpur, testify to the fact that Budha Gupta's empire included Puṇḍravardhana *bhukti* (roughly North Bengal) which was governed by his viceroys (*Uparika Mahārāja*) Brahmadatta and Jayadatta.² The Sārnāth inscription of A.D. 476-77 and Benares Ins.³ of 479 prove his possession of the Kāśī country. In A.D. 484-85 the erection of a *dhvaja-stambha* or flag staff in honour of Janārdana, *i.e.*, Vishṇu, by the Mahārāja Mātṛivishṇu, ruler of Eraṇ, and his brother Dhanyavishṇu, while the *Bhūpati* (King) Budha Gupta, was reigning, and *Mahārāja* Suraśmichandra was governing the land between the Kālindī (Jumna) and the Narmadā (Nerbudda), indicates that Budha Gupta's dominions included part of Central India as well as Kāśī and North Bengal.

c22.s4.4

² To the reign of this Gupta king belongs also probably the Pāhāḍpur (ancient Somapura) (Rājshāhi District) plate of A.D. 478-79 (*Mod. Rev.*, 1931, 150; *Prabāsi* 1338, 671; *Ep. Ind.*, XX, 59 ff.) and also a copper-plate of A.D. 488-9 (*Ep. Ind.*, xxiii. 52), originally found at Nandapura (Monghyr District). For a possible reference to Budha Gupta in Purāṇic literature, see *Pro. of the Seventh Or. Conf.*, 576.

c22.s4.5

³ *JRASB*, 1949, 5 ff.

c22.s4.6

The coins of this emperor are dated in the year A.D. *c.* 495. They continue the peacock-type of the Gupta silver coinage that was meant, according to Allan, for circulation in the central part of the empire.⁴ Their legend is the claim to be lord of the earth and to have won heaven,—found on the coins of Kumāra Gupta I and Skanda Gupta.

c22.s4.7

⁴ *Cf.* also *Mahābhārata*, ii. 32. 4; Kālidāsa, *Meghadūta*, I. 45.

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