Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s6.1

c22.s6.1

The name of the Gupta emperor in the Dāmodarpur plate of A.D. 543-44 is unfortunately lost. The Aphsaḍ inscription, however, discloses the names of a number of "Gupta" kings,¹ the fourth of whom, Kumāra Gupta(III), was a contemporary of Īśānavarman Maukhari who is known from the Harāhā inscription to have been ruling in A.D. 554.² Kumāra Gupta III, and his three predecessors, *viz.*, Kṛishṇa, Harsha and Jīvita, should probably be placed in the period between A.D. 510, the date of Bhānu Gupta, and 554, the date of Īśānavarman. It is possible, but by no means certain, that one of these kings is identical with the Gupta emperor mentioned in the Dāmodarpur plate of A.D. 543-44.¹ The absence of high-sounding titles like *Mahārājādhirāja* or *Parama-bhaṭṭāraka* in the *Ślokas* or verses of the Aphsaḍ inscription does not necessarily prove that the kings mentioned there were petty chiefs. No such titles are attached to the name of Kumāra I in the Mandaśor inscription, or to the name of Budha in the Eraṇ inscription. On the other hand the queen of Mādhava Gupta, one of the least powerful kings mentioned in the Aphsaḍ inscription, is called *Parama-bhaṭṭārikā* and *Mahādevī* in the Dēo Baraṇārk epigraph.