Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c22.s6.32

c22.s6.32

Between Mahāsena Gupta, the contemporary of Prabhākara-vardhana, and his younger or youngest son Mādhava Gupta, the contemporary of Harsha, we have to place a king named **Deva Gupta II**² who is mentioned by name in the Madhuban and Banskhera inscriptions of Harsha as the most prominent among the kings "who resembled wicked horses," who were all punished and restrained in their evil career by Rājya-vardhana. As the Gupta princes are uniformly connected with Mālava in the *Harsha-charita* there can be no doubt that the wicked Deva Gupta is identical with the wicked lord of Mālava who cut off Grahavarman Maukhari, and who was himself defeated "with ridiculous ease" by Rājya-vardhana.³ It is difficult to determine the position of Deva Gupta in the dynastic list of the Guptas. He may have been the eldest son of Mahāsena Gupta, and an elder brother of Kumāra Gupta and Mādhava Gupta.¹ His name is omitted in the Aphsaḍ list of kings, just as the name of Skanda Gupta is omitted in the Bhitarī list.