History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c10.s3.14

c10.s3.14

surprise with the tragic consequences described above, we feel no hesitation in identifying the latter with the Devagupta of the Madhuban and Banskhera inscriptions.¹ Fanciful as the guess may be, it would seem that Bāṇa did not like to mention this suggestive and auspicious name of Rājya’s adversary—Devagupta literally means “protected by the gods”—owing to his foul deed. For the same reason probably he places the following statement in the mouth of Harṣa with regard to the king of Gauḍa: “My tongue seems soiled with a smirch of sin as I take the miscreant’s very name upon my lips.”² According to the testimony of Yuan Chwang, the king of Gauḍa was Śaśāṅka (She-shang-kia)³ the wicked king of Karṇasuvarṇa in East India⁴ who per-