History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c22.s1.32

v1.c22.s1.32

The letters of the inscription at Nirmand are of the Gupta type which has misled some to believe that it must be dated in the 4th or 5th century A. D. “But these Gupta characters have been always in use in the hills between the Jumna and the Indus. They are found on the coins of the Kangra rajas so late as the time of Trailokya Chandra contemporary of Jehangir and in all inscriptions of Kashmir, Kangra, and Mandi whose king Jālamsena died in 1838 and the sati pillars in his reign bear the words Mahārāja in the same Gupta characters. In fact the Banias of Mandi still keep their accounts in Gupta characters and a Bania could easily read Samundra Gupta’s inscription on the Allahabad Pillar when shown to him.” This illustrates what we have said in the beginning viz. that things in the snows of the Himalayas are long preserved.