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Dr. Charlotte Krause : Her Life & Literature
( 35 ) Hafa farinat TURIST **** **** HESTAR I (sic!)
(Kumāragupta, 1 )131 The parallelism of the wording and idea of these legends with the pertinent passage of the Meharaulī Pillar Inscription has been pointed out by D. Sharma,132 who, on this basis, inferred their contemporaneousness.
The much discussed expression 'anudhyāta', too, used by Siddhasena in St. 13, though in an ironical sense, sounds like an echo from Gupta inscriptions or their imitations133 ( and, for the matter of that, demonstrates ad oculos the fact that the root has retained its transitive meaning in this particular application134).
Another significant parallel between the Guņavacanadvātrimśikā and Gupta remains is the idea of the extremely wanton Śrī, who behaves towards Siddhasena's royal patron in the same capricious way as she does towards inscriptional Gupta rulers 135, and haunts the former's proximity just as fondly as she does that of the Gupta kings of those famous coins136 on which she is so persistently depicted, taking her turn with the respective Pattamahārājñi ( St. 9, 10, 19, 20).
Even leaving details aside, one can scarcely resist the general impression that the whole Dvātriṁśikā appears like a poetic paraphrase of the stereotyped epithets attached to the names of Imperial Gupta rulers from Samudragupta onward in grants and other documents137, such as aprativāryavīrya, sarvarājocchettrī, prthiviyaṁ apratiratha, caturudadhisalilāsvāditayaśas, Dhanadavaruņendrāntakasama, krtāntaparašu, nyāyāgatānekagohiranyakotiprada.
In view of these observations, coupled with the fact that the very policy of Siddhasena's patron, his tolerance, urbanity, liberality, love for learning and rhetoric and his personal proficiency therein, in short the whole atmosphere of cultural refinement surrounding this king, are typical features of the Gupta age, one can
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