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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XV.
become refractory and to set up a separate and independent rule. Be that as it may, there is now hardly any doubt that the Gupta family broke up about that time at least into two branches, arranging perhaps, by mutual agreement, to rule over different provinces. But with our present stock of knowledge it is not very easy to indicate the place where the branch line headed by Pura-gupta may have ruled; for, as we shall presently show, the imperial ruler of the other branch, Budha-gupta, held supremacy not only over North Bengal (Pundravardhana) in the east (Plates Nos. 3 and 4) and Benares (Sarnath image inscription No. 39E.) in the middle, but also over Malwa in the west. It has been stated before that Budha-gupta's predecessor, Kumara-gupta II, held imperial sway over the central and western provinces. It is indeed difficult to bring about a happy reconciliation between the epigraphic documents of the time of Kumara-gupta II and Budha-gupta and the Bhitari seal inscription. The rulers of the branch line through Skanda-gupta seem to have been more powerful than those belonging to the other branch; for it will be shown that during Budha-gupta's reign the Gupta power was in full height of splendour. It may be believed that the rulers of the stronger branch may, by courtesy and in good-will, have suffered the other branch to rule somewhere in the eastern portion of the Gupta empire, perhaps in South Bihar, where only we have evidence of Narasimha-gupta's (Baladitya's) activity, e.g. his building the famous bricktemple in Nalanda, the chief seat of Buddhist learning in those days. The other parts of the Gupta empire, including North Bengal, and perhaps North Bihar also, continued under the Sovereignty of the other, or stronger, branch. The question as to when the decadence of the Gupta power began will be taken up later on.
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The next very important question that may now be discussed is, who is the Budha-gupta of our Plates Nos. 3 and 4? These two plates, of which the dates in years are unfortunately cut off and lost, show that, like Kumara-gupta I (Plates Nos. 1 and 2), Budha-gupta also used the imperial titles of parama-daivata, parama-bhaṭṭäraka and mahārājädhiraja, and bestowed favours on his own dependants, the governors of the bhukti of Pandravardhana, who were appointed by the sovereign himself. We have evidence to show that during this emperor's rule there was at least one change of government in North Bengal. From Plate No. 3 it is seen that uparikamaharaja Brahmadatta was governor of Pundravardhana, whereas from Plate No. 4 we learn that uparika-mahārāja Jayadatta was so. From the fact that in Plate No. 5.of 214 G.E. appears the name of the nagara-freshthin Ribhupala, also mentioned in Plate No. 4, it may be inferred that Plate No. 4 comes later than Plate No. 3, which does not contain the name of the same person, as a member of the consultative board of administration. Hence we are inclined to suppose that of the two governors of Pundravardhana under Budha-gupta, viz. Brahmadatta and Jayadatta, the latter comes later in time than the former. Under the governorship of Jayadatta the local administrator for the vishaya of Kotivarsha was the ayuktaka Sandaka (or Gandaka). Herein we find therefore the most important historical fact that North Bengal continued under the royal jurisdiction of the imperial Gupta monarch, Budha-gupta. It remained a Gupta province even under the next emperor (Plate No. 5).
1 The following genealogical table illustrates the relationship of the Gupta emperors of the two branches according to our view :
Kumara-gupta I
Bhanu-gupta
