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the governors of the province of Pundravardhana. Just as we have learned from the Dämolarpar Plate No. 4 that the āyuktaka Sandaka (or Gandaka), carrying on the administration of the vishaya of Kotivarsha from the adhishthāna (town) of that name, was under the authority of Jayadattı, the governor of Pundravardhana, so also, as we have reason to think, the maharaja Mātrivishņu of the Eran stone pillar inscription of Budha-gupta's time, "who has boen victorious in battle against many enemios" (anēka-fattru-samara-jishnuna, 1. 7), was a district officer (vishayapati) under the authority of Suraśmichandra, the governor of Mālwa. The trath of this remark may be ascertained from the other Eran stone Boar insòriptioul of Toramâna's time, which discloses the fact that in the first year of this Hana chief's role in that portion of Aryyāvarta (Malwā) Dhanya vishnu (now deceased, -svarggatasya, 1. 6) built a temple in which the Boar-incarnation of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa stands) and that he built it in his own vishaya of Airikiņa (Sild-pra[sādah] Sva-vishay[@]=sminn-Airikina kāritah, 1. 7). There seems then to be no doubt that the mahārāja Mäțrivishnu, Dhanyavishnu's elder brother, was the vishayapati of the vishaya of Airikiņa in the year 165 G.E. (i.6. 484-85 A.D.), when Sura michandra was Budba-gupta's governor in Mālwa and the adjacent tracts of land. A city, also of this name, Airikina (the modern village Eran in the Kharai Sub-Division of the Sāgar District in the Central Provinces), is mentioned in the Erau stone inscription of Samudragupta. Hence we may say that this old vishaya of Airikina had continued to be a Gapta territory from the time of Samudra-gupta till at least 165 G.E. of Budha-gapta's reign; and it seems very probable that it afterwards passed into temporary possession of the Hapa mahārājadhiraja Toramāņa, whose supremacy was apparently ackaowledged by Dhanyavishnu, the younger brother of Mātrivishņu. So the imperial ruler Budha-gupta's supremacy in the western portion of the Gapta empire is proved. The historical insight of the late Dr. Fleet led him to presumes that "these two kinge (Budha-gapla and Bhinu-gupta) wore of the early Gupta lineage, though possibly not connected by direct descent with Skandagupta," and that "Budha-gupta comes chronologically immediately after Skanda-gapta, Bhinggupta somewhat later." These reunarks of the late Doctor almost approached the historical truth: as we have shown above, Budha-gupta comes to be chronologically, though not immediately, after Skanda-gupta, but immediately after Kumāra-gapta II, presumably #son and successor of Skanda-gupta, and there is no reason why we should not now consider him to have belonged to the early Gupta 'lineage. But in no way was there any ground to suppose that Budha-gupta's "territory lay between the Jumni and Narbadā," or that there was ever a separate dynasty knowo as "the Guptas of Eastern Mālwā," as wrongly balieved by Dr. Hoerale, Mr. V. Smith, Mr. Allan and others. We should no longer be justified in holding the view that? Budha-gupta (and Bhanu-gupta also) “ were the heirs of Skanda-gupta in that i.e. Malwa) region" only, and that “ Budha-gupta was a ruler of some importance," having "held part at least of the territory in which they (i.e. his coins) had been current." Those views must now be rectified in the light of the new discoveries. All that we obtain us historical truth from the Eran stone pillar inscription mentioned above is that Budha-gupta was the imperial "ruler of the earth " and that it was his feudatory governor Sarasmichandra's (and not his own) territory that lay between the Yamunā and the Narmadla. From the Sárnáth inscription of this monarch's time and from his coins obtained there it may plausibly be held that Benares also was subject to his sovereign authority. The fact, discovered
1 Fleet, C. I. I., Vol. III, No. 36.
Ibid, No. 2, p. 20. * Tbid, Introduction, pp. 1-2.
• Ibid, Introduction, p. 1. J. R.4. 8., 1889, p. 135 (vide Vincent Smith's paper on the Coinage of the Early Imperial Gupta Dynasty of Northern India).
* Allan, Indian Coins, Gupta Dynasties, Introduction, p. lxii. " Vincent Smith, Early Hister of India, 3rd Edition, p. 314.
