________________
82
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XVIII.
to a king of such widely distributed currency is not reasonable. The next king, Kumárs, who is songht to be thrust in between the years 473 and 477 A.D., has also 18 coins described in the B. M. C. and three in that of the Indian Museum.
Para and Nara were undoubtedly successors to the Gupta throne, at a time which we have yet to determine, with very much diminished power and territory. Their coins have been found exclusively in Eastern India and it is hardly reasonable to place a real emperor like Budha after Pura and Nara who were perhaps only kings of Eastern India.
Narasitis ha-Gupta Båláditya is generally credited with standing against Mihirakula in Magadha. The claims of no other Balāditya have yet been substantiated. Mihirakula cannot be put earlier than the beginning of the sixth century A.D. and the proposition to put Balāditya between circa 470 and 473 A.D. makes him precede Mihirakula by half-a-century.
From the Haraha inscription (Above, Vol. XIV, No. 5), Sarvvavarmman and his son Avantivarmman's date can be put as 560 A.D. onwards. In the Deo-Barnark inscription of Jivita-Gupta, the Paramētvara Baláditya is spoken of as preceding Sarvvavarmman and Avantivarmman. Sarvvavarmman, the father of Avantivarmman, was the immediate predecessor of the latter, and the presumption is that Baláditya also preceded Sarv vavarmman closely, say, by not more than a generation. This fits in well if Båläditya's date is circa 530 A.D. But Bäläditya becomes too far off from Sarvvavarmman if he is put at 470 A.D.
Again, the history of the founding of the Nalanda monastery, as recorded by Yuan Chwang is evidently rather confused. But the mention of Budha.Gupta as a predecessor of Baladitya is significant, and is, in my opinion, in true chronological order.
Kumăra-Gupta II was succeeded on the imperial throne by Budha Gupta probably abont G.E. 157=476 A.D., as the Sårnåth inscription of Budha-Gupta is dated G.E. 158=177 A.D. Here, again, his relationship with his predecessor is not known, bat until evidence is produced to the contrary, we may take him as Kumara-Gupta II's son.
The latest date on the silver coins of Budha Gupta is G. E. 175=491 A.D. (Allan, No. 617).
The next king, Bhanu Gupta, who from his name (Bhanu and Budha are both names of planets appears to have been a brother of Budha-Gupta, may be tentatively taken to bave come to the throne in G.E. 177=495 A.D.
The Huns under Toramāņa were by this time preparing to contest with the Guptas, the sovereignty of India. In G.E. 165 = 484 A.D. the two brothers Matri-Vishnu and DhanyaVishnu, who were local rulers of Eran, had acknowledged the suzerainty of Budha-Gupta (Fleet's Gupta Inscriptions, p. 88). But in the Erap Boar inscription of Dhanya-Vishnu the interval between which and the pillar inscription cannot very weli be more than 25 years, the suzerain acknowledged is Toramåņa in whose first year the Boar was installed. Toramana must have ousted the Guptas from these parts in the course of these 25 or 25 years.
The memorial Eran inscription of Goparăja of G.E. 191=510 A.D. gives a clue to the situation. The inscription mentions that Goparaja was killed at Eraņ while fighting a great battle,-probably with the Huns under Toramana, in the company of the brave Bhānu-Gupta and allies.
[ This inference based on the names of planets is not satisfactory.--Ed.]
? The exact year of Toramana's accession to the kingship of the Indian dominions of the White Huns is not known, but it was unquestionably later than 484 A.D., the date of the Eran inscription of Badha-Gapts which mentions Matri Vishnu as the local king reigning, while Dhanga-Vishna was his younger brother. In the Eran Boar inscription of the first year of Töramana, Dhanya-Vishna is the local king and his elder brother Matri-Vishna is said to have gone to heaven. If Toramina ascended the throne immediately after 484 A.D., the battle of Eran in 510 A.D., in which Göparája was killed, will have to be taken as Bhanu-Gupta's attempt to regain the former PORNOBions of the Guptas from the grasp of türa tay or of his son Mihilakula
