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94
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH, 1885.
eastern dominions of the Gupta kings, with the probability of their having also had important seats of government at Mahoba, Khajuraho, and Kalanjar. This conclusion, as regards Pagali. putra, is well in accordance with the position of the localities in which the Gupta stone-inscriptions are found; and with the fact that at least two of those inscriptions mention Påtaliputra, whereas none of them mention Kanyakubja or Kanauj. But, as regards the value of the evidence of coins on such a point, it must always be borne in mind that gold coins may easily be found, even in considerable numbers, at places far distant from those in which they are struok or are properly current, having been transported for purposes of commerce, or as votive offerings by pilgrims; and that the same want of conclusive. ness, to a certain extent, attends the inference that may be drawn from the finding of silver coins also. On the other hand, copper coins would never be exported for such purposes; and the existence of them to any considerable extent in any particular locality, would be a most sure and certain sign that the capital of the king by whom they were issued was in or very close to that locality. The copper coins of the Early Guptas, however, that have as yet been found, are so very few and rare, that no conclusion can be arrived at on the support of them.
The remainder of the paper is occupied with Mr. Smith's catalogue and detailed descriptions of the coins examined by him, and with his readings of the legends on them.
In his introductory remarks, Mr. Smith suggests that the name of the founder of the family was not simply Gupta, as it is usually accepted, but Brigupta, which form he uses throughout; the grounds for this being—that the past participle, gupta, protected,' can hardly stand alone for a proper name; whereas Sri. gupta, 'protected by Sri or Lakshmi,' gives a suitable meaning, and is a complete name ;--and that the Chinese pilgrim I-tsing (about A.D. 673 to 690) speaks of a king Srigupta, who preceded his time by five hundred years. This is a point that has doubtless occurred to others also; but it is not so easy to dispose of it. In the well- known name of the Buddhist saint Upagupta, we have a precisely similar instance of a past participle, meaning hidden, concealed,' standing by itself for a proper name. And, where brk is
Beal's Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. I. p. 182; Vol. II. pp. 88, 93, 273.
Arch@ol. Bury. Ind. Vol. XVI. p. 73. * ante p. 10.
In line 15 of the Girner inscription (Archæol. Buru. West. Ind. Vol. II. p. 185), Pandit BhagwAnlAl Indrajt roads Guptosya kab-Aganand vidhiya, "counting from the time of Gupta :" and this would seem to settle tho
an integral part of a proper name, it is customary to emphasise it, and to prevent the possibility of doubt, by inserting the honorific prefix ért before it,--thus, mahddávydm ért-Srimatydm = utpannah, "born of the queen-consort, the glorious Srimati," in line 2 of the Barnarak inscription;" and brf-Sripathayaṁ puri, "at the glorious city of Sripath4," in line 6 of the Byâna inscription." And, finally, the word gupta does not appear at all in the name of Ghatotkacha, the son of the founder of the family; it is only in the case of Ghatotkacha's son Chandragupta I., and his successors, that the word is of necessity only an integral part of a fuller name. There seems no objection, at present, to accepting Gupta' by itself as the name of the founder of the family. And it is quite possible that it is not originally the Sanskrit participle at all, but is simply a Sans. ksitised form of a foreign name.
Following Mr. Thomas and others, Mr. Smith allots the first coin figured by him to Ghatotkacha, the son of the founder of the family. This, how. ever, is by no means a certainty; and, indeed, facts tend strongly to negative the correctness of the assignment. Mr. Smith has pointedly impressed upon us that the coins attributed to Ghatotkacha have peculiarly distinctive features of their own. Thus, at page 121, he speaks of the Hindd charac"ter of nearly all the Gupta gold coins." Whereas, at p. 127 he writes-"The coins of Ghatotkacha
possess no distinctive Hinda characteristics. " The king, who sacrifices at a fire-altar, graspe & "peculiar rose-headed standard, which seems ob"viously intended to symbolize the rayed sun. "The Sun and Fire are, in mythology, almost "convertible terms; and I think it may fairly be "assumed, on the evidence of the coins, that "Ghatôtkacha (though he may have been a Hin. "aa), was a worshipper of the solar fire, as his "Indo-Scythian predecessors undoubtedly were." And again, at p. 129, he speaks of "the undis. "puted solar character of Ghatotkacha's coinage." The emblem interpreted as a 'fire-altar,' however, is not a peculiarly distinctive feature of the coins attributed to Ghatotkacha; for it appears again on some of the coins of Samudragupta, on one attributed to Chandragupta II., and on one of Kumäragupta. And we have it uniformly throughout the series of coins of the later IndoScythians, who were contemporaneous with the Early Guptas in the Pasj&b:' in these coins it is question, and to shew that the name was Gupta, not Srigupta. It happens, however, that the correct reading of the original here is Cupta-prakale gananali vidhaya, "making the calculation in the reckoning of the Gaptas."
See, for instance, the two coins figured by Mr. Thomas, ante Vol. XII. p. 9.
