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226
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
the hair is arranged exactly like the wig of an English Judge." Round his neck there is coiled a snake, hooded, I think; its head stands up over his left wing. Over his right wing there is a circle, with a small boss on it, which is probably meant for the chakra or discus of Vishnu; and over his left wing there seems to be a faint representation of the sankha or conchshell of the same god. Below the above, there are two parallel lines, in relief, across the seal. And below them there is the writing, with a blank space, about one inch high, at the bottom of the seal. It is done in relief. A good deal of it is legible very easily; but lines 2 and 3 are rather badly damaged about the centre; and in other places, where the inscription is a good deal worn, it can be read only by holding the seal in various lights, and with the help of a magnifying glass. The photo-collotype published with Dr. Hoernle's paper, represents the original as well as could be expected; but it naturally fails to render the inscription as legible as it is in reality, especially in respect of details. The characters are well formed, and are of almost precisely the same type with those of the Bhitarf pillar inscription of Skandagupta (Gupta Inscriptions, No. 13, Plate vii.) The average size of the letters is somewhat less than ".- The language is Sanskrit. In respect of orthography we may notice (1) the use of the upadhmaniya in 6chchhéttuh prithivyám, line 1; ápratirathaḥ= parama, line 3; and utpannah-parama", line 8; (2) the doubling of t before r, in pauttrasya, line 1, puttrasya, line 2, and puttras, lines 3, 5, 6, and 7; and, of course, in the other instances where part of the conjunct consonant has been destroyed; and (3) the doubling of dh, by d, before y, in the word anuddhyata, in lines 4, 5, 6, and 7.
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The inscription on the seal is purely genealogical; as are the inscriptions on the Asîrgadh and Sonpat seals of Sarvavarman and Harshavardhaua (Gupta Inscriptions, Nos. 47, 52), and on the seals attached to the grants of the Mahardjas Mahendrapala and Vinayakapâla (ante, Vol. XV. pp. 112, 140). And, with the omission of certain epithets of Samudragupta, it follows a standard form from which was taken, as far as it goes in each case, the genealogy given in some of the stone inscriptions. Consequently, as far as the mention of Kumâragupta I., the text of this seal is established without any doubt, even where it is illegible in the original. The interest of it centres in the following passages, which have given us
5 This seal, though discovered before 1886, did not come to notice till some three years later; the first
[JULY, 1890.
some new names in the Gupta genealogy, that were not known when I completed my Gupta Inscriptions.5
In line 5, the name of the wife of Kumaragupta I. is certainly Anantadevi, as read by Dr. Hoernle. It is very distinct and indisputable.
In line 6, the name of the son of Kumaragupta I. is undoubtedly Puragupta, as read by Dr. Hoernle. The suggestion has been made to me that the text has Sthiragupta, as a variant of the name of Skandagupta, who is the only known son of Kumâragupta I. mentioned in the other records that we have. It is unnecessary to point out other objections to this suggestion, because Sthiragupta is most certainly not the name that we have here. The mark below the consonant in the first syllable is distinctly the subscript u, formed as in the case of mu throughout; and the smooth surface of the plate here shews that nothing over and above this mark was engraved; the subscript th was most certainly not formed. The consonant itself is a little rubbed; but it is distinctly p. The idea of a superscript i, derived from the collotype, is due, partly to the fact that the up-stroke of the p runs a trifle too high; and partly to an indentation in the surface of the seal, above the first part of the p, which, in the collotype, has appeared in such a way as to justify the supposition of a superscript i; the vowel, however, was not engraved. On the analogy of the names of the other Early Guptas, my own idea, before seeing the original seal, was that the name here might be Suragupta, "protected by the gods." It is, however, indisputably Puragupta; which must mean "protected by a city, or by cities," and is not to be taken as an abbreviation of Purârigupta, Puramdaragupta, or any such appellation.
In the same line, in the name of Puragupta's wife, the va and the t are so distinct; that the text can only be completed as értvatsadivyam Her name may possibly be Srivatsadêvi, as taken by Dr. Hoernle. But I think that the ért here is only the honorific prefix; used from this point with the queens' names, as it is in the DêêBaranârk inscription (Gupta Inscriptions, No. 46). I, therefore, differ from Dr. Hoernle, and take her
name to be Vatsadevi.
In line 7, in the name of Puragupta's son, the letters naras are very distinct. The next syllable seems to be certainly ha.. And I think there is also clearly a remnant of an anusvára over the 8. Under these circumstances, no hesitation need
announcement of it being in the Pioneer of the 13th May, 1889.
