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262
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARI.
(JUNE, 1902.
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The Janagarh, Kahgun, and Indor insoriptions (Fleet, Nos. 14, 15, 16), while magnifying Skands Gupta as an illustrious member of the Grapta dynasty, abstain from tracing his genealogy. Skanda Gupta was certainly in power in Western India previous to the bursting of the lake embankment at Junagash in January, A. D. 456 (G. E. 136), and before that date had entrusted the provincial administration of Surashtra to his officer Pargadatta, who had appointed his son Chakrapålita as governor of the city at Junagaph. Chakrapálita repaired the broken embankment during the hot season of A. D. 456 (G. E. 187), and in the following year (G. E. 138) erected a temple to sanctity his work. Considering that coins of Kumâra Gupta I. exist which are dated in G. E. 135 and 136, the dates require the assumption that Kumara Gupta I. died in the spring of A. D. 455, corresponding to the early months of G. E. 136, which began in March, A. D. 455, and extended to February or March, A. D. 456,15 Kumara Gupta I. may be considered to have died in April, A. D. 455. The appointinents of Parnadatta as Viceroy of Sarashtra and of Chakrapálita as Governor of Jûnîgah must have taken effect before the close of A. D. 455. There cannot, therefore, be any doubt that, at least in the west of India, Skanda Gupta was the immediate successor of his father Kumara Gupta I. in the year A. D. 455 (G. E. 180). It is equally certain that five years later he was in full authority over the eastern parts of his father's dominions, because the inscription at Kahâum (Fleet, No. 15) is dated in the month Jyeshtha of G. E. 141, eqnivalent to May or June, A. D. 460, and Kahâum is situated in the eastern end of the Gorakhpur District, at a distance of about ninety miles from Pâţalipntra (Patns). The undated inscription at Bihar, also in the east of the empire, which gives the usual genealogy, likewise treats Skanda Gapta as being the son and immediate successor of Kumâra Gupta I.
On the other hand, the Bhitari Beal, in similar technical language (tasya puttras tat-pádánydhyato), describes Para Gupta as the soa and apparently immediate successor of Kumara Gupta I., and Narasimha Gupta as the son and apparently immediate successor of Pura Gupta. This record of the regular succession from Kamara Gapta I.. through Para Gupta to Narasimha Gupta, is the difficulty which stands in the way of the otherwise plausible and tempting hypothesis that Pura Gupta was a rival brother of Skanda Gupta.
If Pura Gupta disputed the succession to the empire, and succeeded in holding only for a year or two the government of the eastern provinces against Skanda Gupta, who certainly was the direct successor of his father in the western provinces, how could Para Gupta have transmitted the royal dignity to his son? The hypothesis of division of the empire immediately after the death of Kumara Gupta I. seems to be shut out by the language of the inscriptions, especially the long record on the Bhitari pillar, and by the fact that within five years of his father's death, Skanda Gupta was in full possession of both the eastern and the western extremities of his father's extensive empire,
The hypothesis that Para Gupta was the successor of Skands Gupta in the imperial dignity associated with the possession of the eastern provinces, as Budba Gupta certainly succeeded Skanda Gupta in the government of the western provinces as a local raja, is difficult to reconcile with the
18 The important Janigarh insoription of Chakrapalita (Fleet, No. 14), dated during the reigu of Skanda Gupta in the years G. E. 133, 137, 188, has also been edited, though not very carefully, by the late Professor Peterson in the work entitled A Collection of Prakrit and Sanskrit Inscriptions. Published by the Bhavnagar Archeological Department under the auspioes of His Highness Raol Shri Takhtainghji, G.C.S.I., LL.D. (Cantab.), Maharaja of Bhavnagar. (Bhavnagar : Printed at the State Printing Presa.) N. D. By an unfortunate blunder the translation of the inscription in this work gives the month in whioh the dam burst as being 'Bhadrapada.' The facsimile and transliteration correotly give the '6th day of the month Praushthapada,' equivalent to January.
The date of the record must of our so be taken an G. E. 138,- A. D. 457-8. In the preamble, Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune, is wid to have solooted Skanda Gapta for the throne, 'having discarded all the other sons of kinga.' Those words may refer either to dinpated succession, or to the selection of Skanda Gupta by his father,
The king (line 9) appointed Parpadatta 'to protest in a proper manner the land of the Surfahtras,' and to be lord over the region of the west. Chakrapalita (line 12) 'accomplished the proteotion of the city.'
