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264
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JUNE, 1902.
No hypothesis for the explanation of Pura Gupta's place in the order of succession is free from difficulty, but after much consideration I have come to the conclusion, in agreement with Dr. Hoernle, that he must be regarded as the successor of his brother Skanda Gupta in the imperial dignity Associated with the government of the home provinces of the vast empire of his ancestors, I imagine that when Skanda Gupta died in about A. D. 482, the western provinces of the empire were lost, and that the deceased monarch was succeeded in the east by his brother Pura Gupta, and in the west by Budha Gupta, who may or may not have been his son, and is known to have been reigring as a local râja in Malaya in A. D. 484 and 494 (G. E. 165 and 175).17 Assuming that the coins bearing the title Prakásaditya belong to Pura Gupta, the rarity of those coins is an indication of a very short reign. The accession of his son Narasimha Gapta Baláditya may be provisionally dated, as proposed by Dr. Hoernle, in A. D. 485. The coins bearing the name Nara and the title Baliditya, which are assigned to Narasimhha Gupts of the Bhitarf seal inscription, are much less rare than those of Prakasaditya, and include many examples in quite base metal. At one time I conjectared that these base metal coins might be posthumuous, but it is preferable to refer them all to the reign of Narasimha Gupta, and to believe that during a long and disturbed reign the coinage was progressively debased. Dr. Hoernle's proposal to regard Narasimba Gupta as identical with the Bâlâditya, King of Magadha, who defeated Mihira Kula about A. D. 580, may be provisionally accepted. If this supposition be correct, the reign of Kumara Gupta II. may be considered to have begun in A. D. 522, and the Bhitarf seal may be referred approximately to that date. The characters of the inscription on the seal look rather earlier.
The long duration of Narasimha Gupta's reign required by Dr. Hoernle's theory is no objection. Most of the Gupta sovereigns enjoyed exceptionally long reigns. Parallels may be found in the series of Mughal emperors, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb, whose four reigns covered the period from A, D. 1555 to 1707, with an average of 38 years for each reign and generation; and in the Hanoverian dynasty of Great Britain. Three generations and four reigns fill the period extending from the accession of George III. in 1760 to the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, with an average of 47 years for each generation, and 35 years for each reign.
The annexed Revised Chronological Table summarizes in a convenient form my present views concerning the outline of Gupta history. The dates of accession of Chandra Gupta I., Samudra Gupta, Kumara Gupta I., and Skanda Gupta are now known with sufficient accuracy. The most important matter remaining in doubt is the date of the accession of Chandra Gupta II., which cannot he determined from the materials now available. Revised Chronological Table of the Early or Imperial Gupta Dynasty.
Accession, Known Dates. Eerial
King. Title. Son of Queen. No.
Remarks.
G.E.A. D. G. E. A.D. 1 Gupta Maharaja... Un Unknown.... 275 None ... Nono . Probably in the $r!
Gupta, King of Magadha, me tioned by I-tsing (Real, in J. R. A. 8., XIII., N.S., pp. 552-572) as having lived about 500 years before A. D. 700. No coins or contemporary
inscriptions. 2 Ghatot- Ditto ... No. 1... Ditto .. ... 800 None None ... Date estimated, as in
case of No. 1. No coins or contemporary in
scriptions. 1 Erap inscription dated Thursday, 12th Asbadba Sudi, G. E. 168, equivalent to the 21st June, A. D. 484 ; silver colon dated in the year 175, and one specimon dated ? 18[-]. ('Coinago, p. 184, Ind Ant. XIV. 68.) The dato of the insoription (Fleet, No. 19) is exhaustively discussed by Dr. Fleet in pp. 80-84 of his Introduction.
known
11.dhs.
