Indian Antiquary Vol 47

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 175

JUNE, 1918)
REVISED CHRONOLOGY OF THE LAST GUPTA EMPERORS
165
As Dr. Hoernle admitted, the expression tatpadanudhyâta, applied to Puragupta in the Bhitari seal, seems to indicate him as having been the immediate successor of his father rather than a remoter successor of him.17 As Skanda gupta is known to have been the immediate successor of his father, the natural presumption is that Puragupta was but another name of Skandagupta. This view was discarded by Dr. Hoernle on the ground that it seemed “hardly probable that in such genealogies the same person would be called by different names "and even when later on he assumed the identity of the two1' he was at a loss how to account for the two names of the same person." 30
Such instances of double names are, however, not unknown even in the Gupta dynasty. Chandragupta II had a second name Devagupta and both the names occur in the genealogical list of the Vakataka kings. Thus in the Chammak village grant of Maharaja Pravarasena II,21 the donor's father, is said to have married Prabhavatî-Guptâ, daughter of the Maharajadhiraja Sri-Devagupta, while a copperplate grant of Rudrasena 22 calls the same Prabhavati Guptâ, daughter of Chandragupta II. Another instance may be quoted from the inscriptions of the Påla dynasty. The fourth king of this dynasty is generally known as Vigrahåpåla, but in the Badal pillar inscription of the time of Narayanapala 23 he is mentioned under the name of Sarapala. These instances are calculated to obviate the objection raised by Dr. Hoernle against the identity of Puragupta and Skandagupta.
Numismatic considerations also support the identity of Skandagupta and Puragupta. All the coins attributed to Puragupta are exactly similar to the coins of Skandagupta with the difference that on one coin alone the two letters Pu, ra, are written vertically beneath the left arm of the king in place of the letters Ska, nda. As a matter of fact, before the discovery of the coins with the letters Pu ra the other similar coins, now attributed to Puragupta, used to be attributed to Skandagupta.24 If it is assumed that Skandagupta had & second name Puragupta, all these coins may be without any difficulty attributed to Skandagupta himself.
On the whole, therefore, the new inscriptions seem to be fatal to the accepted view that Puragupta succeeded Skandagupta. They certainly favour the supposition that the two names were identical although they do not absolutely preclude the theory that Skandagupta and Puragupta were rival kings.
As has been pointed out above, Budhagupta can no longer be looked upon as a mere local ruler. We learn from Inscription No. 4 that his kingdom included Pundravardhana of Northern Bengal, from Nos. 2 and 3, that it extended up to Sârnáth, and from the Erag stone pillat inscription 26 that it included the country between the rivers Narmada and Jamuna. He must be said, therefore, to have been in possession of a fair portion of the Imperial Gupta territory, if not the whole of it, and there remains no ground for relegatIng him to the position of a local ruler.
Now, the Sarnath inscriptions (Nog. 2 and 3) definitely prove that Budhagupta was ruling there in 168 G.E. or A.D. 477. The Bhitari seal of Kamâragupta II places this monarch as well as his two predecessors in an unbroken line of succession from Kumara
17 Op. cit., p. 93. 19 JRAS., 1909, p. 129. 21 Fleet's No. 68. » Ep. Ind., II, P. 161.
18 Ibid. 20 Ibid. 22 Above, 1912, p. 218. 24 Allan's Gupta Coins, pl cil.
25 Fleet'. No. 19