________________
JUNE, 1919 1
CHANDRA'S CONQUEST OF BENGAL
101
to an early Gupta ruler of the fourth century than to any local king of any of the small states then ruling independently in Northern India. There is no Paurânic or epigraphic evidence to show that any other family of kings made any attempt in the fourth century A.D. to assume imperial dignity by conquering distant lands. So it is very likely that Samudragupta's father, Chandragupta I, whom we know to have been the first mahârájadhiraja of the Gupta line, began to establish the empire by going out for making conquests in Bengal, in part of the Panjab and also in the South, and perhaps succeeded in incorporating portions at least of these provinces into his own kingdom, which, after his death, passed into Samudragupta's hands. It is perhaps for this reason that we find in Samudragupta's Allahabad Pillar inscription no mention of Bengal being conquered by that monarch who inherited his father's self-made empire which had already comprised Bengal. Where is the evidence that Bengal had ever been in the possession of Chandravarman? Had it been so, we would have to seek for evidence to prove that Bengal was afterwards recovered from the hands of the Varman rulers of Mâlava by the Gupta rulers. But we have as yet got no such historical evidence, nor can we expect to get it in future. On the contrary, we know from the newly discovered Dâmôdarpur plates of the Gupta period that Bengal was under the direct political jurisdiction of Kumâragupta I and his successors. It seems plausible that Samudragupta ordered this posthumous inscription to be inscribed on this costly pillar of iron which his late father mahúrájádhirája Chandragupta I caused to be erected as a flag-staff in honour of Vishņu; and as the ancestors of his father were local chiefs having the use of the title maharaja only, Samudragupta did not perhaps ask the court-poet to refer to any genealogy in the inscription. Hence we are inclined to believe with the late Dr. Fleet that the Chandra of the Iron Pillar is the first Gupta mahârájâdhiraja Chandragupta I, and this accounts for the striking paleographical similarity of this inscription with the Allahabad Pillar inscription of Samudragupta's time.
In discussing the age of the compilation of the dynastic account in the Puranas Mr. Pargiter 13 writes:-"The Guptas are mentioned as reigning over the country comprised within Prayaga, Sâkêta (Ayodhya), and Magadha, that is exactly the territory which was possessed at his death by Chandragupta I, who founded the Gupta dynasty in A.D. 319-20 and reigned till 326 or 330 (or even till 335 perhaps), before it was extended by the conquests of his son and successor Samudragupta ;" and he holds the view that as the Paurânic account does not take any notice of Samudragupta's conquests nor of the Gupta empire, the narrative was closed during the interval which elapsed between the time when Chandragupta 1 established his kingdom from Magadha over Tirhut, Bihar and Oudh as far as Allahabad, and the beginning of Samudragupta's reign. But it may also be presumed that this Paurânic account of the extent of the Gupta empire had been compiled before Chandragupta I defeated the people of Bengal and the Vâlhikas, which even probably took place towards the end of the reign of Chandragupta I. Or, it may be supposed that the Magadha of the Puranas probably included the portions of Bengal conquered. Had the conquest of Bengal fallen to the lot of Samudragupta the event would have very likely found mention in his Allahabad Pillar inscription. Moreover, the discovery, in parts of Bengal, of coins of various types belonging to Samudragupta and his successors, may be cited as an evidence, though somewhat insufficient, of Gupta supremacy in Bengal during the early period of Cupta rule in India.
23 Dynasties of the Kili Age-Introduction, p. xii, § 20.
