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Study of Ancient Indian Inscriptions : Some Methodological Considerations
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officials responsible for the preparation and execution of the document and the date and authentication.8 All these features, however, are not found in the tāmra-śäsanas of the early period.
The records of a dynasty provide valuable data on its history in more than one way. Firstly, if they are found in situ, their provenance will indicate the area over which its rulers held their sway. For example, the Junagadh record of Skandagupta proves, not only by its contents but also by its provenance, that his authority was acknowledged in Saurāshtra. The tāmra-śāsanas, it is true, sometimes travel to a region different from the place of their issue, but the inscriptions engraved on stone pillars and stone slabs are usually found not very far removed from their original sites. Even the tāmra-śāsanas may help us in this respect if the ruler mentioned in the grant and the village or villages granted could be located with certainty. The point is important because the provenance of the early inscriptions of a family may also indicate the area in which it originated. The find-spot of an inscription of pure prasasti type is of special significance in this respect, since, unlike the pratishthā-śāsana, it is not associated with an area or a place due to pratishthā ceremony, but is indicative of the ruler's predilection for that place. In the case of the Gupta dynasty, the original home of which is not definitely mentioned in the available sources, the importance of this line of evidence cannot be over-exaggerated.
Secondly, the praśastis and the tāmra-śāsanas usually provide us information on the genealogy of the kings mentioned in them. A proper appreciation of this fact is vital because many problems regarding the place of kings like Rāmagupta would not have arisen if it was properly understood that the inclusion of the names of the ancestors of the donor was necessitated by the religious exigencies which rendered the mention of collaterals unnecessary. We should, therefore, expect to find the name of Rämagupta either in his own inscriptions or in those of his direct descendants (if there were any). if and when they come to light, and not in the records of Chandragupta II and his successors. In the light of this fact, the argument that as the name of Rāmagupta is not found mentioned in the Gupta records he should not be assigned a place in the history of the dynasty or that his name was omitted by the Gupta emperors from the genealogy of the dynasty because of his misdeeds, becomes irrelevant
The most important contribution to the study of the political history of ancient India is made by the pūrvās or praśastis, for they contain a comparatively detailed account of the achievements of the kings mentioned in them. They are more developed than the tāmra-śāsanas, for, unlike the latter, they contain an account of the activities of the ruling king; but their mould is not as extensive as that of the ākhyāyikās and other literary works of historical genre. For example, in literature the abstract idea of the royal glory in the form of a beautiful princess symbolizing the goddess of Royal Fortune (Rājya-sri ) whose love the king wins after overcoming insurmountable difficulties, was very popular in the Gupta and the post-Gupta periods.2 From the fourth century A.D. it became widely prevalent. In different forms it occurs in the Raghuvarsa, Ratnāvali, Bālabhārata, Harshacharita, Kādambari and numerous other works. The authors of the praśastis were also influenced by it, but they used it only as a formula, almost in the modern sense of sovereignty. When in the Junagarh prasasti of Rudradāman it is said that Rudradāman acquired Rājalakshmi even when he was in the womb of his mother!3 he was obviously referring to the sovereignty of his dynasty. Among the Gupta emperors it is used for the first time for Skandagupta who is described as the one "whom the goddess of fortune and splendour of her own accord selected as her husband, having in succession (and) with judgment
