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CHAPTER X. THE GUPTA EMPIRE : THE
RISE OF THE GUPTA POWER.
Imām sāgaraparyantām Himavad-Vindhya-kundalām mahîm elcātapatrānkām Rājasimha praśāstu nah
-Dūtavākyam. SECTION I. THE FOUNDATION OF THE GUPTA DYNASTY.
We have seen that the tide of Scythian conquest, which was rolled back for a time by the Sātavāhanas, was finally stemmed by the Gupta Emperors. It is interesting to note that there were many Guptas among the officials of the śātavāhana conquerors of the Sakas e.g, Siva Gupta of the Nāsik Inscription of the year 18, ( Pura or Puru ?.) Gupta of the Karle inscription, and Siva-Skanda Gupta of the same epigraph. It is difficult to say whether there was any connection between these Guptas and the Imperial Gupta family of Northern India, two of whom actually bore the names of Skanda Gupta and Puru Gupta.?
1 With Rājasimha may be compared the epithet Narendrasimha occurring on coins of Chandragupta II (Allan, Gupta Coins, 43). All the letters here are not clearly legible (ibid, cxiii), but on many coins we find the analogous epithet Simha-vikrama (pp. 38 ff.). The reference in the Dutavākya must be to a paramount ruler of Northern India, bounded by the seas and the Himalayan and Vindhyan ranges, who had the epithet 'lion-like king,' The ruler who answers best to the description is Chandra Gupta II. The author of the Dūtavākya possibly refers to this monarch. If he is identical with Bhāsa, a distinguished predecessor of Kālidāsa, his career as a poet may have begun before the accession of Chandra Gupta II, Vikramaditya, 'Narendra-Simha,' i.e., in the time of the great patron and 'king of poets' (Kavirāja) Samudra Gupta.
-2 In the Modern Review (November), 1929, p. 499 f. it has been suggested that the Guptas are of Kāraskara origin. But the evidence on the point is hardly conclusive. The identification of the "accursed" Chandasena of the Kaumudimahotsava (adopted son of Sundaravarman), whose family was
