________________
CHAPTER XII. THE GUPTA EMPIRE (continued):
THE LATER GUPTAS.
Vasvaukasārāmatibhūya sāham Saurājya vaddhotsavayā bibliūtyā Samagrasaktau tvayi Şūryavarsye Sati prapannā karunāmavasthām
-Raghuvamsam.
SECTION I. SURVIVAL OF THE GUPTA POWER AFTER
SKANDA GUPTA.
It is now admitted on all hands that the reign of Skanda Gupta ended about A.D. 467. When he passed away the empire declined, 2 especially in the west, but did not wholly perish. We have epigraphic as well as literary evidence of the continuance of the Gupta empire in parts of Central and Eastern India in the latter half of the fifth as well as the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. The Dāmodarpur plates, the Sārnāth Inscriptions 3 and the Eran epigraph of Budha Gupta prove that from A.D. 477 to 496 the Gupta empire extended from Bengal to Eastern Mālwa. Tlte Betul plates of the Parivrājaka Mahārāja Samkshobha, dated in the year 199 G. E., i.e., 518 A.D., during the enjoyment of sovereignty by the Gupta King,'* testify to the fact that the Gupta sway at this
1 Smith, the Oxford History of India, additions and corrections, p. 171, end.
2. For the causes of decline, see Calcutta Review, April, 1930, p. 36 ff; also post.
3 A.S.I. Report, 1914-15; Hindusthan Review, Jan., 1918 ; JBORS, IV, 344 f.
4 Srimati pravardhamāna-vijaya-rājye sauvatsara-sate nava-navaty uttare Gupta- ripa-rajya-bhuktau. "In the glorious, augmerting and victorious reign, in a century of years increased by ninety-nine, the enjoyment of sovereignty by the Gupta King."
