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SECTION IV. Budha GUPTA. For Budha Gupta, now known to have been a son of Puru Gupta' we have a number of dated inscriptions and coins which prove that he ruled for about twenty years (A.D. 477-c. 495).
Two copper-plate inscriptions discovered in the village of Dāmodarpur in the district of Dinājpur, testify to the fact that Budha Gupta's empire included Pundravardhana bhukti (roughly North Bengal) which was governed by his viceroys (Uparika Mahārāja) Brahmadatta and Jayadatta.? The Sārnāth inscription of A.D. 476-77 proves his possession of the Kāśi country. In A.D. 484-85 the erection of a alwaja-stambha or flag staff in honour of Janārdana, i.e., Vishņu, by the Mahārāja Mātņivishņu, ruler of Eran, and his brother Dhanyavishņu, while the Bhūpati (King) Budha Gupta was reigning, and Mahārāja Suraśmichandra was governing the land between the Kālindi (Jumna) and the Narmadā, (Nerbudda) indicates that Budha Gupta's dominions included part of Central India as well as Kāśi and North Bengal.
The coins of this emperor are dated in the year A.D. C. 495. They continue the peacock-type of the Gupta silver coinage that was meant, according to Allan, for circulation in the central part of the empire 3 Their
1 Seal of Budha Gupta (MASB, No. 66, p. 64.)
2 To the reign of this Gupta king belongs also probably the Pābādpur (ancient Somapura) (Rājshāhi District) plate of A. D. 478-79 (Mod. Rev., 1931, 150 ; Prabāsi, 1338, 671 ; Ep. Ind. XX, 59 ff.) and also a copper-plate of A.D. 488-9 (Ep. Ind. xxiii. 52 ), originally found at Nandapura ( Monghyr District). For a possible reference to Budha Gupta in Purāņic literature, see Pro. of the Seventh Or. Conf., 576.
3 Cf. also Mahābhārata, ii. 32. 4, O. P. 90-75
