________________
THE LINE OF KRISHNA GUPTA
601
Damodarpur plate of A.D. 543-44.1 The absence of highsounding titles like Mahārājādhiraja or Parama-bhaṭṭāraka in the Slokas or verses of the Aphsad inscription does not necessarily prove that the kings mentioned there were petty chiefs. No such titles are attached to the name of Kumara I in the Mandaśor inscription, or to the name of Budha in the Eran inscription. On the other hand the queen of Madhava Gupta, one of the least powerful kings mentioned in the Aphsad inscription, is called Parama-bhaṭṭārika and Mahadevi in the Deo Baraṇark epigraph.
i
Regarding Krishna Gupta we know very little. The Aphsad inscription describes him as a hero whose arm played the part of a lion, in bruising the foreheads of the array of the rutting elephants of (his) haughty enemy (driptūrāti), (and) in being victorious by (its) prowess over countless foes. The driptūrāti against whom he had to fight may have been Yasodharman. The next king Deva Śri Harsha Gupta had to engage in terrible contests with those who were "averse to the abode of the goddess of fortune being with (him, her) own lord." There were wounds from many weapons on his chest. The name of the enemies, who tried to deprive him of his rightful possessions, are not given. Harsha's son Jivita Gupta I probably succeeded in re-establishing the of his family in the territory lying between the Himalayas and the sea, apparently in Eastern India. "The very terrible scorching fever (of fear) left not (his) haughty foes, even though they stood on seaside shores
power
1 Mr. Y. R. Gupte (Ind. Hist. Journal) reads the name of Kumara in the inscription of A. D. 543-44, but he identifies him with the son of Narasimha Gupta. The ruler whose name is missing may represent one or other of the "Gupta' lines already known to scholars or some new line. Cf. the cases of Vainya Gupta and the princes mentioned on pp. 214-15 of Ep. Ind.. XX, Appendix.
O. P. 90-76.
