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610 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
apparently resided at his court. In the period 618-27, Harsha 'punished the kings of four parts of India' and in 641 assumed the title of King of Magadha. After his death the Gupta sovereignty in Magadha was revived by Adityasena, a prince of remarkable vigour and ability, who found his opportunity in the commotion which followed the usurpation of Harsha's throne by Arjuna (?). For this "Later Gupta" king we have a number of inscriptions which prove that he ruled over a wide territory extending to the shores of the oceans. The Aphsad, Shahpur and Mandara inscriptions recognise his undisputed possession of south and part of east Bihar. A Deoghar inscription, noticed by Fleet, describes him as the ruler of the whole earth up to the shores of the seas, and the performer of the Asvamedha and the other great sacrifices. He renewed contact with the Gaudas as well as the Maukharis and received a Gaula named Sukshamsiva in his service. A Maukhari chief, Bhogavarman, accepted the hands of his daughter and presumably became his subordinate ally. The Deo-Baraṇark inscription refers to the Jayaskandhāvāra of his great-grandson Jivita Gupta II at Gomatikoṭṭaka. This clearly suggests that the so-called Later Guptas, and not the Maukharis, dominated about this time the Gomati valley in the Madhya-deśa. The Mandara inscription applies to Adityasena the imperial titles of Parama-bhaṭṭāraka and Mahārājādhirāja. We learn from the Shahpur stone image inscription that he was ruling in the year A. D. 672-73. It is not improbable that he or his son Deva Gupta (III) is the Sakalottara-patha-natha, lord of the whole of North India,
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1 Ind. Ant. IX. 19.
2 CII, p. 213 n. Aditya is said to have performed three Asvamedha sacrifices. Kielhorn, INI, 541.
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