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LAST TRACES OF GUPTA RULE
611
who was defeated by the Chalukya kings Vinayāditya (A.D. 680-96) and Vijayāditya. 1
We learn from the Dēo-Baraņārk inscription that Adityasena was succeeded by his son Deva Gupta (III), who in his turn was succeeded by his son Vishnu Gupta. The last king was Jivita Gupta II, son of Vishņu. All these kings continued to assume imperial titles. That these were not empty forms appears from the records of the Western Chalukyas of Vātāpi which testify to the existence of a Pan-North Indian empire in the last quarter of the seventh century A. D. The only North Indian sovereigns, Uttarāpatha-nātha, who laid claim to the Imperial dignity during this period, and, actually dominated Magadha and the Madhya-deśa as is proved by the Aphsad and Dēo-Baraṇārk inscriptions, were Adityasena and his successors.3
The Gupta empire was probably finally destroyed by the Gaudas who could never forgive Mādhava Gupta's desertion of their cause and who may have grown powerful in the service of Adityasena. In the time of Yaśovarman of Kanauj, i.e., in the first half of the eighth century A. D., a Gauda king occupied the throne of Magadha. 4
1 Bomb. Gaz. Vol. I, Part II, pp. 189, 368. 371 ; and Kendur plates.
2 This king seems also to be mentioned in an inscription discovered at Mangraon in the Buxar subdivision."
3 For a curious reference to the Chalukyas and king Jih-kwan ("Sun army' i. e. Adityasena), see IA, X, p. 110.
4 Cf. the Gaudavaho by Vākpatirāja. Banerji confounds the Gaudas with the later Guptas. In the Harāhā Inscription the Gaudas are associated with the sea coast, Samudrāśraya, while the later Guptas, as is well-known, had their centres in the hinterland including Magadha and Mālwa. The people on the seashore were, according to the evidence of the Aphsad Inscription, hostile to Jivita Gupta I. The Praśastikāra of the Aphsad record is expressly mentioned as a Gauda, & designation that is never applied to his patrons. The family of Krishna Gupta is simply characterised as Sadvamsa and there is not the slightest hint that the kings of the line and their panegyrist belonged to the same nationality. The fact that Gauda is the designation of the lord of Magadha
