________________
APPENDIX D.
THE DECLINE OF THE EARLY GUPTA EMPIRE.
Towards the close of the fifth century A.D. the empire built up by the genius of Samudra Gupta and Vikramāditya was fast hastening towards dissolution. Skanda Gupta (A.D. 455- c. 467) was the last king of the Early Gupta line who is known to have controlled the westernmost provinces. After A.D. 467 there is no evidence that the Imperial Guptas had anything to do with Surāshtra or the major part of Western Mālwa.” Budha Gupta (A.D. 476-77 to c. 495) was probably the last prince of the family to be implicitly obeyed on the banks of the Lower Ganges as well as the Narmadā. The rulers who came after him retained a precarious hold for some time on Eastern Malwa and North Bengal. But they had to fight with enemies on all sides, and, if a tradition recorded
1 First published in the Calcutta Review, April, 1930.
2 The identity of the supreme lord (Parama-svā min) mentioned in connection with the consecration of the early Valabhi king Droņasimha, is unknown. The surmise that he was a Gupta, though plausible, lacks convincing proof. Some scholars lay stress on the fact that the era used is the Gupta era (IC, v, 409). But the use of an era instituted by a dynasty does not always indicate political subordination to that line. It may simply have a geographical significance, a continuation of a custom prevailing in a particular locality. Even undoubted Gupta vassals used the Malava-Vikrama Samvat in Mandaśor. Conversely the Gupta era is found used in regions, e.g., Shorkot and Ganjam, beyond the proper limits of the Gupta empire. Tejpur, too, should possibly come under the category, as we are not sure as to whether it formed a part of the state of Kāmarūpa in the fourth century A.D. Equally conjectural is the identification of the ruler in question with a Hun or a sovereign of Mandaśor. Theories and speculations in the absence of clear data are at best unprofitable. Some connection of the later kings of the Gupta line with the Mandaśor region in W. Mālwa in the first quarter of the sixth century A. D. may possibly be hinted at by the expression Guptanāthaih 'by the Gupta lords' used in the Mandaśor prasasti or panegyric of Yasodharman. The term nätha may have reference to the fact that the Guptas were once overlords of Mandaśor. But the analogy of Hūnādhipa occurring in the same record may suggest that nātha simply means 'lord' or 'king' without reference to any special relations subsisting between Mandaśor and the Guptas in or about 533 A.D.
