chakamaka navambar 1999

The Manindra Chandra Nandy Lectures, 1924.

(Revised by the author in 1929 SO)

THE AGE OF THE IMPERIAL
GUPTAS.

BY

THE LATE PROF. R. D. BANERJI, M. A.,

Manindra Chandra Nandy Professor of Ancient Indian

History and Culture, Benares Hindu University.

Formerly, Archaeological Superintendent,

Eastern Circle, Calcutta.

All Rights \

PUBLISHED BY THE BENA^

198$

PREFACE.

The following six lectures on the ''Age of the Imperial
Guptas" were delivered at the Hindu University by the
late Prof. R. D. Banerji in November, 1924. Owing to
his other preoccupations, Mr. Banerji was unable to take
up the work of publishing his lectures till he eventually
joined the Benares Hindu University as Manindra Chandra
Nandy Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture
in 1928. The author revised the manuscript in 1929 and
brought the work up-to-date. Five chapters of the book
were also printed off when Mr. Banerji suddenly died in
May, 1930, to the great regret of the learned world. Two
proofs of the last chapter were seen by the author, but he
did not live to give the print order.

The sudden death of Prof. Banerji naturally created
further difficulties in expediting the publication of the work.
A good deal of time was required to prepare the necessary
blocks, the idea of incorporating them having obviously
occured to the author at a late stage of printing. Permission
had also to be obtained of the Archaeological authorities
for the utilisation of some of the photographs.

The Age of the Imperial Guptas is a very important
epoch in Ancient Indian History and the need of a handy
volume dealing with the history and many- sided aetivities
of the age was long felt. Some writers have dealt with
the political history of the period. Others have contributed
a few notes discussing some of the problems of the Gupta
Administration. But no book has been so far published
which delineates with a masterly hand the multifarious
manifestations of the spirit of the age. *The late professor
Banerji has attempted this task in these lectures, and the reader
will find in the following pages an account not only of the
Gupta chronology and administration but also of the literary
and religious revival, and of the architectural, sculptural

and numismatic achievements of the age. The book is far
from being a mere compilation ; the author has suggested
a number of new and interesting solutions of several
controversial problems in the political and administrative
history of the period, and his treatment of the architecture
and plastic arts of the age, coming as it does from the
masterly pen of the mature archaeologist, will be found to
be particularly fresh and illuminating. This was the last
book to be finished by the late Prof. Banerji and it will be
found to be doing ample justice to his mature and brilliant
talents. It is a great pity that Prof. Banerji should not
have been spared to see the publication of his lectures.

The Benares Hindu University is very much indebted
to the Government of India and to the Director General of
Archaeology in India for giving permission to reproduce
the pictures from which plates Nos. 2, 4 and 20 have been
prepared, and to utilise a few other photographs which the
late Prof. Banerji had obtained from Archaeological Survey
offices.

A - S - ALTEKAR,
Chandra Nandi, Professor
of Ancient Indian History

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

I. THE CHRONOLOGY . . . . 1

Candragupta 13, The war of independence 5,
The foundation of the Gupta era 7, Kaca 9,
Candravarman of Puskarana 11, Kings of North-
ern India defeated by Samudragupta 13, Kings
of Southern India defeated by Samudragupta
15, Vyaghraraja 17, Limits of Samudragupta's
kingdom 19, Malavas and Yaudheyas 21 , The
Scythian Monarchs 23, Estimate of Samudra-
gupta 25, Ramagupta and Dhruvadev! 27,
Candragupta II Vikramaditya 29, Empire of
Candragupta II -31, The Vakataka alliance 33,
The Fo-Kwo-Ki 35, Kumaragupta I Mahendra-
ditya 37, Estimate of Kumaragupta I 41, The
history of the Sudarsana Lake 43, Pusyamitrcis
and the First Huna War 45, Northern India
before the Huna invasions 47, Inscriptions of
Skanclagupta 49, Civil War between Skanda
and Puragupta 51, Later Imperial Guptas 53,
Theories about Later Gupta Chronology 55,
Union of the Provinces under Budhagupta 57,
Eran pillar of the time of Budhagupta 59,
Candragupta III 61, The Parivrajakas of east-
central India 63, The dismemberment of the
Empire 65, Appendix I, the Tumain and Manda-
sor inscriptions 66, Appendix II, Mathura pillar
inscription of the time of Candragupta II of the
year 6167.

II. THE SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE 69
Anciept Gupta Officials 71, Kumaramatyas 73,
Provincial Viceroys 75, Provincial administra-

i i CONTENTS.

PAGE.

tion 77, Provincial Officials 79, Transfers of
property 81, Civil contracts 83, Seals of
Contracts 85, Method of sealing-~87, Registra-
tion of contracts 89, Emblems on Imperial seals
91, Hereditary offices 93, Land -Records and
Religious trusts 95, Seals of special officers 97,
The Faridpur plates 99, 3rd and 4th plates from
Faridpur 101.

III. RELIGIOUS AND LITBRABY REVIVAL . . . . 102
Hindu inscriptions of the Gupta Period 103,

Later Gupta religious records 105, Anonymous
dated inscriptions 107, The Pauranic genea-
logies 109, Final redaction of the Puranas
111, Revival of Hinduism 113, Hindu deities of
the Gupta Period 1 15, Principal Hindu shrines
117, The Cult of the Sun 119, The Krsna-Cult
and Vaisnavism 121, ai?a images 123, Saura
images 125, Condition of Buddhism 127,
Images on the Kahaum pillar 129.

IV. ARCHITECTURE .. .. ..130

Date of the Mahabodhi temple 131, Temples at

Konch and Bhitargaon 133, Terra Cotta panels
from Bhitargaon 135, The Early Gupta temple
type 137, The Gupta type in other provinces
139, Malabar and Early Calukyan types 141,
The architecture of the Bhumra Temple 143,
Origin of the Sikhara 145, The Daiftvatfira
Temple at Deogadh 147, The Door-Frame of the
Deogadh Temple 149, The Frames of theDeogadh
Panels 151, Auxiliary Shrines of the Gupta
Period 153, The Later Temple at Nachna
Kuthara 155, The Temple of Munderfvarl 157.
V. PLASTIC ART .. .. .. 159

MathurS School of the Gupta Period 161,, The
Persistence of Kusana Influence 163, Decline of

CONTENTS. Ill

PAGE.

the Mathurft School 165, The Benares School of
the Gupta Period 167, Pataliputra School of the
Gupta Period 169, Hindu Subjects in Bas-
Reliefs 171, The Human Figure in Gupta Art
173, Early and Late Gupta Art 175, Stelae of
the Benares School 177, Bas-Reliefs of the
Benares School 179, " Gupta Art" at Ajanta
and Ellora 181, * Antiquities at Eran 183,
Metal Specimens 185, Stylized Caitya- Windows
187, Types of Caitya- Windows 189, Pillars and
Pilasters 191, Pillars from Rajaona 193, Stone
Door- Frame at Dah-Parvatiya 195, Other Gupta
Door-Frames 197, Platform of the Dasavatara
Temple- 199, Art of Bhumra and Deogadh 201,
Bas-Reliefs 203, The Bagh Caves 205, Terra-
cottas 207.
VI. COINAGE .. .. .. ..209

Samudragupta's Common Type 211, Memorial
Medals 213, The Standard Type 215, The
Lyrist and Asvamedha Types 217, The Kaca
Medals 219, The Coinage of Candragupta 1221,
The Couch and Umbrella Types 223, Varieties in
the Lion-Slayer Type 225, The Horseman Type
227, Copper Coinage of Candragupta II 229,
The Varieties in the Horseman Type 231, The
Asvamedha Type of Kumaragupta I 233, The
Lion-Slayer Type 235, The Peacock and Pratapa
Types 237, Kumaragupta's Silver-Coinage 239,
Gold Coinage of Skandagupta 241, Silver Coinage
of Skandagupta 243, Coins of Skandagupta J s
Successors 245, Later Gupta Coinage 247.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

I. Copper Seal of a Kumaramdtya of the Gupta
Empire, used by a Samanta in the 8th
Century A.D. Collection of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal.

II. Temple of &iva at Bhumra before excavation
(1920) Nagod State, Central India.

III. The Early Gupta Temple at Naohna Kuthara,

Ajaygadh State, Bundelkhand.

IV. Door-frame of the Gupta Temple at Bhumra,

Nagod State, Central India.

V. Stone door-frame of the temple of the Gupta
period, at Dab Parbatiya, near Tezpur,
Assam.
VI. Early Gupta Temple at Tigowa, Jubbulpore

District, C.P.

VII. Temple of Dasavatara at the foot of Deogadh
Hill, Jhansi District. (Photo by Pandit
Govind Malaviya, M.A., LL.B.)

VIII. Temple of Mundesvari, Bhabua Sub-division.
Shahabad District. (Photo by J. C. French,
Esq., I.C.S.)

IX, Window in the Temple of Mundesvari in the
Shahabad District. (Photo by J. C. French,
Esq., I.O.S.)

X. Carved door-frame from the temple of Mundes-
vari, Shahabad District, Bihar.

XL Cave excavated by a Sanakanlka Chief during
the reign of Candragupta II (Cave No. 5),
Udaygiri, near Bhilsa, Gwalior State, C.I.
XII. Candragupta Cave, Udaygiri, near Bhilsa,
Gwalior State.

JUIST UJT ILdLUHTilATlUJNS.

XIII. Vlrasena's Cave, or Cave No. 6, Udaygiri, near

Bhilsa, Gwalior State.

XIV. Pillar of Garuda, dedicated in G.E. 165 by

Maharaja Matrvisnu at Eran, Sagar District,
C.P.

XV. Image of the Boar Incarnation of Visnu
dedicated in the 1st year of the reign of the
Huna King Toramana by Dhanyavisnu with
the ruins of a temple of Visnu, at Eran,
Sagar District, C.P.
XVI. Main shrine at Sarnath as excavated in 1905,

back view. (Photo taken May, 1905.)
XVII. (a) Lingo, dedicated in G.E. 117 during the
reign of Kumaragupta I from Karamdanda,
District Gonda, U.P. (Lucknow Museum).
XVII. (b) Brick stamped with the name of Kumara-
gupta from Saiyadpur Bhitari, Ghazipur
District, U.P. (Lucknow Museum No. B 879.)
XVIII. Image of the 24th Ttrthankara, Varddhamana
Mahavlra, dedicated at Mathura during the
reign of Kumaragupta I in G.E. 113.
(Lucknow Museum.)
XIX. Buddha figures of the Gupta period in the

Indian Museum, Calcutta.

XX. Buddha in the Dharma-cakra-mudra from Sar-
nath, Benares. (Sarnath Museum.)
XXI. Buddha in the BhumisparSa Mudra from Sar-
nath, Benares. (Sarnath Museum.)
XXII. Buddha in the Abhaya Mudra, from Sultan-
ganj, District Bhagalpur, Bihar. (Birming-
ham Museum.)

XXIII. Lokesvara Padmapani from Sarnath, Benares.

(Sarnath Museum No. B (a) 1.)

XXIV. Ekamukha linga from ruined temple on the road

from Khoh to Parasmania, Nagod State,
Central India.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Vll

XXV. (a) The wounded Yaksa, from the rained
temple at Khoh, Nagod State, Central
India.

XXV. (6) Buddha dedicated in G.B. 129, in the reign
of Kumaragupta I at Mankuwar, Tahsil
Karchchhana, District Allahabad. (Luck-
now Museum.)
XXVI. (a) Visnu, from Cave No. 2 Udaygiri, near

Bhilsa, Gwalior State.
XXVI. (ft) NagI, from drum of Maniyar Math Stupa,

Old Rajgir, Patna District, Bihar.
XXVII. Door-jamb from Bhilsa, Gwalior State, C.I.

(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.)
XXVIII Ananta-Sayya of Visnu, in cave at Udaygiri,

near Bhilsa, Gwalior State.

XXIX. Scenes from Buddha's life I (a) Maya's dream,
(6) Birth of Buddha, (c) the first bath, (II)
the Sambodhi, (III) Dharma-cakra-pravartana,
(IV) the Miracle of Sravasti, and (V) Deva-
vatara, Stele from Sarnath, Benares.
(Indian Museum No. S. 1.)

XXX. Four principal incidents of Buddha's life (1)
Birth, (2) Sambodhi, (3) Dharma-cakra-
pravartana, and (4) Death ; Stele from Sar-
nath, Benares. (Indian Museum No. S. 3.)
XXXI. Devavatara, (2) Dharma cakra-pravartana and (3)
Sambodhi Stele from Sarnatb, Benares, dedi-
cated by the Buddhist Monk Harigupta.
(Indian Museum, Calcutta.)
XXXII. The Miracle of Sravasti, Stele from Sarnath,

Benares. (Indian Museum No. S. 5.)
XXXIII. ArJ una's penance and departure from heaven
on Indra's chriod-bas-relief on pillar from
Rajaona, Hunger District, Bihar. (Indian
Museum, Calcutta.) ,

XXXIV. Arjuna receiving the boon from Siva and later

viii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

seeing Siva and DurgS on Kailasa, bas-relief
on pillar from Rajaona, Munger District,
Bihar. (Indian Museum, Calcutta.)
XXXV. (a) Scene from Rama's life, detatched bas-relief
from the Dasavatara Temple at Deogadh,
Jhansi District.
XXXV. (b) Unidentified bas-relief on the main shrine,

Dasavatara Temple, Jhansi District, U.P.
XXXVI. Detatched bas-relief, now preserved in the
sculpture shed at Deogadh, Jhansi District,
U.P.

XXXVII. Ananta-tiayya of Visnu in niche of the Dasa-
vatara Temple at the foot of Deogadh hill,
Jhansi District. (Photo by Pandit Govind
Malaviya, M.A.,LL.B.)
XXXVIII. Image of the Boar, Varaha Cave, Udaygiri,

near Bhilsa, Gwalior State.

XXXIX. The figure of the Earth Goddess on the Boar,
Varaha Cave, Udaygiri, near Bhilsa,
Gwalior State.

XL. Fragment of two bas-reliefs from the Temple
of Mundesvari, District Shahabad, Bihar.
(Photo by J. C. French, I.C.S.)

XLI. Ornamental brick from Bilsad, Etah District,
U.P. (Lucknow Museum.)

CHAPTER I.
THE CHRONOLOGY.

The century which preceded the final rise
of Magadha as the leader of the nations of
Northern India is yet one of the darkest periods
of Indian History. The series of epigraphs which
illustrate the history of the Imperial Great
Kusanas at Mathuaa end abruptly towards the
close of the second century A.D. For Western
India we possess an almost complete series of
dated coins of the later Western Ksatrapas, for
the Pan jab we have the coins of the Later Great
Kusanas and the Kidaras, but for Eastern India
we possess nothing. In the beginning of the
fourth century A.D., a strong flood of light is
suddenly thrown on the history of North Eastern
India with the rise of the Gupta dynasty. Nothing
is known about the antecedents of Candragupta I
except that his ancestors were petty landholders
with the rank of Maharaja. In the fourth cen-
tury A.D., this title had ceased to denote the
Imperial rank or even that of an independent
prince and had been bestowed on provincial
governors by the later emperors of the Gupta
dynasty. Some writers even suppose that the
ancestors of Candragupta I were people of
humble origin and even the humble title of
Maharaja had been bestowed upon* them as an

2 THE CHRONOLOGY.

act of courtesy by the subordinates and officials
of Candragupta's son Samudragupta.

What was the condition of Magadha when
under the leadership of Candragupta I the people
of that country attained independence and later
on suzerainty ? Magadha had been annexed to
the Kusana empire in the first century A.D.,
by the generals of Kaniska I and the venerated
alms-bowl of the Buddha taken away from Vaisall
to Puru^apura or Peshawar. In the year 3 of the
era of Kaniska, i.e., in 81 A.D., a Kusana Great-
Satrap (Mahaksatrapa) named Kharapallana was
ruling over North Eastern India and under him
there was a governor or Satrap (Ksatrapa) named
Vanaspara, 1 probably in charge of the provinces
of the extreme North East, extending from
Benares to Eastern Bengal. It is, therefore, quite
probable that even in the opening decades of
the fourth century A.D., North Eastern India
was being ruled by a Scythian Great Satrap
and Magadha by a Satrap. The coinage, both
gold and copper, of the Later Great Kushans
is still extremely abundant in the markets of
Patna, Gaya and Benares and on this evidence
aloiie, in the absence of others, it would be
pertinent to assume that the Later Great Kushans
continued to rule over North Eastern India. The
foundation of an independent kingdom in Magadha
by Candragupta I, therefore, amounted to the

l Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VIII, pp. 176, 179.'

CANDRAGTJPTA I. 3

liberation of the people of Magadha from the
thraldom of the hated Scythian foreigner.

We can assume that Candragupta, the son
of Ghatotkacagupta, and the grandson of
&rlgupta, assumed the leadership of the citizens
of Pataliputra and the people of Magadha in
this war of independence. The different steps
are not known to us but some of them may be
guessed with a certain amount of accuracy. It is
certain that neither 6rlgupta nor his son Ghat-
otkacagupta were people of much importance
in the country. Harisena, one of the ministers
of Samudragupta, calls them Maharajas but the
title had declined very much in importance. It
had ceased to be an Imperial title. The Great
Asoka was content with the title of Rajan. The
Greeks introduced the first change when they
translated the title " Basileus Basileuon" and the
Persian " Shahdnshah " into Maharaja-Rajatiraja.
Under the Imperial Great Kushans several addi-
tions were made to the Imperial title such as
Devaputra in imitation of the title " Son of
Heaven" of the Emperors of China. Early in
the fourth century the Imperial title expand-
ed into Paramesvara-Para'mabhattaraka-Maharaja-
dhiraja. In the reign of Kumaragupta I we find
that the governors of Northern Bengal, though
not of royal descent and holding the rank of
Uparika, are styled Maharajas. 1 Therefore we may

1 Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XV, pp. 138.

4 THE CHRONOLOGY.

assume that the ancestors of Candragupta I were
people of no very great importance in Magadha.
Whether they were subordinate chiefs with the
title of Maharajas or mere nonentities to whom
Hariena gave the rank of Maharajas out of
courtsey, need not trouble us. We learn from the
coins of Candragupta I or those ascribed to him,
but really issued by his son and successor Sa-
mudragupta, that Candragupta acquired impor-
tance by his marriage with the Licchavi princess
Kumaradevl. So much emphasis is given to the
Lichchhavl connection by Samudragupta that
there cannot be any doubt about its importance.
On the coins of Candragupta I, which Allan takes
to be memorial medals struck by Samudragupta
in honour of his parents, we see Candragupta
I and Kumaradevi standing side by side with
their names struck separately. On the reverse
we find the word " Licchavayah" in the plural
number, which cannot be explained unless the
Guptas are also taken to be descended from
Licchavi oligarchs. The Licchavls were, origi-
nally, inhabitants of Northern Bihar or Tlra-
bhukti, with their capital at Vaisall. They
were ruled by a number of oligarchs selected
from certain families only. They were a powerful
nation whose depredations in the country to the
south of the Ganges compelled the kings of
Magadha to build a strong fort at the confluence
of that river with the Son, which became the
nucleus of the great city of Pataliputra. The

THE WAB OF INDEPENDENCE. 5

independence of the Licchavl oligarchy was
subsequently destroyed by Ajatasatru, king of Ma-
gadha. Subsequently the Licchavls migrated
to or conquered Nepal in the early mediaeval
period.

Strengthened by the Licchavl alliance Candra-
gupta I was able either to drive out the Scy-
thian Satrap of Magadha or to throw off the loose
allegiance of the chiefs of Magadha to the Later
Great Kusanas of Mathura or the Pan jab. Can-
dragupta I was most probably advanced in years
at the time of the revolution or the war of inde-
pendence in Magadha and we have positive proof
of his short rule in the date of the Gaya copper
plate inscription of his son, Samudragupta. He
simply drove out the Scythians and gave inde-
pendence to the province of Magadha after three
centuries of subjection and foreign oppression.

The restoration of independence to Magadha was
no doubt due to a revival of national spirit in
that province and Candragupta I was merely the
leader of the band of heroes who accomplished the
feat. Prior to the Satavahana conquest of Maga-
dha in the first century B.C., that country was the
predominant power in India. From the time of the
kings of Nanda dynasty the lead of Magadha had
been unquestionably recognised by all nations of
Northern India and its capital, Pataliputra had be-
come the metropolis of -India. The power of its
kings had struck terror into the hear^ of the victo-
rious legionaries of Alexander the Great and the

6 THE CHRONOLOGY.

Greek phalanxes with their myriads of auxiliaries
had, retired from the western frontier of the empire
of Magadha before risking an engagement. An-
other Magadhan Emperor had caused Seleukos
Nikator to retire with humbled pride after ceding
the fairest Asiatic provinces of Alexander's
Empire. A third emperor, the successful Brah-
mana general, Pushyamitra had tried in vain to
stem the tide of repeated Greek invasions from
Bactria and Afghanistan. The repeated treachery
of the Brahmana ministers of Magadha at last
laid the people of Magadha prostrate at the feet
of Dravidian conqueror and after the Satavahana
conquest Magadha ceased to be the leader of
Indian nations and Pataliputra, the metropolis of
India.

Magadha rose after four centuries of slumber,
once more to take its place in the vanguard of
national armies and its rise again brought indepen-
dence, self-realization and glory to the people
of Northern India. Once again Magadha became
the mistress of an empire which extended from
the Western to the Eastern sea and from the foot
of Himalayas to the banks of Narmada.

Even after a century of discussion scholars are
not yet agreed about the correct date of the war
of independence in Magadha. The late Dr. J. F.
Fleet came to the conclusion that Magadha became
independent in 319-20 A.TX, and the era, which
is now known to us as the Gupta or the Gupta-
Valabhl era was founded by the LicchavJs of

THE FOUNDATION OF THE GUPTA ERA. 7

Nepal, 1 Candragupta I. Subsequently the late
Dr. B abler proved that the era which became
subsequently known as the Gupta era was really
founded from the date of the coronation of Can-
dragupta I. 2 There cannot be any doubt about
the fact that the initial year of the Gupta era
corresponds to 319-20 A.D. In the absence of
fresh data it is impossible to decide finally what
was the real cause of the foundation of this era.
It is quite possible that the Licchavls who were
close relations of the Guptas, used the era counted
from the liberation of the people of Magadha.

One important factor was lost sight of at the
time of the decision of the point. The Gaya copper
plate of Samudragupta, issued in the 9th year of
his reign was regarded as spurious by the late Dr.
J. F. Fleet. When his work was published our
knowledge of Indian Epigraphy was not so exten-
sive as it is now. Our knowledge of the form of
Imperial Gupta land-grants was limited to the
Indor-khera inscribed copper plate of the time of
the emperor Skandagupta in 1883. The Natore
or Dhanaidaha plate of Kumaragupta I, the six
Damodarpur plates of the emperors Kumara-
gupta I, Budhagupta and Bhanugupta and finally
the three Faridpur plates of the kings Dharmadit-
ya and Gopachandra have thrown a flood of
light on the procedure of issuing grants of land
or deeds recording transfers of the same. In the

1 Gupta; Inscriptions, Introduction, p. 22. *

2 Vienna Oriental Journal, Vol. V, 1891, pp. 217-29.

8 THE CHRONOLOGY.

face of this mass of new evidence it is impossible
to believe at the present day that the Gaya
copper plate grant of the 9th year of Samudra-
gupta is forged. It cannot be regarded as spuri-
ous in the same light as the Sudi plates and in the
writer's opinion it is genuine. According to the
established custom to be found in Gupta inscrip-
tions, we should regard the date of this inscription
as one expressed in the Gupta era; i.e., it was
issued in 328-29 A.D. If Samudragupta was
reigning in the 9th year of this era then it would
be more natural to suppose that this era was
counted from the date of the accession of Samudra-
gupta's father, Candragupta I, the liberator of the
people of Magadha, who, according to a consen-
sus of opinion amongst scholars, died after a very
short reign.

According to the latest interpretation of the
numismatic evidence Samudragupta struck a
number of commemorative medals during his
reign and the coins which were hitherto regarded
as the regular issues of Candragupta I are now
regarded as medals struck in memory of his
parents by Samudragupta. Numismatists have
not been able to account for gold coins issued by
a king or prince named Kaca. In execution
these coiris are allied to the group of memorial
medals issued by Samudragupta and therefore
Mr. J. Allan of the British TMuseum is inclined to
regard them as issues of Samudragupta. But up
to this time coins of the same Gupta king bearing

KACA. 9

two different names in addition to the birudas or
the Aditya-n&me have not 'been discovered. The
established practice of Gupta coins is to put the
real name of the king on the margin of the
obverse or at the foot of the royal figure in a
vertical line and his birudas on the reverse or else-
where. All different types of the coins of Samu-
dragupta, Candragupta II, Kumaragupta I and
Skandagupta show the actual name of the king
on the obverse either in the margin or at the foot
of the royal figure on gold coins. Regarded in
this light the group of extremely rare gold coins
bearing the name Kaca are either issues of some
other prince of that name or memorial medals
struck by Samudragupta for a relative of that
name. Who this prince was we do not know.
Was he another son of Candragupta I whose
reign had intervened between those of Candra-
gupta I and Samudragupta ? If the coins bearing
the name of Kaca are real coins and not medals
then Kaca was most probably the elder brother
of Samudragupta whose rule was very short. But
if they are medals struck in the memory of a rela-
tive by Samudragupta then Kaca was most pro-
bably another son of Candragupta I, who had lost
his life in the war of independence. Gupta inscrip-
tions generally omit the name of a prince who is
not in the direct line of ^succession. The Bhitari
seal of Kumaragupta 'II omits the name of the
emperor Skandagupta, the elder brother of Pura-
gupta. For this reason it is easier to account for

10 THE CHRONOLOGY.

the omission of the name of Kaca in the genea-
logical tables of Gupta inscriptions. It is more
probable that coins bearing the name of Kaca
are memorial medals because Harisena, the official
historiographer of the reign of Samudragupta,
states in the Allahabad pillar inscription that he
(Samudragupta) was elected the heir-apparent
(yuvarajd) during the life time of his father.
Kaca, therefore, appears to be a son of Candra-
gupta I who had lost his life during the life time of
his father very probably in the war of independence.
Candragupta I left Magadha independent but
a minor power in the political arena of Northern
India in the 4th century A.D. Either in his life-
time or shortly afterwards a king of the Indian
Desert, Candravarman of Puskarana, overran the
whole of Northern India from Eastern Bengal to
the seven mouths of Indus. The statements of
the inscription on the iron pillar now standing in
the Mas j id Quwwat-ul-Islam at Meherauli 1 have
been partly corroborated by the discovery of
another inscription on the Susunia rock in the
western part of the Bankura district. 2 In this
inscription Candravarman calls himself a king of
Puskarana, and informs us that his father's name
was Maharaja Simhavarman. Harisena in his
Allahabad pillar inscription tells us that Candra-
varman was one of the kings of Northern India

1 Fleet Gupta inscriptions ; Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol.
Ill, p. 141. 9

2 Epi. Ind. Vol. XIII, p. 133 ; Vol. XIV, pp. 367-71.

CANDBAVABMAN OF PUSKABA1JA. 11

vanquished by Samudragupta. Candravarman' s
younger brother Naravarman was ruling over
Mandasor, the ancient Dasapura, as an independent
ruler in V.S. 461 = 404 A.D., 1 i.e., even after the
conquest of Malava by Candragupta II. Nara-
varman's son and successor Visvavarman did not
acknowledge the suzerainty of the emperor Kuma-
ragupta in V.S. 480=424 A.D., 2 but Naravarman's
grandson Bandhuvarman openly acknowledged
the suzerainty of Kumaragupta I in his Mandasor
inscription of V.S. 493=436-37 A.D. 8 The cam-
paign of Candravarman in Northern India
appears to have taken place before Samudragupta's
conquest of the same region. We do not know
what happened in the newly founded kingdom of
Magadha during this campaign. It is also possible
that Candravarman's campaign took place before
the accession of Candragupta I and at the same
time it is quite probable that Candragupta I was
defeated by Candravarman because in order to
reach Susunia in Western Bengal the latter must
have passed through Magadha.

Samudragupta, one of the younger sons of
Candragupta I was marked out for his abilities
and selected as the heir-apparent by his father.
Soon after the death of Candragupta I, Samudra-
gupta started to consolidate his power by conquer-
ing the small principalities into which Northern
India had become divided at that time. The

Ibid. Vol. XII, pp. 315-21. >

Gupta Inscriptions pp. 72-78. 3 ibid. pp. 79-88.

12 THE CHRONOLOGY.

Allahabad pillar inscription of Hariena mentions
two kings named Acyuta and Nagasena, at first
along with a chief of the Kota tribe, whose name
has been lost. We do not know who Nagasena
was but Acyuta 1 and the Kota 2 tribe are both
known from small copper coins issued by them.
Nagasena and Acyuta are mentioned once more
among a number of kings of Aryavarta or Nor-
thern India, who were totally destroyed by
Samudragupta ; proving thereby that both Acy-
uta and the Kota tribe belonged to Northern
India. The coins of Acyuta are to be found
only at Ramnagar near Aonla in the Bareilly
district, the site of the ancient Ahicchatra, the
ancient capital of Northern Paricala. Therefore
Acyuta may be taken to be a king of the Pancala
country. The little known coins of the Kota
tribe are said to be very common in Delhi and
the Eastern Pan jab and the Kotas therefore may
be taken to be a tribe of North Eastern R/ajputana.
Harisena in his Allahabad pillar inscription intro-
duces the kings of Southern India defeated by
Samudragupta after mentioning Nagasena, Acyuta
and the Kota tribe but before bringing in the kings
of Northern India uprooted by that monarch.
The kings of Aryavarta mentioned in 1.21 of
Allahabad pillar inscription are : 1. Rudradeva,
2. Matila, 3. Nagadatta, 4. Candravarman,

1 J.R.A.S; 1897, pp. 4UO, 862 ; Indian Museum Catalogue Vol. I. pp.
185, 188-89.

2 Ibid. pp. 258, 264.

KINGS OF N. IND. DEFEATED BY SAMTJDRAGUPTA. 13

5. Ganapatinaga, 6. Nagasena, 7. Acyuta,
8. Nandin, and 9. Balavarman. Out of these
nine chiefs Rudradeva, Nagadatta, Nagasena,
Nandin and Balavarman are not known to us from
any other source. Matila is known from a clay
seal discovered in Bulandshahr. 1 Candravarman
is known to us from the Meherauli iron pillar
inscription and the Susunia rock inscription.
Ganapatinaga is known from his coins 2 and
appears to have been a king of the Naga tribe of
Nalapura, modern Narwar in Gwalior State. Rap-
son has proposed to identify Nagasena with a
prince of the same name mentioned in the Hara-
carita of Bana. 8 The identification of Rudra-
deva, Nagadatta and Nandin is not possible with-
out fresh materials. Balavarman may be the king
of Assam of that name who was ninth in ascent
from Bhaskaravarman, the contemporary of Har-
savardhana and Yuan Chwang, and the grandson
of Pusyavarman, the founder of the dynasty. 4
If we except Balavarman and the unidentified
princes then we find that the kings of Aryavarta
defeated by Samudragupta were mostly rulers of
North Western and Central India. Acyuta
belonged to the Bareilly district, Matila to the
Bulandshahr district, Ganapatinaga to Narwar or
Pawaya or Padmavati in the Gwalior State, the
Kotas to North Eastern Rajputana and Candra-

i Ind. Ant. Vol. XV III, 18Q9, p. 289.

* Indian Museum Catalogue Vol. I. pp. 164, 178-79.

3 J.R.A.S. 1898, p. 449. 4 Epi. Ind. Vol. XII. p. 69.

14 THE CHRONOLOGY.

varman to Pokharan in Southern Rajputana.
Only the district around Agra and Delhi and
Pan jab are not mentioned. So also are omitted
the kings of the different parts of Bengal, if there
were any left after the foundation of the Gupta
kingdom by Candragupta I.

The mention of the kings defeated by Samudra-
gupta in his southern campaign before those of
Aryavarta or Northern India may indicate that
the Southern campaign was undertaken imme-
diately after the defeat of Nagasena, Acyuta
and the Kotas ; but it would perhaps be difficult
to believe that a great general like Samudragupta
departed for Southern India leaving so many
powerful enemies in his rear. The kings defeated
by him in his southern campaign are :

1. Mahendra of Kosala or the Bilaspur and
Raipur districts of the Central Provinces.

2. Vyaghraraja of Mahakantara or the great
forest (Eastern Gondwana).

3. Mantaraja of Korala.

4. Mahendra of Pistapura or modern Pitta-
puram in the Godavarl district of the Madras
Presidency.

5. Svamidatta of Giri-Kot>tura.

6. Damana of Erandapalla.

7. Vinugopa of Kafici or Conjeeveram in
the Chingleput district.

8. Nilaraja of Avamukta.

9. Hastivarman of VengL
10. Ugrasena of Palakka.

KINGS OF S. IND. DEFEATED BY SAMUDEAGUPTA. 15

11. Kubera of Devarastra.

12. Dhananjaya of Kusthalapura.

Even in 1883 there could not be any doubt
about the identification of Kosala, Pistapura,
Kafici, and Vengi. The late Drs. Fleet and V. A.
Smith proposed to identify Palakka with Palghat
on the Malabar coast. Smith subsequently found
out that Palakka was the name of a place in the
Nellore district. 1 Devarastra and Erandapalla
have all along been identified by both of these
scholars with Maharastra and Erandol in the
East Khandesh district of the Bombay Presidency.
The earlier theory that Palakka was Palghat was
feasible at that time, but with the discovery of
Palakka in the Nellore district it became difficult
to understand how Samudragupta could conquer
Maharastra and Khandesh without passing through
and conquering the intervening Kanarese districts.
It remained for a French scholar to clear up the
mystery about the places and kings of Southern
India mentioned in the Allahabad Pillar inscrip-
tion. M. Jouveau-Dubreuil of the Colonial College,
Pondicherry 2 identified these places correctly. He
has proved that Erandapalli is the name of a place
mentioned in the Siddhantam plates of Devendra-
varman of Kalinga. 3 Devarastra is mentioned as
the name of a district or province in Kalinga in a

1 Early History of India. 4th Edition p. 301,

2 Ancient History of the Djeccan, Eng. Trans. Pondicherry 1920,
pp. 58-61.

3 Epi. Ind. Vol. XII pp. 212.

16 THE CHRONOLOGY.

set of copper plates discovered in Kasimkota in
the Vizagapatam district. With Palakka in the
Nellore district and Erandapalli and Devara?tra
on the Eastern Coast, the probability of a wide
southern conquest by Samudragupta became
almost impossible. But though Palakka is acknow-
ledged to be in the Nellore district writers on
Ancient Indian History have not yet given up
their original ideas. 1

Among the twelve places mentioned in the
Allahabad pillar inscription, the princes of which
were vanquished by Samudragupta, Korala,
Avamukta and Kusthalapura cannot be identi-
fied even now. But the position of the remaining
nine clearly indicates the route of Samudragupta's
march. He passed through the Rewah State and
the Jubbulpur district, defeated Mahendra of
Mahakosala, entered the Eastern Gondwana forest,
where he defeated a chief named Vyaghraraja and
emerged on the eastern coast in the Vizagapatam
district. The Vyaghraraja mentioned in the
Allahabad pillar inscription appears to be the
same as that mentioned in the Nachne-ki-talai 2
and Ganj 8 inscriptions of the Vakataka Maharaja
Prthivlsena I. Mr. K. N. Dikshit, Superintendent
of the Archaeological Survey of India, Eastern
Circle is certainly wrong in ascribing these two
inscriptions to Prthivlsena II. 4 The Poona plates

1 V. A. Smith's Early History of India, 4th Edition p. 301.

2 Gupta Inscriptions, p. 234.

8 Epi. Ind. Vol. XVJI. p. 13. * Ibid. p. 362.

VYAGHRARAJA. 17

of the 13th year of the queen Prabhavatigupta are
written in a different script altogether, which does
not show the use of the box-headed type of the
seriff. 1 This particular variety of the 5th century
alphabet appears to be the South-Western variety.
The Ganj and Nachne-ki-talai inscriptions and the
Chammak 2 and Siwani 3 plates belong to the
North-Eastern variety of the Central Indian
alphabet of the same century. The Ganj inscrip-
tion shows well-marked box-heads on the top of
letters but the Nachne-ki-talai record shows an in-
cipient stage in the formation of the boxes. In the
Balaghat plates of Prthivlsena III 4 we find com-
pletely developed boxes. For these reasons it is
not possible to agree with M. Jouveau-Dubreuil. 5
After emerging from the forest Samudragupta
defeated Mantaraja of Korala and another
Mahendra of Pistapura ; then he proceeded south
and defeated Svamidatta of Kottura hill, modern
Kothoor in the Ganj am district. Ugrasena of
Palakka in the Nellore district, Hastivarman of
Vengl and Vinugopa of KancI were still far
away, but Damana of Erandapali and Kuvera of
Devarastra in the Vizagapatam district were
close neighbours of Svamidatta of Kothoor and
Mahendra of Pittapuram. It appears that

1 Ibid, Vol. XV. pp. 41-42.

2 Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 236-40.

3 Ibid., pp. 245-47; see also Ind. * Ant. Vol. LV, 1926, pp. 103, 323-27.
* Epi. Ind. Vol. IX, pp. 270-71.

5 Ancient History of the Deccan, pp. 72-73.

2

18 THE CHRONOLOGY,

Samudragupta was opposed by a confederacy of
Pallava kings headed by Visnugopa of Kanci,
and Hastivarman of Vengi. M. Jouveau-Dubreuil
is of opinion that " Samudragupta first subjugat-
ed some kings, but that very soon he encountered
superior forces and was therefore obliged to relin-
quish his conquests and return rapidly to his own
state/' l It is not possible to corroborate this
statement. Samudragupta's southern campaign
was of the nature of a Dig-vijaya and therefore
the question of the capitulation of conquered
territories does not arise. On the other hand it is
quite probable that Samudragupta advanced as
far as Vengi and KaficI and defeated Hastivar-
man and Visnugopa. M. Jouveau-Dubreuil has
succeeded in proving that Samudragupta never
went beyond KaficI and his supposed conquest
of the Coimbator and Malabar districts of the
Madras Presidency and the Maharatora and
Khandesh are myths. The Allahabad pillar in-
scription does not supply us with any other materi;
als except the names of Samudragupta's neigh-
bours and some traits of his personal character.
This inscription does not mention one important
event of the king's reign. After his conquests the
great king performed the Asvamedha ceremony ;
but we know of this event from his coins and one
inscription of one of his successors. Special coins
or medals were struck by Samudragupta, more

i Ibid, p. 60.

LIMITS OF SAMUDRAGUPTA'S KINGDOM. 19

probably for distributions among the Brahmanas
attending or taking part in that ceremony. On
these coins the king styles himself Asvamedha-
parakramah, 1 " Powerful enough to have perform-
ed the ceremony of the sacrifice of the horse."

We can deduce the limits of Samudragupta's
kingdom from the Allahabad pillar and other in-
scriptions. No part of Southern or Western India
was included in his dominions. The discovery of
the Poona plates of Prabhavatigupta has establish-
ed the fact that the Ganj and Nachna inscrip-
tions cannot be assigned to the 7th century A.D.
The mention of Vyaghra proves that Prthivisena I,
the grandfather of Pravarasena II, was the con-
temporary of Samudragupta. Nachna and Ganj
are both situated in the heart of ancient
Dabhala or Dahala and therefore it seems certain
that the country to the south of the Jumna was
not included in the dominions of Samudragupta.
The districts lying to the south Vindhyas were
included in the Vakataka kingdom. There is one
exception to this. The Eran inscription of
Samudragupta proves that the north-eastern
corner of Malwa, at least, was in his occupation.
According to this inscription Samudragupta estab-
lished some monuments at this place, then known
as Airakiria, now a village in the Sagar district
of the Central Provinces. 2 We have no proof of
the extension of Samudragupta' s kingdom into

1 British Museum Catalogue of Indian Coins : Gupta dynasties, p. 21.

2 Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 18-20.

20 THE CHRONOLOGY.

the heart of Malava. The countries and tribes
mentioned in the Allahabad pillar inscription of
Samudragupta indicate the limits of the zone
of Samudragupta's influence pretty accurately.
Kings of Samatata, Davaka, Kamarupa, Nepala
and Kartrpura are mentioned as princes on the
frontiers (pratyanta-nrpati). Of these names only
Davaka cannot be definitely located; Samatata
is South-Eastern Bengal, Kamarupa is lower
Assam, Nepala is the valley of the same name and
Kartrpura the Kangra valley. Therefore the
empire of Samudragupta was bounded on the
East by the Delta of the Ganges and Assam and
on the North by the valleys of Nepal and Kangra.
Davaka is generally taken to be Dacca. But
according to another theory it may be the ancient
kingdom of Tagaung in upper Burma. Therefore
the Northern part of the Ganges Delta may have
been included in the empire of Samudragupta. In
the same place of the Allahabad pillar inscription
a number of tribes are mentioned. 1. Malavas, 2.
Arjunayanas, 3. Yaudheyas, 4. Madrakas, 5.
Abhiras, 6. Prarjunas, 7. Sanakamkas, 8. Kakas
and 9. Kharaparikas. Among these tribes the
Malavas and Yaudheyas can be located correctly
but others cannot be properly identified or
located. The Malavas are decidedly the Malloi of
Alexander's historians ; they have given their
name to more than one district and country in
India, e.g., Malava and Malwa. To-day there is
a Malwa in the South Eastern Punjab and the

MALAY AS AND YATJDHEYAS. 21

ancient Mughal Subah of Malwa is now included
in the dominions of the Sindes of Gwalior and
the Holkars of Indore. The Malavas are known
from their copper coins to have continued to
exist as a tribal republic for nearly four centuries.
These copper coins are to be found over a very
large area beginning from a valley of the Sutlej
down to the banks of Narmada. According to
Cunningham the age of these coins range from
250 B.C., to 350 A.D. The earliest of them were
issued in the name of the tribal republic of the
Malavas with the legend Malavanam jaydh l
"Victory to the Malavas." Some of them use
the word Gana 2 denoting that they were tribal
coins of the Malava republic. Later on they seem
to have elected oligarchs or tribal kings whose
names only are to be found on some of their coins.
Some of these coins are assigned by Smith and
Rapson to 150 B.C. Some coins bear the name
of the king as well as the word Gana indicating
thereby that these kings were tribal kings or
executive officers of the republic. 3 The Malava
tribal coinage suddenly comes to an end at the
end of the 4th century. 4

The Yaudheyas still survive in the Panjab and
Sindh. They have become Musulmans and in-
habit the banks of the Indus from Bahawalpur
and Multan to the Kohistan taluqa of the Karachi
district. Parts of the Bahawalpur State and the

1 Smith Indian Museum Catalogue, Vol. /, pp. 70-73.

2 Ibid, pp. 173-74. 3 ibid, p. 175. No. 72 a. * Ibid. p. 162.

22 THE CHRONOLOGY.

Multan district are still called Johiyawar. Rem-
nants of the tribe still inhabit the Kohistan taluqa
of the Karachi district under their own chief who
is known as the Johiya-jo-Jam. 1 The yaudheyas
were defeated by the Mahak^atrapa Rudradaman
I sometime before 150 A.D. 2 At one time the
Yaudheyas inhabited Eastern Rajputana and one
of their inscriptions of the 3rd century A.D. , has
been discovered at Bayana 3 in the southern part of
the Bharatpur State. They are also known from
their tribal coins. Some of them were issued in
the name of the Yaudheya tribal republic,* while
others bear names of kings. 5 Like the Malava
tribal coinage, the Yaudheya coinage also comes
to a sudden end in the 4th century A.D.

The remaining tribes mentioned in the Allahabad
pillar inscription of Samudragupta are not so well
known to us. The Arjunayanas are known from
their coins only, which are exceedingly rare. 6 The
joint cabinets of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and
the Indian Museum contain two coins only. Their
habitat is also unknown. But as their coins
resemble those of the Northern Satraps and the
Yaudheyas, they may tentatively be taken to be
inhabitants of Northern Rajputana. 7 The Abhiras

1 An extensive cemetery of the Johiya-jams was discovered by me
at Landhi in the Karachi district. Annual Report of the Arch. Survey
of India, Western Circle for the year ending 31st March 1920, p. 79.
pi. viii.

2 Epi. Ind. Vol. VIII, p. 44. 3 Gupta Inscriptions p. 252.

* Indian Museum Catalogue Vol. I, pp. 182-83.

* Ibid., pp. 181-82. Ibid., p. 166.. ? ibid., p. 160.

THE SCYTHIAN MONARCHS. 23

are known to be inhabitants of Western India and
some of their kings ruled over Kathiawad. 1 Very
little is known about the Madras unless they are
the same as the Madras of the Vedic and Epic
texts. 2 Nothing is known about the Prarjunas and
the Kharaparikas. The Kharaparas are men-
tioned in a Damoh inscription of the 13th cen-
tury. 3 The SanakanJkas are known from an in-
scription of the time of Candragupta II. In the
year 82 of the Gupta era a chief of this tribe
caused a cave temple to be excavated in a low
rock near Bhilsa in the Gwalior State. * The Ka-
kas are known from tribal surnames in modern
Kashmir. It appears therefore that the tribes
mentioned in the Allahabad pillar inscription of
Samudragupta inhabited the Southern Panjab and
Northern Rajputana in the 4th century A.D.

The Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudra-
gupta contains only one other point of interest.
In line 23 it is stated that "The Daivaputras,
Shahis, Shahanushahis, Sakas and Murundas " as
well as the people of Simhala submitted to Sam-
udragupta. This particular passage cannot be
properly understood as yet. We know from
Kusana inscriptions that the titles Devaputra,
Sahi and Sahanusahi were used by the Imperial
Great Kusanas. In the inscription of the year 8

1 British Museum Catalogue of Indian Coins; Andhras. W. Keatra'
pas etc., p. cxxxiii.

2 Cambridge History of India, Vol. I 9 pp. 121,274.

3 Epi. Ind. Vol. XII, p. 46. * Gupta Inscriptions, p. 25.

24 THE CHRONOLOGY.

from Mathura Kaniska I uses the titles Maharaja,
Rajatiraja and Sahi. 1 He uses the title Devaputra
in a number of inscriptions. 2 This title is also used
by Huvi?ka. 3 While Vasudeva I is known to have
used this title at least once. 4 The title Sahanu-
sahi appears to be the result of an attempt to
translate or transliterate the Persian word Sha-
hanshah. So far it has not been found in any
Indian inscription but it is extremely familiar to us
from Kuana coin-legends from the time of Kani-
ka I to that of Vasudeva I. 5 It is also to be
found in a corrupt form on the coins of Vasudeva
II and Kaniska II. 6 The general tendency of
scholars is to take each of the names in the com-
pound Daivaputra, etc., in the Allahabad pillar
inscription to denote a separate chief. But the
use of the first three titles, Devaputra, Sahi and
Sahanusahi indicate that they were used by the
Imperial Great Kusanas only and it is extremely
probable that in the time of Samudragupta also
they were used by the one and the same prince,
the successor of Kaniska I and Vasudeva I who
ruled over Mathura and the Panjab. The Sakas
may be taken separately to denote the later
Western Katrapas of Kathiawad. The Murundas
are certainly a different tribe who are known from
literary sources as well as inscription. It is clear
therefore from 1.23 of the Allahabad pillar inscrip-

1 Epi. Ind. Vol. XVII, p. 11.

2 Ibid. Vol. I, p. 381 ; Vol. IX, p. 240.

3 Ibid. Vol. VIIl 9 p. 182. * Ibid. Vol. IX, p. 242.

5 Indian Museum Catalogue, Vol. I t pp. 69-86. * Ibid, pp.

ESTIMATE OF SAMTJDBAGTJPTA. 25

tion that a descendant of the Imperial Great
Kusanas continued to rule in some parts of
North- Western India and was not destroyed by
Samudragupta. The full significance of their
existence in the 4th century A.D. , will be under-
stood when we come to Ramagupta.

Samudragupta was a great king, perhaps the
greatest of his dynasty. He succeeded to a small
kingdom but left a large empire to his successor.
He reorganised the system of government and
administration. He reformed the official system
by rejecting the Scythian terms. Henceforth
the ranks of officials, their gradations, powers and
titles are altogether different. This system con-
tinued to be used with slight changes till the final
conquest of Northern India by the Musalmans.
The bureaucracy was totally unlike that of the
Mauryas. He reformed the currency by issuing
pure gold coins instead of the base gold of the
later Great Kushans and a series of fine copper
coins. He struck a new line in numismatics by
issuing, if Allan is correct, memorial medals of his
father and another relation named Kaca as well
as the new type of coins for distributions to Brah-
manas, who attended his Asvamedha ceremony.
Like the Imperial and the later Great Kusanas,
Samudragupta did not issue any silver coins.

With the exception of the date in the Gaya
copper plate inscription we do not know any
other date of this great king. His reign appears
to have been very long and vei*y probably he

26 THE CHRONOLOGY.

ruled from circa 425 to 475 or 480 A.D. We
know now that he was succeeded by his son Rama-
gupta, though he had selected one of his younger
sons, Candragupta as the heir apparent. Sa-
mudragupta was very fond of music as Harisena
has recorded in the Allahabad pillar inscription
and as the great king himself has recorded for
us in his unique Lyrist coins. We know from the
inscriptions that Dattadevi was his queen, perhaps
the chief queen (Agm-Mahisl or Patta-Mahadevl).
Like his successors he was also fond of hunting
and has commemorated his fondness for tiger
huntings in a series of coins. He had not reached
regions where the Indian lion was still extant
like his second son and grandson.

Ramagupta, the son and successor of Samu-
dragupta is known to us from a new work
on dramaturgy called the Natyadarpana by
Ramacandra and Gunacandra, which mentions
and contains fragments of a long-lost historical
drama by the celebrated Visakhadatta, the famous
author of Mudraraksasa. The information was
published for the first time by M. Sylvain
Levi in a masterly monograph entitled " Deux
nouveaux traites de dramaturgic Indienne." 1 From
the fragments preserved in the Natyadarpana we
know that Ramagupta had become king while
Candragupta was still a prince and that the
lady Dhruvadevl or Dhruvasvamim, who later

1 Journal Asiatiqiie, Tome CCI1I, 1923 pp. 193-218.

RAMAGUPTA AND DHBTJVADEVI. 27

on married Candragupta II atid became the
mother of the emperor Kumaragupta I and prince
Govindagupta, had first married Ramagupta.
This is the earliest instance of a widow mar-
riage among kings of the historical period in
Indian history. That Candragupta II had married
his brother's widow was definitely remembered
even in the 9th century. In the Sanjan plates of
Amoghavarsa I, dated 871 A.D., it is stated
" That donor, in the Kali age, who was of the
Gupta lineage, having killed (his) brother, we
are told, seized (his) kingdom and queen." * The
extracts from Visakhadatta's new historical drama
Devi-Candragupta begin with the second act,
where it is stated that Ramagupta agreed to
give away Dhruvadevi to the Sakas in order to
remove the apprehensions of his subjects. It
appears that the Saka king had demanded his
legally married wife Dhruvadevi of Ramagupta
and that coward had actually consented to send
her. The extracts contain a long dialogue bet-
ween Ramagupta and Dhruvadevi in which
Ramagupta states that he is sending Dhruvadevi
for the sake of the people. 2 Dhruvadevi com-
plains of her husband's heartlessness. Later on
Prince Candragupta speaks of the cowardice of
her hushand, s and determines to go to the &aka
king in the guise of Dhruvadevi. 4 Candragupta's

1 Verse 48 Epi. Ind., Vol. XVIII, p. 255.

2 Journal Asiatique, Tome CGIII, 1923, p. 203.

3 Ibid., p. 286. 4 Ibid., p. 203. -

28 THE CHRONOLOGY.

raid on the aka capital and his slaughter of
the Saka king was known to Bana, who says
in his Harsa-Carita that Candragupta disguised as
a female killed the king of the Sakas, who was
desirous of the wife of another, in the city of the
enemy. l Sankara, the commentator of the Harsa-
Carita makes the reference more explicit by
stating that the king of the Sakas was killed in
private by Candragupta disguised as Dhruva-
devl and surrounded by men dressed as women
because the former wanted Dhruvadevi, the
brother's wife of Candragupta ; Candragupta-
bhratrjayam Dhruvadevim prarthayamanas = Can-
draguptena Dhruvadevl-vesadharina stnvesa-jana-
parivrtena rahasi vyapaditah. z The subsequent his-
tory of Ramagupta is not known to us from any
other source. Evidently after his return to Patali-
putra Candragupta succeeded his brother, who was
either killed or deposed. 3 The statement of the
San j an plates of Amoghavarsa I proves that even
in the 9th century, more than two hundred years
after Bana, the story of Ramagupta 5 s deposition
and the marriage of his widow with Candragupta
II were well remembered. No coins of Rama-
gupta have been discovered and it is extremely
improbable that he ruled for more than .a few
months.

1 Cowell & Thomas, Harsa-carita, Eng. Trans, p. 194.

2 Journal Aeiatique, Tome CO II I, 1028 pp. 207-8.

3 The entire available material has been collected and discussed
by Prof. A. S. Altejcar of the Benares Hindu University Journal
of the Binar & Orissa Research Society, Vol. XIV. pp. 223-253.

CANDRAGUPTA II VJKRAMADITYA^ 29

Ramagupta was succeeded by his younger bro-
ther Candragupta II, who assumed the title of
Vikramaditya and is very probably the famous
king of that name of Indian folklore. He married
his brother's widow Dhruvadevi or Dhruvasvamini
and had by her at least two sons, the emperor Ku-
maragupta I and Govindagupta. As Kumaragupta
succeeded Candragupta II on the throne Druva-
devi must have been legally married to her first
husband's younger brother. Up to this time
the emperors of the Gupta dynasty have been
regarded as. models of propriety by the most
conservative Hindus of the present day. But
this instance of widow marriage is bound to shock
them. The marriage of Dhruvadevi only streng-
thens our belief that widow marriages or remar-
riage, according to the legal principles laid down
by Narada and Parasara were prohibited later
than the 5th century A.D. 1

Who was this Saka king, who had suddenly
become bold enough to demand of the successor of
Samudragupta his legally married wife ? Visakha-
datta calls him a Saka. In the 19th and 20th
centuries we have grown accustomed to identify
the later Western Satraps as &akas in the 3rd and
4th century A.D. But towards the close of the
4th century the power of the Western Satraps had
declined very considerably and it is extremely
doubtful whether it was possible for any of them
to send an open challenge to the Gupta king of

1 Narada, XII, 97 ; Paratara, LV, 27.

30 THE CHRONOLOGY,

Pataliputra, the successor of Samudragupta, in
the form of a demand for his legally married queen.
We know from the Allahabad pillar inscription of
Samudragupta that a scion of Kaniska I was still
ruling somewhere in North Western India and it is
more probable that it was he who, emboldened by
the weakness of Samudragupta's successor, had
made this last bold bid for the recovery of the lost
Imperial position of his house. It is also more
probable that Mathura was still the capital of the
Great Kusanas and the last great Kusaoa emperor
was killed in his palace at Mathura by Candragupta
II disguised as Dhruvadevl and his band of faithful
adherents dressed as women.

Candragupta II seems to have spent the first
few years after his accession in consolidating his
conquest of Mathura and is the first emperor of
the Gupta dynasty whose record has been dis-
covered in that city. His coins, specially his
silver coins, are very plentiful all over the East-
ern Panjab as far as the banks of the Chenab.
There cannot be much doubt about the fact that
the final extension of the western frontier of the
Gupta empire was due to Candragupta II. His
inscriptions prove that he conquered the whole
of Malava and his silver coins indicate that he
destroyed the later Western Satraps of Kathi-
awad. His earliest inscription is a record in a
cave near Udaygiri in the Bhilsa district of the
Gwalior State, which was excavated in the year 82
by his subordinate, a chief of the Sanakanlka tribe

EMPIKE OF CANDRAGUPTA II. 31

with the title of Maharaja. This record proves
that practically the whole of North Eastern Malava
had been conquered by Candragupta II before
401-2 A.D. The third inscription comes from
Gadhwa in the Allahabad district and adds nothing
to our knowledge except a date in the reign of
Candragupta II. Two other inscriptions also come
from Malava, only one of which is dated. The
Sanchi inscription of the year 93 = 412-13 A.D.,
records a donation by Amrakardava, a dependant
of Candragupta II at Kakanadabota. But it
supplied us with an important detail that the more
familiar name of Candragupta was Devaraja, 1
Another inscription in a cave at Udaygiri near
Bhilsa records its excavation by one Virasena alias
Saba, who was one of the ministers of Candragupta
II. The year 93 of the Sanchi inscriptions is the
last known date of Candragupta II. He died and
was succeeded by his eldest son Kumaragupta
I some time between G. E. 93 and 96 (41316
A.D.)

From the accession of Candragupta II the Gupta
kingdom becomes a vast empire extending from
the Kathiawad peninsula to the confines of Eastern
Bengal and from the Himalayas to the Narmada.
It is known to have included Bengal, Bihar, United
Provinces, Eastern half of the Panjab, portions of
the Central Provinces and practically the whole of
Central India including the famous and fertile

1 Gupta Inscriptions pp. 31-96.

32 THE CHRONOLOGY.

province of Malava, Northern Gujarat and Kathia-
wad, including the famous ports of Cambay,
Ghogha, Verawal, Porbandar and Dvaraka. The
effect of this extension of the Western Frontier
was immense on the trade and commerce as well
as the culture of Northern India. The European
and African trade received immense impulse with
the Gupta conquest of the Kathiawad ports.
Once more the road from Pataliputra and the great
manufacturing cities of Northern and Central India
was open right up to the sea. The fine cotton
cloths of Eastern Bengal, the silks of Western
Bengal, Indigo from Bihar, the golden embroi-
deries and kinkhwabs of Benares and Anahila-
pataka or Anhilwada-Patan, the scents and un-
guents of the hill states of the Himalayas,
camphor, sandal and spices from the South were
brought to these ports without much interference
or the payment of vexatious imposts from each
petty chief through whose jurisdiction it passed
before the foundation of the Gupta empire.
The Western traders poured Roman gold into the
country in return for Indian products and the effect
of this great wealth on the country is still notice-
able in the great variety and number of the coins
of Candragupta II. More gold and silver coins of
Candragupta II have been discovered than those of
his father Samudragupta or his son Kumaragupta
I. The most important innovations introduced by
Candragupta II were in the currency of the
country. He issued gold coins of three different

THE VAKATAKA ALLIANCE, 33

weights. The first of them corresponds to the
Kusana standard of 121 grains, the second is of 126
grains and the third of 132 grains. The Kushan
standard of 121 grains was an imitation of the stan-
dard of the Roman Aureus and Candragupta II
appears to have been approaching the ancient
Indian Standard of the Suvarna of 146 grains. To
meet the demand of the newly conquered provinces
of Gujarat and Kathiawad, Candragupta II issued
a new silver coinage. Evidently the gold and
copper coinage of Northern India was not accep-
table to the local people of Western India, where
the silver coinage of the Greek kings Menander and
Apollodotos were in circulation even in the first
and second century A.D. and where the early and
late Western Ksatrapas issued silver coins only
for nearly four hundred years. The silver coinage
of Candragupta II was a close copy of that of the
Western Ksatrapas having the king's head and a
date in numerals on the obverse with traces of the
degenerate Greek legend. The reverse was entirely
changed and in the place of the Scythian Caitya
or Meru was placed the celebrated Garuda with
outspread wings, the family crest or Lanchana of
the Imperial Guptas.

Candragupta II allied himself with the only
rival power in India of which he was probably
afraid, the Vakatakas of Central India and the
Deccan. By a second queen named Kuberanaga
he had a daughter named Prabhavatigupta. This
princess was married to the Vakataka king
3

34 THE CHRONOLOGY.

Rudrasena and had at least two sons, Divakara-
sena and Pravarasena II. By this alliance
Candragupta II protected his left flank and most
probably the marriage took place during Candra-
gupta IPs campaign in Malava.

Besides Prabhavatlgupta, Candragupta II had
at least two other issues ; Kumaragupta I and
Govindagupta. Besides Dhruvadevi the only
other known queen of Candragupta II is Kuvera-
naga, the mother of the Vakataka queen Prabha-
vatlgupta. Candragupta II was also known as
Devagupta or Devaraja. This is known in the
first place from the Sanchi inscription of the year
93 where Candragupta is specially mentioned as
being called Devaraja 1 and in the second place
from Vakataka Land Grants in which the father
of Prabhavatlgupta is invariably called Deva-
gupta. 2

The names of several officers of Candragupta II
are known to us from the inscription of his time.
The Sanakanlka chief, whose name has been lost
in the Udaygiri inscription of the year 82 was
evidently an officer of the Gupta empire as he
held the rank of a Maharaja. Vlrasena alias
Saba of the undated Udaygiri Cave inscription
was another minister (Anvaya-prapta-sacivyo)
evidently hereditary. 3 The name of another
minister is known to us from the Karamdanda

1 Gupta Inscriptions p. 32.

2 Ibid., pp. 237, 246 ; Epi. Ind. Vol. IX, pp. 267-71.

3 Gupta Inscriptions p. 35.

THE FO-KWOKI. 35

inscription of the year 117. A Brahmana named
&ikharasvamin was a second minister of Candra-
gupta II, but held the rank of a Kumaramatya. 1
The only other point worth notice in the reign of
Candragupta II is the seal of his queen Dhruvas-
vaminl, discovered at Basarh, the ancient Vaisali.
In this seal the queen calls herself " The Great
Queen, the illustrious Dhruvasvamini, the wife of
the Maharajadhiraja, the illustrious Candragupta,
the mother of the Maharaja, the illustrious Govinda-
gupta." 2 It is impossible to understand now
why the great queen calls herself the mother of
Govindagupta only and not that of her eldest son
the emperor Kumaragupta I. She is acknowledged
as the mother of Kumaragupta I in the Bilsad
pillar inscription of the year 96, 3 and the official
seal of the infant emperor Kumaragupta II 4 as
well as the semi-official inscription on the pillars
at Bihar 5 and Kahaon. 6

The Chinese pilgrim Fa Hsien visited India
during the reign of Candragupta II. The Chinese
monk has forgotten even to name the ruling
emperor though he describes Pataliputra, the
Imperial capital, as one of the most flourishing
cities. Gaya and the neighbouring district, the
Mecca of Buddhism, was covered with jungle.

1 Epi. Ind. Vol. X, p. 71.

2 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India 2903-4, p. 107,
pi. XL. 1.

3 Gupta Inscriptions p. 43. * J.A.S.B., 1889, Part. I, pp. 89.
3 Gupta Inscriptions, p. 50. 6 Ibid., p. o3.

36 THE CHRONOLOGY.

We can obtain tolerably reliable information
about the condition of Northern India at the
beginning of the 6th century A.D. from Pa
Hsien's travels.

Candragupta II, the third emperor of the dynas-
ty, raised the kingdom left by his father to the
status of an empire. He became the virtual master
of Northern India by destroying the Scythians
of the Panjab and Western India. He was un-
questionably the paramount sovereign of India
at the time of his death. By the marriage
alliance with the Vakatakas he had neutralised
the only rival power in India. Like all great
kings he was totally unscrupulous, which is proved
by his deposition or murder of his eldest brother
Ramagupta. Like Akbar and Sivaji he was brave
to the point of rashness, which is proved by
his adventure in disguise with a chosen band of
followers in the city or camp of the Scythian kings.
He was an ambitious man and a good general and
therefore succeeded in annexing the Eastern Pan-
jab, Malava, Gujarat and Kathiawad to his in-
herited dominions- He also issued a varied gold
coinage like his father. The most significant type
of his gold coins is the Lion-slayer type which
perhaps indicates his lion hunting either in the
deserts of Rajputana or in Kathiawad.

Kumaragupta I, the son and successor of
Candragupta II, began his reign peacefully, but it
ended in disaster. The earlier part of his long
reign of over 40 years was by far the most pros-

KUMARAGUPTA I MAHENDRADITYA. 37

perous period in the total rule of the Gupta
dynasty. The impetus received by the Western
overseas trade and the influx of foreign gold into
the country manifested itself in a great revival of
art. It was in this reign that Gupta Architecture
and Sculpture received its final form. The influ-
ence of art is also to be distinctly seen in the
coins of the ruling emperor, which are the finest of
the entire series.

At some period between 414 and 455, A.D. the
Gupta empire was invaded by horde after horde
of barbarians who succeeded in destroying it and
its culture after three quarters of a century. The
earliest invasion of the barbarians was success-
fully dispelled by the Crown Prince, Skanda-
gupta, but later on the strain of continual war-
fare was felt by the Treasury and the emperor
was compelled to issue coins of impure gold.
Though a number of inscriptions of the reign of
Kumaragupta I have been discovered, the chrono-
logy of the wars with the barbarians is im-
perfectly known to us. The undated Gadhwa
inscription records the gift of ten gold coins
(Dinaras) for an alms house. l Another from the
same place records the erection of a house for the
free distribution of food. 2 The Bilsad pillar in-
scription records the erection of a gateway,
another house for the free distribution of food as
well as gifts to a temple of Kartikeya in the year
96. 3 An image of a Jaina Tirthankara was dedi-

l Qupta Inscriptions, p. 40. 2 ibid. p. 41. 8 Ibid. pp. 43-44.

38 THE CHRONOLOGY.

cated at Mathura in the year 113. In same year
a grant or transfer of land was recorded on a
copper plate in Bengal. This plate has been re-
covered in a fragmentary condition and nothing
can be recovered beyond the name of the reigning
sovereign, the date and the name of the Visaya,
which is read as Khusa-para by me a and Khada-
para by Prof. Radhagovinda Basak. 2 The copper
plates discovered in recent years at Damodarpur
in the Dinajpur district of Bengal are far more
illuminating. Out of five plates discovered at
Damodarpur two belong to the reign of Kumara-
gupta I; plate No. I dated G.E. 124, and plate
No. II dated G.E. 128. The first plate records
that in G.E. 124 when the Paramadaivata-Para-
mabhattaraka-Maharajadhiraja Kumaragupta was
the ruling emperor, an Uparika named Ciratadatta
was the governor of Pundravardhana-jB&^Atfi
(Division). Under him the Kumaramatya Vetra-
varman was the deputy governor of the district of
Kotivarsa. It records further that a Brahmana
of the name of Karppatika applied to the local
officials for the sale of a piece of waste land to
him. The application was sanctioned and the sale
confirmed by the inscription on the plate. 3 The
second plate from Damodarpur belonging to the
reign of Kumaragupta I records that in G.E. 128
the Uparika Ciratadatta was still the governor of

1 P. & J.A.S. B., Vol. V. 1909, pp. 459-61.

2 Epi. Ind., Vol. XVII, p. 347.
8 Ibid. Vol. XV, pp. 130-31.

KTJMARAGTJPTA I MAHENDRADITYA. 39

the Bhukti of Pundravardhana and the Kumara-
matya Vetravarman, the deputy governor of the
district of Kotivara. In that year another person
applied for a transfer of waste land to him at the
usual price for the maintenance of the five Maha-
yajnas. The application was sanctioned and the
transfer recorded on the plate. l The next record
of the reign of Kumaragupta I is Buddhist. An
image of Buddha was dedicated in G. E.129 by a
Buddhist monk named Buddhamitra. The image
was discovered in the Karchhana Tahsil of the
Allahabad district and the only noticeable point
in this record is the title of Maharaja given to
Kumaragupta I, instead of the current form of
Maharajadhiraja. 2 It should be noticed in this
connection that the small Jaina votive inscription
from Mathura uses both Paramabhattaraka and
Maharajadhiraja.* We possess no records of the
last seven years of this emperor's reign. It was
most probably during this period the Huna wars
mentioned in the inscriptions of Skandagupta
took place. We know from the silver coins that
Kumaragupta I reigned till G.E. 136 = 455-6
A.D., 4 and that his eldest son Skandagupta was
on the throne in the same year.

The long reign of Kumaragupta I brought the
prosperous part of the Gupta period to an end.
With the accession of Skandagupta begins the

1 Ibid. pp. 133-34. 2 Q up t a Inscriptions, pp. 46-47.

3 Epi. Ind., Vol. II, p. 219, No. XXXIX.
* J.A.S.B. Vol. LXIII, 1894, Part 1, p. 175.

40 THE CHRONOLOGY.

next dark period of Indian history, which ends
only with the rise of the Rajputs in the 7th and
8th centuries, save and except for the well illumi-
nated reign of Harsavardhana in the first half
of the 7th century. Skandagupta was most pro-
bably the eldest son of Kumaragupta I. We
know the name of only one queen of Kumara-
gupta I named Anantadevi, who was the mother
of Puragupta, the successor of Skandagupta.
Among the officers of the reign of Kumara-
gupta I we know only one other person besides
the Uparika Ciratadatta of Pundravardhana or
Northern Bengal and his subordinate the Kumara-
matya Vetravarman. This is Prthivisena, the
son of Candragupta IPs minister Sikharasvamin.
Prthivisena was at first a Kumaramatya and
a minister (Mantrin), but later on he became the
Commander-in-chief (Mahabaladhikrta). l Of the
inscriptions of the reign of Skandagupta which
indicate very clearly that the closing years of the
reign of Kumaragupta I were not passed in peace,
we have referred to before.

Kumaragupta I, the fourth emperor of the
Gupta dynasty, cannot be compared to his father
and grandfather. He was probably weak in
character and fond of a life of easy indolence. In
the absence of official inscriptions of his reign,
like the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudra-
gupta or the Bhitari pillar inscription of Skanda-

i Epi. 2nd. Vol. X., p. 72.

ESTIMATE OF KUMARAGUPTA I. 41

gupta, it is extremely difficult to assert anything
with certainty. But the general trend of events
of his reign and the subsequent disruption of the
Gupta empire in the time of his second son, Pura-
gupta, indicates that he was no intrepid leader of
men like his grandfather or a notable general
like his father. He assumed the title of Mahen-
draditya in imitation of his father's biruda Vikra-
maditya. His coinage is more varied than that
of his father. He introduced many new types
in the gold coinage, the most notable among
which are his very rare Asvamedha coins. These
coins alone prove that like his grandfather Sa-
mudragupta, Kumaragupta I also had performed
the Asvamedha ceremony. He issued two dif-
ferent types of gold coins reminiscent of his hunt-
ing exploits. Like his grandfather Samudragupta
he issued one type representing him as killing a
tiger and like his father Candragupta II he
issued another type of coins representing him as
killing a lion. His name Kumara is synonymous
with that of the divine general Kartikeya and
according to the laudations of the court-poets
he compared himself with that god and issued
a new type of gold coins accordingly. On this
type we see the king feeding a peacock on the
obverse and the god Kartikeya riding on a peacock
on the reverse. He issued a new type of silver
coins for use in Central India in which Garudia,
the family symbol is replaced by the peacock.
Later on this type was copied by Siladitya and

42 THE CHRONOLOGY.

Harsavardhana. He continued the issue of silver
coins of the Western Ksatrapa type initiated
by his father but was compelled in times of
stress, during the first Huna war to mint this
type on silver-plated copper instead of pure silver.

Of our progenitors, whom we ought to have
remembered with gratitude, but whom centuries
of Musalman oppression, rapine, and destruction
of records have caused us to forget, the emperor
Skandagupta stands in the foremost rank. When
the great Magadhan nation forgot its glorious
past, its sacred duty of defending the gods and
Brahmanas, women and children, the weak and
the helpless and above all the defence of the
mother-land, he alone remembered it, tried his
best to maintain the glorious record of his ances-
tors from being tarnished and the rich and fertile
plains of the Indus and Ganges from being tramp-
led under the feet of countless hordes of barbarian
Huns. He was the last great hero of Magadha who
realised that it was his duty to defend the gates of
India with the last drop of his life blood. He
spent his whole life in the performance of this
noble task and at the end of it sacrificed himself
cheerfully in the performance of this sacred duty.

We possess a number of records of Skandagupta's
reign from which the chronology can be recon-
structed very accurately but the most important
among them is the undated official inscription on
the pillar at Bhitari in the Ghazipur district. The
earliest record in the chronological order is the

THE HISTORY OF THE SUDARSANA LAKE. 43

great Junagadh rock inscription of his governor

of Kathiawad, Parnadatta and his son Cakrapa-

lita. This record contains three different dates,

136, 137, and 138, all in the Gupta era and must

be read jointly with the Junagadh rock inscription

of the Mahaksatrapa Rudradaman I of 150 A.D.

We learn from this inscription that the Vaiya

Viceroy Pusyagupta of the emperor Candra-

gupta of the Maurya dynasty had caused a great

lake named Sudarsana to be constructed at the

foot of the mount Girnar or Urjayanta near

Raivataka and that the Yavana king Tusaspha,

the Viceroy of the great Maurya emperor Asoka

had excavated irrigation canals from this great

lake. During the reign of Rudradaman I, in

the Saka year 72 = 150 A.D., this great lake burst

through its bonds on account of excessive rain.

The dams were rebuilt by Suvisakha, son of

Kulaipa, a Pahlava, the minister of Rudradaman

I. l This great lake, the Sudarsana, once more

burst its bunds on the night of the 6th day

of Prauthapada (August-September) of G.E. 136

(455-56 A.D.) and was repaired by the orders

of the emperor Skandagupta when Parnadatta

was the Viceroy of Surastra or Kathiawad under

the superintendence of the latter' s son Cakra-

palita. The new dam was of masonry and on

it Cakrapalita built a temple of Visnu in G.E.

138^457-58 A.D. The bed of the ancient Sudar-

i Epi. Ind. Vol. VIII. pp. 42-49.

44 THE CHRONOLOGY.

sana lake is now a fertile plain surrounding the
base of Mount Girnar near the city of Junagadh
in the state of that name in Kathiawad. The
inscriptions of Rudradaman I and Skandagupta
are to be found on the same boulder on which
the great Asoka had caused his fourteen rock
edicts to be inscribed for the information of the
people of Surastra. No trace can be found of the
great embankments or the temple of Vinu built
by Cakrapalita.

Most of the historical information about Skanda-
gupta and the Huna wars is to be derived from
his Bhitari pillar inscription. Bhitari is the name
of a village about five miles to the north-east
of Saiyadpur, a village and the headquarters of
a tahsil in the Ghazipur district. A red sand
stone pillar stands outside the village and bears on
it a long inscription in 19 lines for the most part in
^t very good state of preservation. It is from
this inscription that we learn that Skandagupta
spent a whole night on the bare ground during the
Huna wars in his father's life time in his attempts
to restore the fallen fortunes of his family. " By
whom, when he prepared himself to restore the
fallen fortunes of (his) family, a (whole) night
was spent on a couch that was the bare earth ;
and then having conquered the Pushyamitras,
who had developed great power and wealth,
he placed (his) left foot on a foot-stool which was
the king (of that tribe himself). 1 Some doubts

1 Gupta Inscriptions pp. 53-54, 55.

PTJ&YAMITRIYAS AND THE FIRST HUZSTA WAR. 45

have been expressed about the reading of the
name Pusyamitra and it has been suggested that
this should be read as Ayudhya-mitram$==ca but
a close examination of the original shows that the
suggested reading is impossible on account of
the impossibility of the second syllable being yu.

Of the events connected with the Huna war the
same inscription informs us that "Who, when
(his) father had attained the skies, conquered (his)
enemies by the strength of (his) arm, and estab-
lished again the ruined fortunes of (his) lineage ;
and then crying ' The victory has been achieved/
betook himself to (his) mother, whose eyes were
full of tears from joy, just as Krishna, when he had
slain (his) enemies, betook himself to (his mother)
Devaki ;

" Who, with his own armies, established (again
his) lineage that had been made to totter ....
. . . . , (and) with his two arms subjugated the
earth, (and) shewed mercy to the conquered people
in distress, (but) has become neither proud nor
arrogant though his glory is increasing day by
day; (and) whom the bards raised to distinction
with (their) songs and praises;

"By whose two arms the earth was shaken,
when he, the creator (of a disturbance like that) of
a terrible whirlpool, joined in close conflict with
theHunas;" 1

The Bhitari pillar inscription proves that as the

I Ibid., pp. 55-56.

46 THE CHRONOLOGY.

Crown Prince Skandagupta had saved his father's
kingdom from total destruction at the hands of the
Pusyamitras, who were probably the first wave of
the Hunas to reach the plains of the Panjab. It
also proves that after his accession as emperor he
had defeated the second wave of the Hunas and
thus saved Northern India from the ravages of a
barbarian invasion. His defeat of the Hunas is
not referred in any other inscription of his reign.

The Hunas are known to the western historians
as the Huns and to the Chinese as the Hiung Nu.
We hear of them for the first time in connection
with the Yueh Chi or the Kusanas in the history
of the First Han dynasty. The subsequent history
and the migrations of these people have been very
closely followed by French scholars. The resear-
ches of Messieurs Chavannnes and Berthoud have
proved conclusively that the Huns spread over
Southern Asia and Europe like swarms of locusts
towards the close of the 5th century A.D. While
Attila terrified the Roman emperors of the east
and the west, Khinkhila and Toramana devastated
the fairest provinces of Persia and India. The
Eastern branch of the Huna tribes are known to
European writers as the Epthalites while the
Chinese call them Ye-tha. Two successive kings
of Persia were killed in battle with the Hunas.
Western writers describe them as a nomadic people
with Mongolian features. The affinities between
the Hungarian or the Magyar language and the
Tibetan proves that some of the Western Tibetan

N. INDIA BEFORE THE HUTSTA INVASIONS. 47

tribes are the modern representatives of the Hunas.
This is borne out by the fact that the (country to
the north of the Mana-sarovar lake and the Nilam
pass is still known to the people of the Garhwal
State as the Huna-desa.

In India, we do not know what preparations
were made by the emperor Kumaragupta I and
Skandagupta to meet this outburst of barbarians
through the Northern passes. The Huna kings
Toramana and Mihirakula are accredited with
the destruction of the ancient Buddhist temples
and establishments of the North Western Frontier
Province, the ancient Gandhara, Udyana and
Urasa. Pataliputra was still the capital of India
and Magadha still the leader of the nations of
Northern India. Did the Magadhans realise the
importance of the sacred trust placed in their
charge by the people of Northern India? The
verdict of history is against them. For the last
time in the history of Magadha the people of
that province failed in their duty. The Western
gate of India was neglected in the time of Kumara-
gupta I and swarm after swarm of barbarians
poured through it. Chinese historians have re-
corded the destruction of the cities of Bactria
and Afghanistan. Did Kumaragupta I make
any attempt to succour the minor Kusana chiefs
of these two countries ? Our records are silent
on this point and we have to admit that at the
supreme moment the people of Magadha belied
their trust. The horrors of a barbarian invasion

48 THE CHRONOLOGY.

and a long war in a country far away from the
fertile plains of the Indus and the Ganges, full
of bleak and arid mountains, for the most part
of the year covered with eternal snow, did not
appeal to the sons of Magadha in the fifth century
A.D. The influx of Roman gold and the soft
life of a century of peace and prosperity had
enervated the people of Magadha. Consequently
the great passes of the North West were not
defended and the fertile valleys of Kapisa, Naga-
rahara and Gandhara were wiped out, as it were,
from the map of India of the 5th century A.D.
After the lapse of fifteen centuries we can only
imagine the plight of the helpless population
at the mercy of the merciless uncouth unwashen
barbarians. City after city went up in flames,
the male population lay massacred on their door-
steps and the women and children dragged away
into slavery. Thus perished the last vestiges
of the great civilisation of the Asiatic Greeks in
India, which had absorbed the Saka, the Kusana
and other barbarian invaders of the country.
With it perished the noblest monuments of the
great Kusana emperors, their temples and monas-
taries and rich endowments. At the same time
perished the great University of Taxila, for
centuries the greatest centre of learning in the
country.

Skandagupta warded off the first blow during the
life time of his father. The second blow also he
parried with difficulty. The strain on the treasury

INSCRIPTIONS OF SKANDAGUPTA. 49

was enormous and the emperor was compelled to
debase the gold coinage like his father. The
subsequent history of the reign of Skandagupta is
not known to us. But the Huna invasions con-
tinued and most probably Skandagupta lost his life
in trying to stem the mighty flood of the third
invasion. We know from the Kahaum inscrip-
tion that Skandagupta was alive in 141 G.E. when
a man named Madra dedicated five images of the
Adikartrs or Tlrthankaras on a stone column in the
village of Kakubha in the modern tahsil of Deoriya
in the Gorakhpur district. 1 Silver coins were
issued by Skandagupta in G.E. 145. In G.E. 146,
when Sarvanaga was the deputy governor (Visaya-
pati) of the Antarvedl or the country between
the Ganges and the Jumna a Brahmana named
Devavinu gave some land for the maintenance
of a lamp in a temple of the Sun in the town
of Indrapura (perhaps the same as Indor Khera in
the Anupshahr tahsil of the Bulandshahr district)
built by the K^atriyas Achalavarman and Bhru-
kunthasimha at the same place. 2 The latest
known date of the emperor Skandagupta is the
year G.E. 148 = 467-8 A.D., to be found on cer-
tain silver coins. 3

With the discovery of two new inscriptions in
the ancient province of Malava a new problem
has arisen in connection with the period of war-
fare which followed the death of Kumaragupta I.

1 Gupta Inscriptions pp. 66-7.

2 Ibid., pp. 70-71. 3 J.R.A.S., 1889, p. 134.

4

50 THE CHRONOLOGY.

The first of these two is the Tumain inscription
of G.E., 116^435-36 A.D. In this record Go-
vindagupta is mentioned once and then follows
the name of another person named Ghatotkaca-
gupta. From other Gupta inscriptions we know
that Ghatotkacagupta was the name of the father
of Candragupta I. From the Poona plates of the
Vakataka queen Prabhavatlgupta the same infor-
mation is to be derived. 1 Mr. M. B. Garde,
Superintendent Archaeology in the Gwalior State
has published a short note on the Tumain inscrip-
tion of G.E. 116 but in this note the exact
relationship between Govindagupta and Ghatot-
kacagupta has not been made clear. The inscrip-
tion has not been published in full. 2 To the same
scholar belongs the credit of another important
inscription at Mandasor in the Malwa Prant of
the Gwalior State. This inscription mentions Go-
vindagupta immediately after Candragupta II
and is dated V.S. 524. Therefore it must be
admitted that Govindagupta was alive in V.S.
524=467-8 A.D. , which is the last known date
of the emperor Skandagupta. 8 Now the problem
is about Go vindagupta' s position in Malava.
Was he the Viceroy of Malava in G.E. 116=435-36
A.D. , or had he j thrown off the allegiance of his

1 Epi. Ind. Vol. XV, p. 41.

2 Ind. Ant. Vol. XLIX, pp. 114-5.

3 I am indebted to Mr. M. B. Garde for permission to use
this information from the newly discovered inscription from
Mandasor.

CIVIL WAE BETWEEN SKANDA & PURAGUPTA. 51

brother? The second inscription shows that in
467-8 A.D. , he was still in Malava. But the
second inscription does not mention Skandagupta.
Did Govindagupta refuse to acknowledge his
nephew after his brother's death in 455 A.D. , or
had he done so after Skandagupta 5 s death?
These problems will remain unsolved till fresh
material about the later history of Malava is
available.

A period of anarchy and misrule begins with
the death of Skandagupta. He was succeeded on
the throne by his younger brother, probably a step-
brother, Puragupta. Puragupta is known to be the
son of Anantadevl who was not the mother of Skan-
dagupta and Skandagupta' s mother is deliberately
omitted in all official genealogies of the Gupta
dynasty. The name of Skandagupta is also omit-
ted from the geneology in the official seal of Pu-
ragupta's grandson Kumaragupta II discovered
at Bhitari in the Ghazipur district. In many
other cases where a brother succeeds instead of a
son the names of both brothers are mentioned if
relations are cordial. The best known examples
are the Banskhera 1 and Madhuban 2 plates of
Harsavardhana and the ManahaH plate of Mada-
napala 3 of Bengal. Even if we compare a seal
with a seal and place the Sonpat seal of Harsa-
vardhana by the side of the Bhitari seal of Kuma-

1 Epi. 2nd. Vol. IV, pp. 210-11.

2 Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 72-73. Vol. VII, pp. 157-8.

3 J.A.S.B., Vol. LXIX, 1900, Part I. pp. 93ff.

52 THE CHRONOLOGY.

ragupta II then we are forced to admit that the
name of Skandagupta was intentionally omitted
from the latter. The find-spots of coins of the
three later Gupta emperors, Puragupta, Narasim-
hagupta and Kumaragupta II indicate very defi-
nitely that these three monarchs had very little
authority outside Bengal, Bihar and the Eastern
districts of United Provinces ; such as Mirzapur
and Basti. From these facts we can glean that
the Imperial authority was limited to the metro-
politan districts of the Gupta empire and that
Puragupta was not on good terms with his elder
brother and predecessor Skandagupta. It would
be natural to surmise that during the third Huna
war Puragupta had set himself up as a rival
emperor in Magadha and thus became the cause
of Skandagupta' s defeat and death. It is this
treachery on the part of his younger nephew
which seems to have made Govindagupta disobe-
dient in Malava.

Evidently the revenues of the empire had di-
minished severely on account of the defection of
the western provinces. None of these three em-
perors issued any silver coins, proving thereby
that Central India, Gujarat and Kathiawad had
ceased to obey them. The precarious condition
of the Imperial finances compelled Puragupta to
issue coins of base gold. His coins are extremely
rare; there being two coins in the immense collec-
tion of the British Museum. Allan is inclined to
assign the Horseman-type issues of Prakasaditya

THE LATER IMPERIAL GUPTAS. 53

to Puragupta, but there is no evidence in his
favour. It is therefore more probable that Pura-
gupta' s reign lasted for a few months only. The
recent discoveries of dated inscriptions of the
time of Kumaragupta II and Budhagupta at
Sarnath prove that three generations of Gupta
emperors have to be crowded into the short
period of six years. Skandagupta, the grand-
uncle of Kumaragupta II was ruling in 467-8
A.D. , and we learn from the Sarnath inscriptions
that Kumaragupta II was recognised as the
ruling sovereign in G.E. 154=473-74 A.D. 1 Out
of these six years the greatest portion has to
be assigned to Narasimhagupta, the son and suc-
cessor of Puragupta because a larger number of
his gold coins have been discovered in comparison
with his father Puragupta. It would be perfectly
fair, therefore, to assume that Puragupta' s reign
came to an end in 468 or at the latest in 469
A.D. , and he was succeeded by his son Narasim-
hagupta. Puragupta assumed the biruda of Vik-
rama and most probably the complete form was
Vikramaditya^ like that of his grandfather Cand-
ragupta II. Narasimhagupta is known to us,
like his father Puragupta and his son Kumara-
gupta II from his coins only. They are to be
found in larger number in Bengal proper than in
Bihar or in the United Provinces. Twelve of
them are preserved in the British Museum and

1 Annual Report of the Arch. Survey of India. 1914-15, part II, pp.
124-25.

54 THE CHRONOLOGY.

only six in the Indian Museum in Calcutta. A
reign of four years would therefore be quite suffi-
cient for him. The more so because we know
now that his son and successor Kumaragupta II
was on the throne in 473-74 A.D. Narasimha-
gupta assumed the biruda of Baladitya, a title
which has caused much misunderstanding among
scholars.

Kumaragupta II must have been an infant in
arms when he was placed on the throne. Though
his great-grandfather Kumaragupta I had reign-
ed for 41 years, his grandfather Puragupta must
have died about 468-69 A.D., and therefore
Narasimhagupta must have come to the throne
while very young and consequently his son
Kumaragupta II must have been an infant. There
are parallels of this type in the history of India.
Aurangzeb 'Alamgir ascended the throne in 1556
and died after a reign of 51 years in 1707. His
son Shah 'Alam I Bahadur ascended the throne
at a very advanced age in 1707 and lived to rule
for 5 years only. Shah 'Alam's eldest son Mui'z-
zuddm Jahandar Shah had passed the prime of his
life when he ascended the throne in 1712 and was
murdered in the next year. Jahandar 's nephew
Farrukhsiyar was very young when he ascended
the throne and the sons of his younger uncles
Jahan Shah and Rafia'-ush-shan were still young
at that time. There is therefore no reason to be
surprised at the fact that Kumargupta II in
the fourth generation after Kumaragupta I

THEORIES ABOUT LATER GUPTA CHRONOLOGY. 55

was an infant in arms. He assumed the biruda
of Kramaditya in imitation of the Vikramaditya
of his grandfather Puragupta and his great-
great-grandfather Candragupta II. There are
eighteen of his gold coins in the British Museum
and only two in the Indian Museum, Calcutta,
which is not strange in consideration of the fact that
his short rule was over before G.E. 157 = 476-77
A.D. This is proved by the Sarnath inscription
of the time of Budhagupta.

The chronology of the later Imperial Guptas
has received much attention from scholars since
the discovery of the Sarnath inscriptions of the
time of Kumaragupta II and Budhagupta. After
the discovery of the Bhitari seal of Kumaragupta
II, the late Dr. V. A. Smith had propounded the
theory that Skandagupta ruled till 480 A.D., and
Kumaragupta II till 530 A.D. 1 Subsequently he
was of opinion that Puragupta came to the
throne in 468 and Narasimhagupta shortly after-
wards. He placed the accession of Kumaragupta
II in 473 and Budhagupta in 476 A.D., 2 according
to the views of the writer 3 and Dr. R. C.
Majumdar. 4 Inspite of these discussions a number
of writers still continue to believe that "The
genealogy of the imperial Guptas continued

1 Early History of India,. 3rd Edition p. 327.

2 Ibid., 4th Edition, p. 346.

:J Annals of the Bhandarkar Institute, Vol. I, 1919, part /, pp. 67-80.
* P. and J.A.S.B., Vol. XVII, 1921, pp. 249-55; Ind. Ant. Vol.
XLVII, 1918, pp. 166-7.

56 THE CHRONOLOGY.

through Skandagupta for a period of still about
three quarters of a century, and that the Gupta
empire did not perish after the death of Skanda-
gupta, as had long been held by historians." 1
It is absolutely useless to discuss incoherent
theories of writers who would believe inspite of
total want of evidence that the Kumaragupta
who is mentioned in the Sarnath image inscrip-
tion of G.E. 154 was Kumaragupta II and the
son of Skandagupta and that Budhagupta was
the son and successor of this Kumaragupta.
Further Puragupta, Narasimhagupta and Kumara-
gupta are taken to belong to a different branch
altogether. Whatever may be the case there is no
evidence to prove that Kumaragupta II was a son
of Skandagupta and that Budhagupta was the
son of this Kumaragupta II. There is no evi-
dence in favour of the existence of a third Kumara-
gupta in addition to the sons of Candragupta II
and Narasimhagupta. Writers of this class depend
upon untenable theories of older writers. Because
Drs. V. A. Smith and Hoernle had hazarded the
proposition that a Kumaragupta ruled in 530
A.D., therefore there must be a Kumaragupta at
that date. The bases of Hoernle and Smith's
theories of the dates of Skandagupta and Kumara-
gupta II are the statements of the Yuan Chwang
about the defeat of the Huna king Mihirakula by
a confederacy of kings under the leadership of

i Epi. Ind., Vol. XV, p. 119.

UNION OF THE PROVINCES UNDER BUDHAGUPTA. 57

a king named Baladitya. Identifying this king
with Narasiihhagupta Fleet and Hoernle placed
Skandagupta' s death in 480 A.D., and Kumara-
gupta II in 530 A.D. The discovery of the
Sarnath and Damodarpur inscriptions makes it
unnecessary to discuss this point any further.

We do not know how the infant king Kumara-
gupta II came to lose the throne or died.
Budhagupta's relationship with Skandagupta or
Puragupta is also unknown to us. There cannot
be any doubt about the fact that Budhagupta
succeeded Kumaragupta II because the former's
earliest date, the Sarnath inscription of G.E.
157=476-77 A.D., is only three years removed
from the only known date of Kumaragupta II,
the Sarnath inscription of G.E. 154 = 473-74 A.D.
Budhagupta is taken by some scholars to be a
son of Kumaragupta I because the latter' s biruda
Mahendra is equivalent to Sakra in Sanskrit and
according to Yuan Chwang Budhagupta's father's
name was fiakraditya. The principal difficulties
about the chronology of events of the reign of
Budhagupta are the want of any official stone
inscription like the Allahabad pillar inscription of
Samudragupta or the Bhitari pillar inscription of
Skandagupta and the want of any gold coins
bearing his name. It is quite possible that the
coins bearing the biruda Prakasaditya were issued
by him, but his name Budhagupta has not been
found on any of them. Budhagupta succeeded
in re-uniting the whole of the Gupta empire

58 THE CHRONOLOGY.

Two of his inscriptions have been discovered at
Sarnath, near Benares, but they are of no
historical interest as they record dedications of
images of Buddha by a Buddhist monk. The
Damodarpur plates contain two transfers of land
which took place in his reign. From the inscrip-
tion on the first of these plates we learn that
during the reign of Budhagupta the Uparika
Brahmadatta, with the title of Maharaja, was the
Viceroy of the division (bhukti) of Pundra-
vardhana. A villager named Nabhaka applied
for the sale of some land, free of revenue, for the
settlement of some Brahmanas and the sale was
recorded in this inscription. At the time of the
issue of the second plate the Uparika Maharaja
Jayadatta was the Viceroy of the division of
Pundravardhana and under him an Ayuktaka was
the governor of a district (visaya) of Kotivarsa.
At this time the Nagara-&resthin l Rbhupala
applied for some land, probably unsettled (aprada)
land, on the Himalayas in the village of Donga-
grama for the purpose of building two temples to
the gods Kokamukha-svamin and Sveta-Varaha-
svamin and for the establishment of one Nama-
lingam and according to this application some
homestead (vastu) land was sold to him and a
transfer recorded on this plate. 2 In G.E.,
165=484-85 A.D., Budhagupta was recognised as

1 This office corresponded to the modern Nagarseths of Gujarat.
There is a Nagarseth in Ahmadabad even now.

2 Epi. Ind., Vol. XV, pp. 137-41.

ERAN PILLAR OF THE TIME OF BUDHAGUPTA. 59

the sovereign of Malava. In that year a Viceroy
named Surasmicandra was ruling the country
between the Jumna ( Yamuna) and the Narmada.
In that year a Brahmana named Matrvisnu, who
held the title of Maharaja and his brother
Dhanyavisnu, who were the great-grandsons of
the Ri Indravisnu, grandsons of Varunavisnu
and sons of Harivinu erected a flag-staff (dhvaja-
stambha) of the god Janardana. 1 This inscription
is a very important record for later imperial
Gupta chronology as it enables us to determine
the approximate date of the Huna conquest of
Malava. Budhagupta issued a silver coinage of
the Central Indian type but these coins also are
very rare. The British Museum contains only
three specimens and one of these three bear the
latest date of this monarch, G.E. 175 = 494-95
A.D.

We do not know who succeeded Budhagupta.
But in G.E. 224^543-44 A.D., a king named
Bhanugupta was acknowledged as the emperor in
Northern Bengal. An inscription on a pillar dis-
covered at Eran mentions the same Bhanugupta.
In G.E. 191 = 510-11 A.D., the king Bhanugupta
came to Eran with a subordinate chief named
Goparaja and fought a great battle in which Gopa-
raja was killed. The latter 's wife mounted the
funeral pyre and evidently the pillar was erected
on that spot. A comparison of the Eran pillar

Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 88-90.

60 THE CHRONOLOGY.

inscription of G.E. 165, the pillar inscription of
G.E. 191 and that on the great image of the
Boar incarnation dedicated at the same place in
the first year of the Huna king Toramana enables
us to deduce the date of the conquest of Northern
Malava by the Huna king Toramana. It has been
noted above that in the Eran pillar inscription of
G.E. 165, the brothers Matrvinu and Dhanya-
vinu erected a flag-staff of Janardana. It has
also been noted that a great battle was fought at
Eran by an emperor named Bhanugupta in G.E.,
191. 1 We find that Dhanyavisnu alone, after the
decease of his elder brother Matrvisnu, erected a
temple of the Boar incarnation of Visnu. This
inscription is incised on the breast of colossal
image of the Varaha incarnation of Visnu. The
temple and the image are still lying at Eran. 2
From these three inscriptions we can deduce the
following facts :

1. That the conquest of Malava took place

within one generation of the dedication
of the flag-staff of Vinu by the
brothers Matrvisnu and Dhanyavisnu.

2. That the battle of Eran, in which Goparaja

was killed, was fought by Bhanugupta
with the Hunas and that he was
defeated.

3. That Toramana was the Huna king who

conquered Malava and defeated Bhanu-
gupta.

1 Ibid., pp. 91-93. 2 ibid., pp. 158-61.

CANDRAGUPTA III. 61

Bhanugupta was still living in G.E,, 224=543-
44 A.D., when he was recognised as the ruling
emperor in Northern Bengal. In that year a per-
son of the royal family whose name was Rajapu-
tradeva was the Viceroy of the division of Pundra-
vardhana and under him Svayambhudeva was the
governor of the district of Kotivarsa. At that
time the Nagarasresthin Rbhupala was also living.
In that year an application was made by one
Amrtadeva, an inhabitant of Ayodhya, for the
purchase of some rent-free land, at the usual price,
for the provision of repairs to the temple of
&veta- Varaha-svamin in the forest and for the per-
petuation of certain supplies to the same temple.
According to this application a certain amount of
homestead and cultivable land was transferred to
the god Sveta- Varaha-svamin as a perpetual endow-
ment. This plate bears the seal of the office of
the head quarters of Kotivarsa. 1 This is the last
known record of Bhanugupta, none of whose coins
have been discovered up to date.

We know that a number of minor kings suc-
ceeded Budhagupta and Bhanugupta in North-
Eastern India. They are known solely from their
coins discovered in Bengal. The oldest of these
coins belong to Candragupta III, Dvadasadilya
which were discovered at Kalighat near Calcutta
during the regime of Warren Hastings as Governor
of the Presidency of Bengal and were sent to Eng-

l Epi. Ind., Vol. XV 111, pp. 141-44.

62 THE CHRONOLOGY.

land. The next king was Visnugupta Candraditya.
The British Museum possesses three coins of Candra-
gupta III and fifteen coins of Visnugupta, most of
which came from the Kalighat hoard. The Indian
Museum at Calcutta possesses only two coins of
Visnugupta. The coins of Jayagupta Prakanda-
yam belong to a later period, apparently the end
of the 6th century A.D. During the rule of these
rois faineants the distant provinces of the Gupta
empire gradually became independent. A general
named Bhatakka or Bhatarka became practically
independent in Kathiawad in Gujarat and was able
to make the governorship hereditary. He was suc-
ceeded in turn by four of his sons named Dhara-
sena I, Dronasimha, Dhruvasena and Dharapatta.
Bhatarka and his eldest son Dharasena I were
content with the modest title of Senapati, but the
remaining three sons assumed the title of Maharaja.
Assumption of the Imperial right of issuing grants
of land was assumed by the sons of Bhatarka from
502 or 526 A.D. This shows that Kathiawad re-
mained loyal during the life time of Budhagupta
but the mask of loyalty was cast aside early in
the reign of Bhanugupta and even in the life time
of that emperor, Dhruvasena I and his successor
openly issued grants of land without even men-
tioning the name of the reigning emperor. A
comparison with the grants issued by royal officers
of the Imperial Guptas such as the Indor plate of
the reign of Skandagupta of G.E., 146 or the
Damodarpur plates of the time of Budhagupta at

THE PARIVRAJAKAS OF EAST-CENTRAL INDIA. 63

once proves the difference in the attitude. In the
Indore plate the Viceroy Sarvanaga of the country
between the Ganges and the Jumna mentions the
emperor Skandagupta explicitly. So also in the
Damodarpur plates the Viceroy of Pundravar-
dhana mentions the emperor Budhagupta. We
find a complete change in the Bhamodra Mohota
plates of Maharaja Dronasimha, who ushers him-
self simply by the phrase " Who meditated on the
feet of the Great king of kings." The Bhamodra
Mohota plates were issued after the last known
date of Budhagupta and before the earliest known
date of Bhanugupta. 1

The imperial prerogative of issuing grants of
land was also usurped by another family of feuda-
tories. Hastin ruled over the country between
Allahabad and Maihar and started issuing grants
of land in his own name during the life time
of Budhagupta. The earliest charter issued by
this prince was discovered at Khoh, near Paras-
mania in the Nagod State of the Baghelkhand
Political Agency and was issued in G.E. 156 =
475-76 A.D. Hastin even assumed the royal
prerogative of issuing coins in his own name
and five silver coins bearing his name are preserved
in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. 2 Hastin and
his son Samksobha continued to issue grants of

1 Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol.
XX, pp. 4-5.

2 V. A. Smith Catalogue of coins in the Indian Museum, Vol. I,
pp. 118.

64 THE CHRONOLOGY.

land in their own names up to G.E. 209 = 518-19
A.D., when the Guptas had long ceased to have
any real power in Central India. Up to their
last known date the Parivrajakas continued to
render nominal homage to the Gupta dynasty by
mentioning the name Gupta at the beginning;
" In the enjoyment of sovereignty by the Gupta
kings, in the glorious, augmenting and victorious
reign. " 1 This prerogative was usurped for the
first time in the history of the Gupta empire
by a feudatory chief named Laksmana in G.E.
158 = 477-78 A.D. Though Laksmana used the
Gupta era he does not mention the Gupta Imperial
family or any particular emperor by name. 2 The
process of dissolution of the Gupta empire may
therefore be stated definitely to have started
immediately after the death of the emperor
Skandagupta. It lasted till the death of the
emperor Budhagupta or at the latest till the
battle Eran in G.E. 191=510-11 A.D. Early in
the 6th century the vast empire of Candra-
gupta II and Kumaragupta I became divided
into a number of petty kingdoms, among which
the most important were :

1. The later Guptas of Magadha,

2. The Maukharis of Kanyakubja,

3. The Vardhanas of Thanesar,

4. The Guptas of Eastern Malava,

1 Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 114-15.

2 Epi. Ind., Vol. //., pp. 363-65.

THE DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EMPIRE. 65

5. The Hunas of the Panjab and Raj-

putana, and

6. The Maitrakas of Valabhi.

There were minor powers in all parts of the
country ; such as, the dynasty of Pupabhuti
in Assam, the petty chiefs of Karnasuvarna in
Western Bengal, etc. None of these dynasties
attained the magnitude and magnificence of the
Imperial Guptas. The more ambitious among
their princes founded short lived empires which
never lasted for more than one generation. Such
were the empires of Haravardhana of Thanesar
and Yasodharman of Malava. For three centuries
Northern India was plunged into a chaos from
which it emerged once more as an united empire
under the Hinduised Gujars of Rajputana in the
first half of the 9th century A.D.

APPENDIX I.

THE TUMAIN AND MANDASOR INSCRIPTIONS.

The writer is indebted to Mr. M. B. Garde for the following
information about the Tumain inscription of G.E. 116 and
the newly discovered Mandasor inscription of V.S. 524. Mr.
Garde will edit both of these inscriptions at some subsequent
date :

Tumain Inscription of G.E. 116. This record does not
mention Govindagupta at all. It mentions Candragupta II,
Kumaragupta I, and then a prince or chief named Ghatot-
kacagupta. This Ghatotkacagupta cannot be the father of
Candragupta I as he was living in G.E. 116. Unfortunately
that portion of the inscription which recorded the relation-
ship of Ghatotkacagupta to Kumaragupta I is not preserved
and therefore it is extremely difficult to say in what relation
they stood. It is possible that this Ghatotkacagupta was
either a younger brother or son of Kumaragupta I and was
the governor of Malava at that time.

The Mandasor inscription of V.S. 524. It is not quite clear
from the wording of this inscription whether Govindagupta
was alive in V.S. 524=467 A.D. or not. The inscription
records the erection of a Stupa and an Arama and the excava-
tion of a well (Kupa) by one Dattabhata, son of Vayurak-
sita, who was the general of Govindagupta. Further, this
Dattabhata is styled the Commander-in-chief of a king named
Prabhakara who is called " The destroyer of the enemies of
the Gupta dynasty " (Gupt-anvay-ari-druma-dhumaketuh).
King Prabhakara is not known to us from any other source.
He appears to have been a local chief or the Governor of
Dasapura or Mandasor. This inscription passes over Kumara-
gupta I and Skandagupta, which may indicate that Govinda-
gupta or the chiefs of Malava did not recognise these two
emperors.

APPENDIX II.

MATHUEA PILLAR INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF
CANDRAGUPTA II OF THE YEAR 61.

The writer is indebted to Mr. D. B. Diskalkar, M.A.,
Curator, of the Mathura Museum for the following informa-
tion regarding an inscription of Candragupta II discovered in
a garden near the Hardinge Gate of Mathura city by Rai
Bahadur Pandit Radha Krishna, the practical founder of
the Mathura Museum and his nephew Pandit Bhola Nath.
The record is inscribed on a small stone pillar square in
section at the bottom but octagonal in the middle. The
inscription covers five out of eight faces of the octagonal
shaft and consists of seventeen lines. It is damaged in
different parts, the most regrettable damage being to the
part which bore the date in regnal years, as this is the
only inscription of the early Gupta emperors, which was
dated both in the Gupta era and in a regnal year. The
inscription is Saiva and on one side of the pillar is to be
found a naked figure of a Sivagana (which Mr. Diskalkar
takes to be that of Bhairava).

The inscription opens with the name of the Bhattaraka-
MaharaJa-Rajadhiraja Candragupta, the worthy son (sat-
putra) of the Bhattaraka-MaharaJa-RajadhiraJa Samudra-
gupta. The date in the Gupta era is expressed both in
numerals as well as in words. The object of this inscription
is to record the building of aiva temple, named
Kapilesvara by a &aiva ascetic in which the latter
dedicated a statue (?) of his spiritual preceptor. The last
portion of the inscription contains a request to the
emperor to protect the grant made for the worship of the
deity and for charity at the temple.

The great importance of the record lies in the fact that
it supplies us with a very early date in the reign of

68 APPENDIX II,

Candragupta II as 6.E. 61=380 81 was hitherto supposed
to fall in the reign of Samudragupta. The discovery of
Ramagupta in the Devt-Candragupttyam of Visakhadatta
proves that there was some interval, however little, between
Samudragupta and Candragupta II. It appears now that
the late Dr. V. A. Smith was substantially correct in
assigning c. 375 A.D. as the date of the accession of
Candragupta II, though at that time the oldest known
date of Candragupta II was G.E. 82 = 401-2 A.D.
Samudragupta's death and Ramagupta's accession may
therefore be placed tentatively in c, 370 A.D.

CHAPTER II.

THE SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND
PEERAGE.

Immediately after the fall of the Kuana em-
pire the system of administration and the bureau-
cracy underwent a great change. In the Bena-
res inscription of the third year of Kanaka I we
are introduced to a Viceroy and a Governor who
were most probably in charge of the North-east-
ern provinces of the Scythian empire. The Vice-
roy was styled Mahaksatrapa and the Governor
Ksatrapa. This inscription, therefore, proves that
the Scythians had changed the names of the great
officers after their conquest of India. The
Maurya bureaucracy, a glimpse of which is to be
obtained in the Artha-sastra of Kautilya, was
therefore changed, at least to some extent. It
was not changed entirely because nearly fourteen
centuries after the fall of the Maurya empire
Mahamatras continued to be appointed in
Magadha. In the 12th century A.D., a Maha-
matra named Dallahapiccha dedicated an image
of a Bodhisatva in Bihar town. 1 Therefore, it
is evident, that either the Maurya official desig-
nations had survived to a certain extent till
the Musalman conquest of the country or that it

1 T. Bloch : Supplementary catalogue of the Archaeological collections
in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, 1910, p. 35 9 No. 3794.

70 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

had been revived by some later kings. It may
have remained in force in popular vocabulary be-
cause in the Maratha country a police officer is
still called a Faujdar. In the inscriptions of the
Gupta emperors there is no trace of the retention
of the old Maurya official terms. In the earliest
inscriptions of the Gupta dynasty, the Gaya plate
of the reign of Samudragupta, of G.E., 9 we come
across a new series of officials. The charter was
written according to the orders of an Aksapatal-
adhikrta. In subsequent inscriptions we become
quite familiar with a class of officials called Aksa-
patalikas or Mahaksapatalikas, but this is the
first time that we hear of this class of officials in
Epigraphy. The Gaya grant is a very short re-
cord but it has supplied us with a new term which
has not attracted the attention of scholars up to
this time. This is the word Valat-lcausham. The
translator of the record recognised it as a techni-
cal official term but was not able to offer any ex-
planation. The existence of a new class of village
officials, who had to be addressed on the occasion
of a transfer of land, is very interesting. In the
Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta one
does not expect details about the system of govern-
ment of the new kingdom because it is a pra-
asli, written in the kavya style in praise of the
king. But in 1.24 divisions of territory, un-
known to us from previous inscriptions, are men-
tioned. Here for the first time in Indian history
we hear of the term bhukti, which corresponds to a

ANCIENT GUPTA OFFICIALS. 71

modern Commissioner's division in British India,
consisting of several districts, and the visaya which
corresponds to the Mughal Cakla or the British
district. The officials mentioned in the Allahabad
pillar inscription are also new to us. The com-
poser of the inscription, Harisena, was a Kumara-
matya, a Sandhi-vigrahika and a Mahadandanayaka
and a son of the Mahadandanayaka Dhruvabhuti.
The superintendence of the incision of the record
was entrusted to another Mahadandanayaka named
Tilabhattaka. The Allahabad pillar inscription
therefore contains the titles of three new classes of
officials :

(1) Kumaramdtya, (2) Mahadandanayaka 1 and
(3) fiandhivigrahika.

The term Kumardmatya has been literally tran-
slated as " Princes 9 Minister." 2 But a little com-
parative study shows that this translation is un-
tenable; because whatever its original meaning
might have been, in the beginning of the 4th cen-
tury A.D. it had acquired a new significance. In
the first place we find that even the highest minis-
ters were Kumaramatyas. The Brahmana 6ikhara-
svamin, who was the minister (Mantrin) of Candra-
gupta II and his son Prthivlsena, who was the
minister of Kumaragupta 1, were both Kumara-

1 This title was known in the Kusana empire ; cf. Lai a Danda-na^
yaka of the Mankiala inscription of the year 18 of Kaniska I Journal
of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1909, pp. 666.

2 Annual Report of the Arch. Survey of India, 1903-04, Part II, p. 197
No. 3.

72 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

matyas. 1 During the reign of Kumaragupta I,
the governor of the district of Kotivara was a
Kumaramatya named Vetravarman. 2 At some
time during the rule of the Gupta emperors in East-
ern Bengal a Kumaramatya had been appointed
Governor of the Suvvunga visaya, but his descen-
dants continued to use the seal of the office of the
Kumaramatya even after attaining independence
and a later descendant used this seal even in the
8th century. 8 The seals discovered by the late
Dr.T.Bloch throw a very brilliant flood of light
on the bureaucracy of the Gupta empire, and es-
pecially on the different classifications in the ranks
of Kumaramatyas. Bloch discovered only three
specimens of seals of ordinary Kumaramatyas. On
these seals the figure of Laksim, standing inside a
lotus-pond, attended by two dwarfs holding ob-
jects, which look like moneybags, occupies the
upper halves. The legend on these seals is simply
Kumaramaty-adhikaranasya. Dr. Vogel's brilliant
suggestion now enables us to translate it as
66 (The seal) of the office of the Kumaramatya. 9 ' 4
At the same place 28 seals were discovered of the
next higher class of Kumaramatyas. They were
equal in rank to the Yuvaraja, or a prince of the
royal family. The term padlya was not translated
by Dr. Vogel ; it means " equal to." Pada is used

l Epi. Ind. Vol. X pp. 71-72. * Ibid., Vol XV. pp. 130-183.

3 Ibid., pp. 306-12.

4 Annual report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1903-4, p. 107,
Note 1.

KUMARAMATYAS. 73

often in the same sense as Tcalpa. Guru-pada is
the same as guru-kalpa and means " one equal in
rank to a preceptor ." There is some difficulty in
translating the word Yuvaraja, because in the next
class of Kumaramatyas we find the use of the term
Yuvaraja-bhattaraka. Evidently there were two
different classes of Yuvarajas. Ordinarily Yuva-
raja means a heir-apparent, but the use of Bhatta-
raka along with Yuvaraja distinctly indicates two
different classes. As there can be only one heir-
apparent in a kingdom or empire, such a distinction
can only mean that the younger princes of the
royal family had also come to be styled Yuvarajas,
while the real heir-apparent was styled Yuvaraja-
bhattaraka. It is evident, therefore, that some of
the Kumaramatyas were held to be equal in rank
to princes of the blood royal like the princes of
the Roman Empire or even the Holy Roman Em-
pire. The legends on these seals is Yuvaraja-
padlya-Kumaramaty-adhikaranasya, " (the seal)
of the office of the Kumaramatya equal in rank to
a prince." The legend of the third class of Kuma-
ramatyas indicates that officers of this rank were
held to be equal to the heir to the empire. Twelve
specimens of seals of official of this class were dis-
covered. In the seals of the second class we find
the figure of Laksmi with an elephant on each
side, but without any attendant. 1 In third class
we see Lak?mi with the elephants and two dwarfs

i Ibid., No. 2.

74 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

holding round pots from which they are pouring
out small objects, evidently coins. 1 The legends
on the seals of the third class is &ri-Yuvaraja-
bhattaraka - padlya - Kumaramaty - adhikaranasya.
" (The seal) of the office of the Kumaramatya, equal
in rank to the illustrious heir-apparent." In the
fourth or the last class of Kumaramatyas the
legends make a startling revelation. Only one
specimen of this particular kind was discovered
by Bloch at Vaisali. The legend runs: $n-
paramabhattaraka - padlya - Kumaramatyadhikara -
nasya ; " (The seal) of the office of the Kumara-
matya, equal in rank to His Majesty (the Emper-
or)." 2 Up to this time officials of the state equal
in rank to the sovereign have not been met with
in ancient or modern histories. There are other
officials equal in rank to the heir-apparent but
none except the Kumaramatyas were sufficiently
high in rank to be equal to His Majesty the Em-
peror. The Commander-in-chief was held to be
equal in rank to the heir-apparent. Only one
specimen of a seal of this particular type was dis-
covered at Vaisali. On this we see a vase or kalasa
in the centre, a conch to the right and the letter
Sri to the left. The legend thereon is &ri- Yuva-
raja-bhattaraka-padlya-bal-adhikaranasya : " (the
seal) of the office of the Commander-in-chief, equal
in rank to the heir-apparent. 8 "

Among the higher class of officials the Uparikas

i Ibid., No. 6. 2 Ibid., p. 108, No. 8. 3 Ibid., No. 12.

PROVINCIAL VICEROYS. 75

were appointed Viceroys of the provinces. Bloch
discovered two seals of the Uparika of Tlrabhukti
or Tirhut. The legend is Tirabhukty= Uparik-adhi-
karanasya. " (The seal) of the office of the Upari-
ka of Tlrabhukti." The importance of the ranks
of the Uparikas was not understood till the disco-
very of the Damodarpur plates. From these ins-
criptions we learn that the Uparikas were viceroys
of provinces. In G.E. 124, during the reign of
Kumaragupta I an Uparika named Ciratadatta
was governing the Bhukti of Pundravarddhana. 1
He was also in charge of the same province, i.e.,
Northern Bengal, in G.E. 129. 2 In G.E. 163,
during the reign of the Emperor Budhagupta, an
Uparika with the title of Maharaja was the Viceroy
of Northern Bengal. 3 At some other time during
the reign of the same Emperor another Uparika
with the title of Maharaja named Jayadatta was
the Viceroy of the same province. 4 We can say
now that the seals discovered by Bloch at
Vaisali were those of the Viceroys of Tlrabhukti
or North Bihar.

Among the minor officials of the Gupta Empire,
the Vaisali seals have made us familiar with many.
The most noteworthy among them was an official
in charge of the morals of the province of
Tlrabhukti. Only one specimen of the seal of
this official was discovered by Bloch. The legend
is Tlrabhuktau Vinaya-sthiti-sthapak-adhikarana-

1 Epi. Ind. Vol. XV, p. 130. 2 jbid., p. 133.

3 Ibid., p. 136. * Ibid., p. 138.

76 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

sya. " (The seal) of the office of the Controller of
morals in Tlrabhukti." Bloch suggested rightly
that this Controller of Morals was an official cor-
responding to the Censor of Public Morals (Dhar-
ma-Mahamatras) of Asoka. The existence of such
an official in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. is
extremely interesting, but the construction of the
legend is rather difficult. It cannot be understood
for what reasons two almost similar terms, sthiti
and sthapaka, were used in the case of the designa-
tion of one and the same officer. It may only
mean that the Controller of Morals was "the
founder of the permanence of Morals in Tlra-
bhukti. 1 " Among minor offices may be mention-
ed that of the officer-in-charge of Military Stores,
corresponding to the modern Master-General of
Stores ; t^rl-raTia-bhandagar-adhikaranasya. 2 The
office of the Chief of Police had also a separate
seal; Danda-pas-adhikaranasya.* It appears
that the name Tira-bhukti was originally used
separated. Bhukti denotes a Division and the
original name of Northern Bihar was Tlra and not
the compound Tira-bhukti, as in modern times,
from which Tirhut has been derived. On the seal
of the Kumaramatya in charge of the visaya of Tira
the original name is used ; Twa-Kumaramaty-adhi-
karanasya. 41 Seals appear to have been used in

1 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1903-4, p. 109,
No. 21.

2 Ibid., p. 108, No. 13. 3 /W&, $f 0t ^
* Ibid., p. 109, No. 22.

PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 77

documents in the place of signatures. This can be
proved by the large number of inscriptions on the
same lump of clay in the case of agreements. In
one or two cases names of officials occur along
with their designations on seals. Vinayasura was
the Chief Prefect of Police and held the rank of a
Taravara in addition; Mahapartlhara-Taravara-
Vinayasurasya. 1 Agnigupta was the principal
judge ; (Mahadandanayaka). 2 Yaksavatsa was
the Commandant of the irregular cavalry ; Bhat =
asvapati Yaksavatsasya.*

The system of administration has been made
clear to us to some extent by the discovery of the
Damodarpur plates. Under the Viceroy Cirata-
datta of Pundravardhana there was a Kumara-
matya in each district or Visaya. Vetravarman
was the officer-in-charge of the district of Koti-
varsa in G.E. 124 and 129. But in 163, under
the Viceroy Brahmadatta, no minor official is
mentioned as officer-in-charge of the same dis-
trict. In the same reign under the Viceroy Jaya-
datta an officer with the rank of Ayuktaka
named &agandaka was the officer-in-charge of
this district. 4 The Ayuktakas are familiar to
us as Tad -ayuktakas and Viniyuktakas in medi-
aeval copper plates. One seal of a class of similar
officials styled Prayuktakas was discovered at
Vaisali. Ordinarily the officer-in-char^gJL^dis-
trict was styled Visaya-pati. In

1 Ibid., No. 16. 2 ibid., p. 109,

3 Ibid., No. 18. * Ibid., p. 138.

78 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

during the reign of the Emperor Bhanugupta,
when Rajaputradeva was the viceroy of Northern
Bengal, a Visaya-pati named Svayambhu-deva
was the officer-in-charge of the district of Koti-
varsa. 1 In G.E. 146 a Visayapati named Sarva-
naga was the officer-in-charge of the Antarvedl or
the country between the Ganges and the Jumna. 2
In G.E. 165 a viceroy, with the title of Mahamja,
named Surasmi-candra was governing that part of
Central India which lies between the Jumna and
the Narmada. The actual term used is Kalindl
for the Jumna and this may mean the Kali-Sindh. 3
Under Surasmi-candra there was another official
with the same title named Matr-visnu, who was
probably the governor of Eastern Malava or the
district of Airakina or Eran in the Sagar district.
Finally there was Parnadatta, Skandagupta's
viceroy of Kathiawad, in whose time the dam of
the great Sudarsana Lake was again rebuilt, but
the Junagadh inscription does not provide us with
the rank and titles of this officer. In the Gupta
inscriptions we find that each province was divided
into a number of revenue divisions called Visayas.
The later sub-division of a province into Mandalas
and each mandala into, different visayas is yet not
known. Therefore the term visaya has been trans-
lated as a district and not as a parganah.

The Damodarpur plates throw strong light on
the administration of the districts. Five different

l Ifetd, p. 142. 2 Qupta Inscriptions, p. 70.

3 Ibid., p. 89.

PROVINCIAL OFFICIALS. 79

classes of officials are mentioned in four of them as
being associated in the government of a district.
In the plate dated G.E. 124 we find mention of the
Nagara-sresthin Dhrtipala, the Sartthavaha Ban-
dhumitra, the Prathama-kulika Dhrtimitra, Pra-
tfiama-kayasiha Sambapala and three Pustapalas
named Rsidatta, Jayanandin and Vibhudatta.
Among these the Nagara-sresthin still survives in
Gujarat. The Prathama-Kulika was evidently the
president of the corporation of bankers. On the
analogy of the Faridpur plates of the time of
Dharmaditya and Goparaja it may be stated that
thePrathama-kayasthaw&s the same as the Jyestha-
kayastha. It is impossible to ascertain whether
this post was elective or not. Most probably this
officer was the head clerk of the district office.
The Sarthavaha was a caravan-leader and we have
met with the name in Kusana inscriptions. From
the existence of a large number of seals bearing the
legend Sresthi-Sarthavaha-Kulika-Nigama discover-
ed at Vaisall we may imagine that the Sarfhavahas
mentioned in the Damodarpur plates was the Chief
of the Caravan-leaders. The Pustapalas are new
to us and were met with for the first time in the
Faridpur plates. Their principal duties appear to
have been the valuation of land. In the Faridpur
plates only one Pustapala is mentioned in each
case but in the case of the Damodarpur plates we
find three of them acting as a board. In the plate
dated G.E. 129 the same officers, elective or appoint-
ed, are mentioned. Things are different in the plate

80 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

of G.E. 163 of the reign of Budhagupta. In this
case officers are not mentioned in detail but simply
as the eight chief officials, such as the Mahattara,
etc. One Pustapala, only named Patradasa, is
mentioned. The officials mentioned in the second
Damodarpur plate of the reign of the Emperor
Budhagupta mentions Rbhupala as the Nagara-
resthin, Vasumitra as the Caravan-leader, Vara-
datta as the Principal Banker or Prathama-kulika
and Viprapala as the Head clerk or Prathama-
Kayastha. In this case also we find a board con-
sisting of three Pustapalas, Visnudatta, Vijaya-
nandin and Sthanunandin measuring out the land.
In the next generation, in G.E. 224, during the
reign of the Emperor Bhanugupta we find Rbhu-
pala still alive and still holding the post of the
Nagara-sresthin. The officials mentioned are the
same. The Nagara-sresthin Rbhupala, the Sar-
thavaha Sthanudatta, the Prathama-kulika Mati-
datta and the Prathma-Kayastha Skandapala. In
this case also there was a board consisting of
Naranandin, Gopadatta and Bhatanandin but they
are called Prathama-Pustapalas.

The Damodarpur plates throw interesting light
on the conditions prevailing in Northern Bengal
from the middle of the 5th to that of the 6th cen-
tury A.D. The inscriptions on them are not merely
grants of land and therefore they are slightly differ-
ent from the later copper plate grants. They are
really deeds of transfer of property. In the case
of the earliest of them we find that in G.E. 124=

TRANSFERS OF PROPERTY. 81

443-4 A.D. a Brahmana named Karpatika applied
for a gift of some untilled land at the same time
promising to pay the price at the rate of three
Dinaras or gold coins as the price of each Kulya-
vapa. One Kulyavdpa of land was given by the
charter engraved on this plate according to this
application. The translator of this inscription
states that the land was given to him after the
payment of the money. So also, in G.E. 129=
448-9 A. D. some one, whose name cannot be read
at present, applied for a similar grant of land and
five Drona measures were sold to him on receipt
of the money. The first applicant Karpatika want-
ed the land for the performance of Agnihotras and
the unknown applicant of the second plate wanted
the land for the performance of the five great
sacrifices (Mahayajnas). In the case of the third
plate a village head man (Gramika) named Nabhaka
applied for the sale of some land to settle some
distinguished Brahmanas. Upon the recommenda-
tion of the Pustapala, Patradasa, on the receipt of
the money from the hands of Nabhaka and after
inspection by village officials, one Kulyavapa of
uncultivated (Khila) land, measuring eight by
nine Nalas, was sold to him. In this case
three other men named Sthayapala, Kapila
and Sribhadra are mentioned but the decay of
the inscription did not permit the learned
decipherer to connect them with the rest of
the narrative. In the fourth plate from Damo-
darpur, which also belongs to the reign of Budha-
6

82 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

gupta, an application is made by the Nagara-$res-
thin Rbhupala for the sale of some habitable land
for building two temples and two store rooms. In
his application Rbhupala states that " in the vill-
age of Donga, in Himavac-chikhara (the summit of
the Himalayas) I have formerly given four Kulya-
vapas of land to the god Kokamukha-svamin and
seven Kulyavapas to the god Sveta-Varaha-svamin.
Now in the neighbourhood of these cultivated
pieces of land I wish to build two temples with
store-houses for these two gods." The application
was granted and some building-land sold to the
Nagara-sresthin when it had been reported by a
board of three Pustapalas that eleven Kulyavapas
of land had been actually given by the former to
these two gods. We learn from the fifth plate that
a nobleman (Kula-putra) of Ayodhya named
Amrtadeva applied for the sale of some uncultiva-
ted land for being converted into a religious trust
for the repairs to and the supply of necessaries of
the worship of the god Sveta-Varaha svamin in the
temple in the forest in this locality. According to
this application five Kulyavapas of land were sold
to the applicant after taking fifteen Dlnaras from
him. These five Kulyavapas consisted of unculti-
vated fields along with building-lands (vastu). In
this case the inscription records that the land was
given to the god Sveta-Varaha-svamin. There-
fore, the fifth Damodarpur plate is not merely a
deed of transfer land by the State to a private
individual but a grant of land to a god as well.

CIVIL CONTRACTS. 83

In the third, and fifth plates from Damodarpur
it is stated in the report of the Pustapalas that
" the land may be given for the increase of the merit
of His Majesty the King (Paramabhattaraka-Maha-
raja-padena punyopacayaya). Unfortunately the
seal has been preserved in the case of the fifth plate
only and on this we find the legend Kotivars-
adhisthan-adhikaranasya ; " (the seal) of the office
of the administration of Kotivarsa." We may
compare with this the seal on the Faridpur plates,
Varaka-mandal-adhikaranasya;" (the seal) of the
office of the mandala of Varaka." The seal as well
as the form of the inscription prove that neither
the Damodarpur plates nor the Faridpnr plates
are Royal or Imperial grants of land. They are
simply deeds of transfer of land issued by local
officials in distant parts of the Empire and were
transactions in which the Imperial Secretariat took
no part. It cannot be understood how their Majes-
ties Budhagupta and Bhanugupta acquired merit
by selling uncultivated lands after taking the pro-
per price.

The deeds of transfers of land on the Damodar-
pur plates brings us to another interesting subject,
ordinary civil contracts. The seals discovered by
Bloch at Vaisali contain 274 specimens bearing
the legend, &resthi-Sartthavaha-Kulika-Nigama 9
which was correctly translated by the discoverer
as " the corporation of bankers, traders (and) mer-
chants." These seals are found in combination
with two, three or even four others. In these cases

84 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

the same lump of clay bears two three or even
four impressions. The word Nigama means a cor-
poration or guild and the name is to be found as
early as the first century B.C. on Guild-tokens des-
cribed by Cunningham. 1 But in the Nasik cave
inscription of the year 42 and 45 the terms used
for guilds are renl and Nikaya. It should be
noticed that the same inscription also contains the
word Nigama-sabha which was been translated by
Senart as " the town's hall." 2 In the case of a Bhar-
hut inscription Liiders translates the same term as
a town. 8 But it is extremely difficult even to con-
ceive a town of merchants, traders and bankers
only. Nigama-sabha seems to have corresponded
to the Guild-Hails of Modern Europe. The inter-
est attached to the seals of this corporation of
merchants, traders and bankers lies principally in
their occurrence jointly with seals of other officials
and private persons. In the majority of cases
one separate seal contains an invocation to some
deity; "Victorious be the lord Ananta with the
goddess Amba," " victory to god " "adoration to
Pasupati" or "adoration to him." On the same
lump, on which the seal of the Corporation and the
seal bearing the invocation are to be found, we find
other seals bearing the names of officials and one
or more private persons. One such lump bears on
it the seal of the office of a Kumaramatya equal in

1 Cunningham : Coins of Ancient India, p. 63, pi. Ill 8-9.

2 Epi. Ind. Vol. VIII, pp. 82-3.

8 Ibid., Vol. X, App. p. 67 No. 705.

SEALS OF CONTRACTS. 85

rank to the younger princes. In many cases the
names of more than one person are to be found on
one and the same lump of clay. The seals of Matr-
dasa and Satyasrita are to be found on the same
seal on which are to be seen the invocation, namas-
tasmai, and the seal of the Corporation of mer-
chants, traders and bankers. That such guilds
were not confined to Vaisall or Tirabhukti is
proved by the discovery of a seal with an almost
similar legend at Bhita in the Allahabad district.
In the case of the Bhita seal the legend was
wrongly translated by Dr. Vogel, who regarded
the term Kulika as "a special tribe employed as
captains of mercenaries." 1 On this Spooner very
pertinently observed, " the expressions ' Bankers,
traders and merchants ' is a homogeneous and con-
sistent compound ; ' Bankers, traders and captains '
of mercenaries would seem to involve an incon-
gruity." 2 From a distance of fifteen centuries it
is very difficult to understand what this combined
corporation of bankers, traders and merchants
was. After the destruction of all guilds and cor-
porations in Northern India during six centuries of
Musalman rule it is not possible even to guess
what they were like. It is not possible even
to apply the analogy of such institutions in
Gujarat where some such have survived. In old
cities like Ahmadabad there are guilds and its

1 Annual Report, of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1911-12. p. 56 ,
No. 55.

2 Ibid., 1913-14, p. 108.

86 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTBATION AND PEERAGE.

office-bearers. The Nagara-sresthin of Ahmadabad
is still called Nagar-seth but the rank is now here-
ditary according to Prof. A. B. Dhruva, Pro-Vice-
chancellor of the Benares Hindu University, who is
an inhabitant of that city. According to the same
authority Gujarat guilds are now styled Maha-
jans. The Nagara-sresthin of a city like Vaisali
was probably the president and the chief execu-
tive officer of the great corporation. Under this
great corporation there were three separate guilds
for Bankers, traders and merchants. The seals
discovered at Vaisali by Spooner prove that there
was at least one separate guild of Sresthins or
Merchants in that city, while Marshall's Bhita finds
prove the existence of a separate guild of Kulikas.
The term Kulilca is perhaps better suited for trans-
lation as bankers than the term &resihin. Spoon-
er discovered several seals of the resthi-nigama 9 l
at Vaisali and he observes that " it is noticeable
that this seal is never impressed alone ; some per-
sonal seal impression always accompanies it." The
seals discovered by Bloch and Spooner at Vaisali
contain the seals of a number of Chief Kulikas such
as Prathama-KuUk-Ograsinha and Praihama-Kuli-
ka-Harih. 2 The existence of Prathama-Kulikas at
Kotivarsa in Northern Bengal and at Vaisali pro-
ves that this office was also a regular institution in
North-eastern India if not in the whole of North-
ern India. The distinction between a Prathama-

1 Ibid., pp. 125, No. 8 B ; 137 No. 270 A ; 150, No. 648; 153, No. $04.

2 Ibid., p. 139, No. 277 A ; 1903-4, p. 117, Nos. 99-160.

METHOD OF SEALING. 87

Kulika and ordinary Kulikas is evident and many
of seals of ordinary Kulikas were discovered at
Vaisali. With regards to the SartJiavahas we do
not possess any evidence of the existence of any
guild or organisation. Spooner discovered an uni-
que seal of another Nigama but he could not read
the legend definitely. According to him it reads
Makkupali-Nigamasya. 1

Sir Aurel Stein has proved from his discoveries
in Central Asia that the Ancient Indian envelope
consisted of two boards tied together with a string
or wire, to the knot of which a lump of clay was
attached. The seal of the person sending a letter
was attached or impressed to this lump of clay.
The fact that the majority of seals discovered were
fired proves that in the majority of cases the bind-
ing material of Ancient Indian envelopes was
something that would not burn when the clay seal
was fired.

Lumps of clay bearing two or even three impres-
sions of seals of private persons may mean a joint
petition to some officer of Vaisali, but when we
find that the seal of the great Corporation of Bank-
ers, traders and merchants affixed to the same
lump of clay with the seal of the office of a Kuma-
ramatya equal in rank to a prince of the blood-royal
what are we to conclude except that it was the
seal attached to a contract between these people
and the great Kumaramatya ? 2 The small chamber

i Ibid., 1913-14, p. 127 No. 64A. 2 Ibid., 1903-4, p. 110, No. 29.

88 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

in which Bloch discovered the seals is generally
considered to be either the record room of the royal
offices at Vaisali or the lumber room of some
office. Therefore it may be taken that seals with
the impression of the great corporation along with
those of one or more private persons are really
seals attached to petitions addressed to some
officials, but in my opinion such an explanation is
untenable because there can hardly be any neces-
sity for a great guild to apply jointly with private
persons, specially in cases where such persons were
members of the great Corporation or a subordinate
guild. It appears to me that lumps bearing the
impression of the seal of the great Corporation of
Bankers, merchants and traders, an invocation and
one or more private seals are really seals attached
to contracts between one or more parties. Let us
take for example 15 specimens of the seal of Pra-
kasanandin, out of which two were found combined
with that of the office of the provincial govern-
ment of Vaisali : Vaisaly=adhistMn^^hikaranah.
There cannot be any other explanation of this seal
save and except that it was a contract between
Prakasnandin and the government which was
brought and deposited in the government record
office or was thrown away when the contract was
no longer subsisting. 1 It cannot be imagined that
the office of the government of Vaisali sent a peti-
tion jointly with a private person named Prakasa-

l Ibid., p. 117, No. 96.

REGISTRATION OF CONTRACTS. 89

nandin to some higher officials. Let us take another
example. Out of 27 seals of a private person named
Nagasinha, one is combined with the seal of the
Corporation of Bankers, traders and merchants and
another private person named Bhavasena. In
this case also it appears that the seal was attached
to a private contract to which the great Corporation
was a party and which was brought to the govern-
ment record office for registration. Arrangements
for registration by governments in Ancient India,
in ages later than the Gupta period, are far too
numerous. We have therefore to admit that out
of 274 specimens of the seal of the great Corpora-
tion of Bankers, traders and merchants at least
254 were attached to contracts brought to the
government office of Vaisali for registration and
safe custody.

In the Gupta period, as well as earlier periods,
according to the discoveries of Spooner at Vaisali,
clay was the ordinary material used for sealing.
Such seals were used both for covers of contracts
as well as of letters. In the case of documents
intended for permanent record copper or silver
was used. Instances of copper seals are those at-
tached to the Gaya plate of Samudragupta of G.E.
9 328-9 A.D., the seal of the government of the
district of Kotivara and that of the mandate of
Varaka from Faridpur. 1 The only instance known
to us in which silver was used for sealing is that of

i Ind. Ant. Vol. XXXIX, 1910, pp. 193-205, pi. II.

90 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

the great seal of Kumaragupta II discovered at
Saiyadpur-Bhitari in the Ghazipur district of the
U.P. Bloch described the clay seals and the method
of sealing in the following words ; " From the
shape of the clay pieces it is evident that they were
attached to letters or other literary documents,
and that they served to hold together the string
which was tied around the wooden boards upon
which the letter was written, or which were used
as a sort of envelope. In that case either birch-
bark or palm-leaf took the place of our modern
paper. Fig. 18 gives a view of the reverse of one
of the clay lumps. The method adopted for seal-
ing letters at this time seems to have been to press
down the ends of the string tied round the boards
into a piece of moist clay by means of some instru-
ment, perhaps the broad side of a knife. Evidence
of this is the groove which invariably occurs on
the back of all the seals. Generally a few thin
lines run across its centre. They must have been
made by the blunt edge of the knife to press down
the strings more deeply, in order to make them
adhere tighter to the clay. The other side of the
clay bears the impression of the sender's seal. In
many cases traces remains of the finger-marks of
the persons who handled the seals while moist.
As the majority consisted of pieces of unbaked
clay, it is clear that it was considered sufficient to
allow the seal to dry during the transit of the let-
ter. A few pieces are of a light yellow colour, and
look as if the seal had been heated a little before

EMBLEMS ON IMPERIAL SEALS. 91

despatching the letter. The present find thus dis-
tinguishes itself sharply from other collections of
clay seals made at various ancient Indian sites,
which as a rule consist of votive tablets, either put
down as offerings near holy shrines or taken away as
memorials by pilgrims. The reverse of the latter
is invariably quite smooth, and the groove and
stringholes seen on all the Basarh seals are entirely
wanting." l

The emblems used on these seals is extremely
interesting. Garuda, the vehicle of Visnu was the
emblem or Lanchana of the Imperial Gupta family.
This will be seen in the upper part of the silver
seal of Kumaragupta II and that attached to the
Gaya plate of Samudragupta. Fleet regarded the
seal as genuine but thought that the inscription on
the plate was forged. 2 Evidently the ladies of the
Imperial house did not use the emblem of the Gupta
family because on the seal of the Great Queen
Dhruvasvaminl discovered by Bloch at Vaisali we
find a seated lion facing right above the legend.
On this seal Dhruvadevi or Dhruva-svamini is
called " the wife of the Maharajadhiraja, the illus-
trious Candragupta, the mother of the Maharaja,
the illustrious Govindagupta. " In the case of
the official seals the figure of Lakmi predomi-
nates. In the case of the four different classes of
Kumaramatyas the standing figure of LaksmI with

1 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1903-4, pp.
101-2.

2 Oupta Inscriptions, pi. XXXVII.

92 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

or without attendants is always present. But in
the case of the Commander-in-chief, equal in rank to
the Heir-apparent, the place of Lak?mi is taken by
a vase. On the seal of the office of the Master-
General of Military Stores the figure of Lakml at-
tended by elephants and dwarfs once more occupy
the central space. The private seals of officials do
not bear the official lanchana ; symbols of the Sun
and Moon on that of Vinayasura, a humped bull
couchant in the case of the judge Agnigupta and a
boar and a conch with the symbols of the Sun and
Moon on that of Yaksavatsa. In the case of pro-
vincial officials Laksml with elephants and dwarfs
appear on the seals of the more important offices ;
the seal of the viceroy or Uparika of Tirabhukti,
the Censor of Public Morals of the same province
and that of the Kumaramatya of the province.
But the lanchana is quite different in the case of
the office of the government of (the city of) Vaisall
where we find a hemispherical object, "perhaps
money-chest," and that of the office of the district
(visaya) of Vaisali in which case we get a wheel
with symbols of the Sun and the Moon. Spooner
discovered a seal of the office of a court of law with
the legend Dharmmasan-adhikaranasya in which
case the lanchana is a tall vase. 1 Among the lew
official seals discovered by Spooner the most im-
portant is the unique seal of a new class of
Kumaramatyas. The legend is VaiaU-nama-kunde

1 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1918-14, pp.
127-8, No. 69 A.

HEREDITARY OFFICES. 93

K umaram&ty-adhikaranasya ; but it is impossible
to translate it because we do not know what nama-
kunde exactly means. 1 In this case we find Lak^ml
with elephants. It appears therefore that while
Garuda, the vehicle of the god Visnu, was the
lanchana of the Gupta Imperial family, Lakmi,
the consort of that god, was the emblem of the
Imperial offices. The lower provincial officials
were not allowed to use it.

Inscriptions and seals indicate that in some
cases at any rate ministers were hereditary. In
the case of Amatyas we have Spooner's seal from
Vaisal! in which we see that the Amatya Hastabala
was the son of the Amatya Bhadrika. 2 In the
reign of Candragupta II Virasena alias Saba of
Pataliputra calls himself the hereditary minister as
well as the minister of peace and war (Anvaya-prap-
ta-Saclvyo-vyaprita-Sandhivigrahah) in the Uday-
giri cave inscription. 8 The most important case of
hereditary succession to offices is recorded in the
Karamdanda inscription of G.E. 117=446-7 A.D.
We learn from this record that the Kumaramatya
Sikhara-svamin, a brahmana of the Asva-vaji go-
tra, was the minister (Mantriri) of Candragupta II.
But his son, the Kumaramatya Prthivisena was at
first the Mantrin of the Emperor Kumaragupta I
but later on he became the Commander-in-chief
(Mahabaladhikrta). 4

1 Ibid., p. 136, No. 200. 2 Ibid., No. 210.

8 Gupta Inscriptions, p. 35. * Epi. Ind., Vol. X, pp. 71-2.

94 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

Very little reliable data is available about the
land revenue system of the early Gupta Empire.
Literary evidence is altogether absent. The only
sources of information are the inscriptions on cop-
per plates of the period discovered at Dhanaidaha
in the Rajshahi district and at Damodarpur in the
Dinajpur district of Bengal. From the Damodarpur
plates we learn that in the Pundravardhana bhukti
there was much fallow or waste land. The divi-
sion of land is into (1) Nala (cultivated), (2) Khila
(fallow, waste), and (3) Vastu (homestead). Appli-
cations were made for the sale of such waste lands
for religious purposes. In the Damodarpur plate
of G.E. 124 such waste land is called Aprada and
Aprahata. These terms have been translated by
the learned decipherer as "as yet unploughed and
not already given." The term Aprahata cannot be
translated as "not already given." The natural
meaning is " that which is not barred in the case of
transfer." So also Aprada means " unproductive."
The Second term is used once more in the second
plate of G.E. 129. Prof. Basak translates it " land
of which no previous gift (prada) has been made.
In the light of the expression aprada-dharmena in
plate No. 5 (in the place of Nlvl-dharmena) the
phrase aprada-kshaya may here be explained, as in
the case of nwi-dharma-kshaya^ thus land could
not, unless so conditioned, be alienated or transferr-
ed without state-permission, after being once sold for
the purpose of a gift to a Brahmana or a god. We
plight equally well read the phrase as aprad-aksh-

LAND-RECORDS AND RELIGIOUS TRUSTS. 95

ay a." l To me it seems that aprada-dharma should
be taken to be " the law or rules governing unpro-
ductive lands." All over the United provinces
special rules and regulations govern the transfer
and the income from such lands, called Nuzul.
Aprada ksaya should mean the disposal of unpro-
ductive lands. From the fifth Damodarpur plate
we learn that there was a large amount of forest-
land in the Kotivarsa district of the Pundravar-
dhana Division, because in his application Amrta-
deva, the nobleman of Ayodhya, states that the
temple of the god Sveta-Varaha-svamin was situa-
ted " in this forest." 2

Marshall's Bhita excavations yielded some very
important seals. Those belonging to the Gupta
period support the conclusions stated above. The
official seals bear the Idnchana of the Gupta Em-
pire, LaksmI attended by elephants and dwarfs,
The best specimen is that of the office of the or-,
dinary Kumaramatya. 3 The seal of the office of
the district of Samaharsa is also similar, (Samaha-
rsa-visay=adhikaranasya). 4 In one respect some
of the seals from Bhita show a deviation from the
ordinary class of Imperial official seals from Vai-
sali. In these specimens the name of a higher offi-
cial is mentioned, Mahasvapati-Mahadandanaya-
lea- Visnuraksita-padanugrhlta-Kumaramaty = adhi-
karanasya. The real import of the term padanu-

i Ibid., Vol. XV, p. 134, Note 1. * Ibid., p. 143.

3 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1911-12, p. 53,
No. 35, PI. XIX.
* Ibid. p. 54, No. 42.

96 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

grhita could not be understood in 1911-12. The
Damodarpur plates have familiarised us with si-
milar terms. Thus during the reign of Kumara-
gupta I the Uparika Ciratadatta was appointed
viceroy of Pundravardhana and the term used is
tat-pada-parigrhlte " was accepted by His Majesty's
feet" in the plates of G.E. 124 and 129. A simi-
lar term is used in the case of Budhagupta's vice-
roy for the same province, Brahmadatta, in the
plate of G.E. 163 as well as in the case of Jaya-
datta in the undated plate of the time of the same
Emperor. An exactly similar term is used in the
plate of Rajaputradeva in the plate of G.E. 224 of
the reign of Bhanugupta. Shorn of its elegance,
the phrase simply means " (The seal) of the office
of the Kumaramatya appointed by the Cavalry-
leader and general Visnurakpta." 1 In this case it
is more reasonable to translate the term Danda-
nayaka as a general ; lit. leader (nayaka) of an
army (danda). In the second instance of this class
the legend is incomplete on account of breakage ;
it can be restored as Maharaja-ankarasimha-
[padanugrhlta- Yuvaraja]- padly- Ayuktak=adhika-
ranasya, " (The seal), of the office of the Ayuktaka,
equal in rank to a prince, appointed by Maharaja
Sankarasimha." The space in the second line in-
dicates that this officer had some other rank in ad-
dition to that of the Ayuktaka, perhaps that of a
Kumaramatya. 2 The most important point with

1 Ibid., p. 52, No. 32, PI. XV 111.

2 Ibid., p. 53, PI XV 111. This seal is upside down in the illustration.

SEALS OF SPECIAL OFFICERS. 97

regard to these two seals is the lanchana, Lakmi
attended by elephants. Like the Vaisali seals the
Bhita finds contain a number of private seals of
officials. The most important are the seals of a
number of Ministers ; or Amatyas ; Isvaracandra,
Dharmadeva, Bola, Nagadaman, Isvaranana. So
also we have the seals of a number of judges or
Generals (Dandndyaka) ; Sankaradatta, Grama -
bala, Lala, Kesavadasa, Yajnavlrya, Urhma, and
Vansa. One particular private seal is impor-
tant because it contains the names of two Police
officials ; Pratiharayor- Vvisakha-Rudradama(yoh).
In this case one letter, the fifth, was omitted by
the decipherer. 1 The Bhita finds have also pro-
vided us with one important class of seals, that of a
Guild of the Kulilcas or Bankers, which could not
be found in the Vaisali collections of Bloch and
Spooner. The legend is simply Kulika-Nigama-
sya. 2 It should be noted in this connection that
Mr. R. G. Basak is inclined to translate the word
Kulika as " artisan." But though the commenta-
tor Bhanuji Diksita explains it as " the foremost
person in a company of artisans, 95 the explanation
in the Amarakosa connects it with the resthins.*

Most probably the four plates from Faridpur
belong to the later part of the Gupta period. They
belong to the reigns of three different kings about
whom nothing is known from any other source.

1 Ibid., p. 55, No. 52, PI. XIX.

2 Ibid., p. 56, No. do.

l Epi., Ind. Vol. XV. p. 131, Note 6.

7

98 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

Two of them belong to the reign of a king named
Dharmaditya, the third to that of Gopacandra and
the fourth to that of Samacara. Out of these
three kings Samacara is also known from a soli-
tary gold coin identified correctly for the first time
by Mr. N. K. Bhattasali of the Dacca Museum l
Dharmaditya may be the Aditya name of one of
the later Gupta Kings but we cannot be too sure
of this because in the Damodarpur plates all Gupta
Emperors are mentioned by their proper names,
which are not even followed by their Aditya-n&mes.
Hoernle's proposed identification of Dharmaditya
with Yasodharman need not be considered seri-
ously like his theory of the latter being known as
Vikramaditya since the publication of the Sanjan
plates of Amoghavarsa I which indicate distinctly
that Vikramaditya belonged to the Gupta family. 2
All that can be said about these plates is that they
belong to the period between 550 and 650 A.D.

In form, the inscriptions on the Faridpur plates,
resemble those on the Damodarpur ones. The
first plate, that of the third year of Dharmaditya
records that during the reign of the Maharajadhi-
raja Dharmaditya and during the government of
the Maharaja Sthanudatta and the period of office
of the Visayapati Jajava in the Mandala of Varaka,
one Vatabhoga applied for the sale of some land
to bestow it on a Brahmana. On the report of

1 Catalogue of the coins of the Gupta dynasties, etc. British Museum
p. 150.

2 KnL. Ind. Vol. XVIII, VV- 248, 255.

THE FARIDPUR PLATES. 99

the Pustapala Vinayasena four Kulyavapas of
land were sold to Vatabhoga on receipt of 12
Dlnaras or gold coins. Two points in this inscrip-
tion deserve special mention ; (1) " There is in this
district the rule established along the Eastern sea
that cultivated lands are things which are sold
according to the rate of the sum of four Dinaras;"
(2) " and then the feet of the Emperor receives
the sixth part of the price according to the law
here." l The mention of the Eastern sea bars the
proposed identification of Varaka with Varendra. 2
The gain of a sixth part of the price by His
Majesty is a new feature in ancient Indian transfers
of land. The land purchased by Vatabhoga was
bestowed by the same inscription to a Brahmana
named Candra-svamin as in the case of the fifth
Damodarpur plate, in which case the land was
given to a god.

The second Faridpur plate is not dated. It re-
cords that during the reign of the Emperor Dhar-
maditya and the government of the Viceroy, the
Mahapratlhara and Uparika, Nagadeva in the New
Avakasika, when Gopala-svamin was in charge of
the district and Mandala of Varaka, a man named
Vasudeva-svamin applied for the sale of some land
in order to bestow it on a Brahmana named Soma-
svamin. By this record some land was t sold at
the current rate of four Dlnaras to the Kulyavapa.

The third Faridpur inscription, that of the year

l Ind. AM. Vol. XXXIX, 1910, p. 197. 2 ibid., p. 209.

100 SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND PEERAGE.

19 of Gopacandra, records that during the reign of
this emperor and the government of the Mahapra-
tlhara, Kumaramatya and Uparika Nagadeva,
when Vatsapala-svamin was in charge of the dis-
rict and Mandala of Varaka, Vatsapala-svamin,
himself, applied for the sale of some land to bes-
tow it on a Brahmana named Gomidatta-svamin.
In the second plate the Pustapala was Janma-
bhuti but in the third plate the Pustapala was
Nayabhuti. Like the inscription on the first plate
this inscription turns into a deed of gift at the end,
because it states that Vatsapala-svamin bestowed
the land purchased by him on Bhatta Gomidatta-
svamin. The second plate of the reign of Dhar-
maditya cannot be very far removed from the
third in date because both mention the Headclerk
Nayasena. 1

The fourth plate from Faridpur belongs to the
reign of the Emperor Samacara. It records that
during the government of the Viceroy, the Antar-
anga and Uparika, Jivadatta in the New Avakasika,
when a Visayapati named Pavittruka was in charge
of the Mandala of Varaka, one Supratlka-svamin
applied for the sale of some land for the establish-
ment of certain Vedic ceremonies and accordingly
some land was given to this Brahmana. The ins-
scription on the fourth plate does not record a
transfer but a free gift of land. 2 The material
difference in informations to be derived from the

, i Ibid., pp. 204-Qo. * Epi. Ind. Vol. XVIII, p. 74.8(>.

THIRD & FOURTH PLATES FROM FARIDPTJR. 101

inscriptions on the Damodarpur and the Faridpur
plates is enormous. The Damodarpur plates
show a well-ordered civil government in which the
Chief officer of a district was associated with the
headclerk of the government offices and the three
principal leaders of the mercantile community,
the Nagara-resthin 9 the Praihama-Kulika, and
the Caravan-leader. In the majority of cases
report on the land to be transferred is submitted
by a board of three Pustapalas. In the four
Paridpur plates the only officer who is mentioned
as such is the headclerk, now styled a Jyestha-
Kayastha instead of Prathama-Kayastha. Even
this officer is omitted in the fourth plate and his
place taken by a Jyesth-adhikaranika named
Damuka.

CHAPTER III.
RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY REVIVAL.

The monarchs of the Gupta dynasty will be re-
membered for ever for the great reformation they
brought about in Orthodox Hindu society and
religion. From their inscriptions, coins, and seals
they are distinctly Vainavas. In the majority
of their inscriptions and coins they are styled
Parama-Bhagavata. The emblems on their person-
al and official seals, Garuda and Laksmi, the vehi-
cle and consort of Visnu, also indicate that they
were ardent Vainavas. There is no indication
of any of the kings from Candragupta I to Bhaiiu-
gupta having leant towards any other Indian faith.
They are clearly different from the Vardhanas of
Thanesar in this respect. The inscriptions of the
dynasty clearly indicate a revival of Hinduism or
the Orthodox Brahmanical religion and a corres-
ponding decline in the two remaining religions of
India. From other inscriptions we learn that
Jainism was still lingering in Mathura but that
the days of its prosperity were finally over. As
no other material is available for the study of
the religious history of the Gupta Empire we must
return to a further study of the inscriptions of the
period. There is no indication of a leaning towards
any particular sect in the Allahabad pillar ins-
cription save and except that Hariena was a
Hindu and probably a Saiva. The fragmentary

HINDU INSCRIPTIONS OF GUPTA PERIOD. 103

condition of the Eran pillar makes it difficult to
assign it to any Hindu sect, but the sense is
sufficiently clear to mark it as Hindu. The new
Mathura inscription of G.E. 61 of the reign of
Candragupta II is Saiva. The Udayagiri cave
inscription of G.E. 82 is clearly non-sectarian
but the carvings of the cave, which are con-
temporary, prove that the donor, the Sanakanlka
chief, whose name is mutilated, was a Vaisnava.
The undated Udayagiri cave inscription of the
time of Candragupta II records the dedication of
a aiva ^ave-temple by his minister Virasena of
Pataliputra. The fragmentary Gadhwa inscrip-
tion of G.E. 88 is distinctly Hindu, though the
sect can not be determined. The only Buddhist
inscription of the reign is the Sanchi pillar inscrip-
tion of the year 93. No Jain inscriptions of the
time of Samudragupta or Candragupta II have
been discovered so far. The two inscriptions from
Gadhwa, belonging to the reign Kumaragupta I,
though fragmentary, are distinctly Hindu and
the Bilsad pillar inscription in the Eta district of
the U.P. is also Hindu. It refers to some work
by a Brahmana named Dhruvasarman in a
temple of the god Mahasena or Kartikeya in
G.E. 96. In G.E. 113=432-3 A.D. a Jain image
was dedicated by a Jain lady named Samadhya
at Mathura. This is the earliest known Jain
inscription of the Gupta period. In G.E. 129 an
image of Buddha was dedicated at Mankuwar in
the Karchhana Tahsil of the Allahabad district

104 RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY REVIVAL.

by a Buddhist Bhikau named Budhamitra, Three
known inscriptions belonging to the reign of
Kumaraguptalare on copper plates discovered in
Bengal. The earliest of them, discovered at Dha-
naidaha in the Rajshahi district, is very fragmen-
tary, but is dated G.E. 113. The references to
Brahmanas leave no doubt about the fact that the
object of the record was some contract between
Hindus. 1 The first and second Damodarpur plates
of G.E. 124 and 129 are distinctly Hindu or
Brahmanical as they refer to Agnihotras and
Mahayajnas. The great Junagadh rock inscription
of Skandagupta is distinctly Vaisnava as it opens
with an invocation to the god Visnu. The second
part of this inscription records the erection of a
temple of Visnu by Cakrapalita, son of the Viceroy
Parnadatta. The inscription on the stone pillar
at Kahaum in the Deoriya Tahsil of the Gorakh-
pur district is the second Jain record of the Gupta
period. It records the erection by a man named
Madra of a pillar with five images of the Adikartrs
or Tlrthankaras in G.E. 141. The last inscription
of the time of Skandagupta is Hindu. In the copper
plate discovered at Indor Khera in the Buland-
shahr district, a Brahmana, named Devavisnu,
records the gift of some money for the mainte-
nance of a lamp in a temple of Surya in G.E. 146.
In the troublesome period which followed the
death of the Emperor Skandagupta and which is

1 Epi. Ind. Vol. XV 11, pp. 347-8.

LATER GTJPTA RELIGIOUS RECORDS. 105

occupied by the ephemeral reigns of the three
shadow Emperors, we get only two inscriptions,
both of which belong to the reign of the infant
emperor Kumaragupta II. Only one of them is
dated and that is a Buddhist inscription record-
ing the erection of an image of Buddha in G.E.
154 during the reign of the Emperor Kumara-
gupta II by a Buddhist monk named Abhaya-
mitra. 1 The great seal of Kumaragupta II dis-
covered at Bhitari in the Ghazipur district is much
bigger than the seal of Samudragupta attached to
the Gaya plate of G.E. 9. It bears the complete
geneology of the Gupta Emperors from Sri-gupta
to Kumaragupta II and is distinctly Vaisnava on
account of the presence of the figure of Garuda in
the upper part and the term Parama-bhagavata
applied to Candragupta II. 2

During the reign of Budhagupta the empire
was once more re-united. The earliest inscrip-
tion of Budhagupta's reign is Buddhist. It re-
cords the erection of an image of Buddha by the
same Buddhist monk Abhayamitra in G.E. 157.
The Damodarpur plates of the time of Budhagupta
are distinctly Hindu. The third plate of G.E. 163
records the sale of some land for the settlement
of some Brahmanas in G.E. 163 to a village-elder
named Nabhaka. The fourth plate records the sale
of some Vastu and Khila land to the Nagara-sres-

1 Annual Roport of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1914-15,
pp. 124-5.

2 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1889, LVIII, p. 89.

106 RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY REVIVAL.

thin Rbhupala for building two temples for the
gods Kokamukha-svamin and Sveta-Varaha-sva-
min and the attached store-rooms. The last known
inscription of the reign of Budhagupta records
the erection of a flag-staff of Vinu in G.E. 165 by
the Maharaja Matrvisnu and his brother Dhanya
visnu. The fifth Damodarpur plate is also a
Hindu record because by it a religious trust was
created in favour of the god 6veta-Varaha-
svamin in the forest of Kotivarsa by Amrtadeva
of Ayodhya in G.E. 224. The Eran pillar ins-
cription of the reign of Bhaiiugupta is non-secta-
rian. There remain a number of dated records
which do not mention the names of the Emperors,
but which can be referred to the reigns of well
known Emperors of the Imperial Gupta dynasty.
The Udayagiri cave inscription of G.E. 106 must
be referred to the reign of Kumaragupta I and is
a Jaina inscription. The Sanchi inscription of
G.E. 131 is a record of the reign of Kumaragupta
I and is a Buddhist record. It commemorates
the gift of fifteen gold coins from the interest of
which one Bhiksu was to be fed daily and three
lamps to be lighted in the sanctum (Ratnagrha)
by the lay worshipper Harisvamini. The Mathura
image inscription, if it is to be referred to the Gupta
era, of the year 135 falls within the reign of Ku-
maragupta I and is a Buddhist inscription. Similar-
ly the Kosam image inscription of the Maharaja
Bhlmavarman of G.E. 139 must be referred to
the reign of Skandagupta. So also the Gadhwa

ANONYMOUS DATED INSCRIPTIONS. 107

inscription of G.E. 148 must be referred to the
reign of the same Emperor.

In this long list of inscriptions only four are
Jaina and less than half-a-dozen Buddhist. This
enormous preponderance of Hindu or Brahmani-
cal records prove definitely that Hinduism had
benefitted greatly at the cost of the rival sects.
There is one class of records which do not contain
dates or names of Emperors but which can be re-
ferred to the Gupta period very definitely on the
basis of palaeography. These are the votive ins-
criptions of the Gupta period discovered during the
last two decades at Sarnath, the Buddhist Benares.
The Sarnath inscriptions of this period do not
mention the names of Gupta Emperors except in
, three solitary instances, the Buddha image of the
reign of Kumaragupta II of G.E. 154 and two simi-
lar images of the reign of Budhaguptaof G.E. 157.
Is it the beginning of the Buddhist custom of refus-
ing to recognise a non-Buddhist King in permanent
records ? The inscribed images from Sarnath,
though they do not furnish any data for the politi-
cal history of the Gupta period, afford us ample
material for the study of the evolution of artistic
activity of the Benares School of Sculpture. Inci-
dentally they prove the truth of Fa-Hsien's state-
ment that Buddhism continued to flourish side by
side with Hinduism. The same can not be said of
Jainism ; that religion was distinctly on the de-
cline. Even in great centres of the Jaina faith
like Mathura the dedication of Jaina images in the

108 RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY REVIVAL.

Gupta period was a rare event. The recent dis-
covery of a copper plate at Paharpur in the Raj-
shahi district of Bengal proves that the eradication
of Jainism from North- Eastern India was very
rapid. According to Mr. K. N. Dikshit M.A.,
the discoverer, the inscription on this copper plate
is dated G.E. 159 = 478-9 A.D. and therefore it
must be referred to the reign of Budhagupta. It
records the donation of some land by a Brahmana
couple for the maintenance of worship in a Jaina
Vihara or establishment of Nirgrantha ascetics
presided over by Guhanandin at the Village of
Vata-Gohali. This inscription does not mention
the name of the reigning Emperor Budhagupta
though he is expressly mentioned as such in the
third Damodarpur plate of G. E. 163. A century
after the fall of the Imperial Guptas, Yuan Chwang
mentions naked Jaina mendicants in the temples
of North Bengal. But in the Pala period there is
hardly any evidence of Jaina influence in Bengal
as only half-a-dozen Jaina images have been dis-
covered throughout the length and breadth of
that province.

The preponderating influence of Hinduism over
other sects in the Gupta period is felt to some ex-
tent in Sanskrit literature. The majority of the
Puranas were recast during the Gupta period.
A Purana ought to consist of the following
parts :

" (1) Sarga, the evolution of the universe from
its material cause; (2) Pratisarga, the recrea-

THE PATJRANIC GENEALOGIES. 109

tion of the universe from the constituent elements,
into which it is merged at the close of each aeon
(Kalpa) or day in the life of the Creator, Brahma ;

(3) Farapa, the genealogies of God and Rishis ;

(4) Manvantara, the groups of ' great ages '
(Mahayuga) included in an aeon, in each of which
mankind is supposed to be produced anew from
a first father, Manu; (5) VamQanucharita, the
history of the Royal families who rule over the
earth during the four * ages ' (yuga) which make
up one ' great age. 9 m

Now, only a few Puranas are complete with
all the five divisions. Such Puranas which con-
tain the Vamsanucarita prove that the majority
of them were finally redacted during the Gupta
period. Seven only out of the existing eighteen
Mahapuranas contain accounts of the kings who
have reigned or who, in the prophetic form in
which the authors of these works have recast
their narratives, will reign in the historical period.
The historical genealogies in these works are
based on very ancient and reliable sources. The
accounts of kings were written from the songs
of heralds (Sutas) of the Vedic period who, like
the Charans of mediaeval Rajputana, were the
chroniclers of the genealogies of kings and their
deeds. The Sutas were Ksatriyas. But, after
the fall of the Ksatriyas, these songs, called
Oathas and Nara3amsis fell into the hands of

1 Cambridge History of India VoL I. p. 296.

110 BELIGIOUS AND LITERARY REVIVAL.

Brahmana compilers, who, ignorant of the past,
confused the accounts and in many cases omitted
particular genealogies or left them incomplete,
in order to make room for modern legends to
prove the sanctity of some new holy place. Par-
giter, who has analysed the Pauranic accounts
very carefully, has proved that the accounts of
the dynasties which followed the Andhras, are
given in a very summarised form ; " When the
Kingdom of the Andhras has come to an end
there will be kings belonging to the lineage
of their servants ; 7 Andhras, and 10 Abhira
kings; also i7 Gardabhins, 18 Sakas. There will
be 8 Yavanas, 14 Tusaras, 13 Muruiidas, 11
Maunas.

" The Srlparvatiya Andhras will endure 52
years ; the 10 Abhira kings 67 years ; the 7 Gar-
dabhins will enjoy the earth 72 years; the 18
Sakas 183 years. The 8 Yavanas will enjoy this
earth 87 years. The earth is remembered as be-
longing to the Tusaras 7000 years. The 13
future Murundas along with low caste men, all of
Mleccha origin, will enjoy it 103 years. When
they are overthrown by time there will be Kila-
kila kings.

" Then after the Kilakilas Vindhyasakti will
reign. He will enter upon the earth after it has
known these kings 96 years." Different Pura-
nas differ in their accounts. The Matsya, the Vayu
and the Bhavisyat give almost identical accounts
and is closely followed by the Bhagavata. Names

FINAL REDACTION OF PURAtfAS. Ill

are to be found again, later on, in the accounts
of the Kingdom of Vidisa. Subsequent accounts
are all confused and we are presented with the
following dynastic list in the fourth century
A.D. :

" Nine Naka kings will enjoy the city Campa-
vati ; and 7 Nagas will enjoy the charming city
of Mathura. Kings born of the Gupta race will
enjoy all these territories, namely, along the
Ganges, Prayaga, Saketa and the Magadhas."

That the Pauranic accounts of the dynasties of
the fourth century A.D., is correct can be proved
from contemporary epigraphic and numismatic
evidence. The last King of the Naga dynasty
of Nalapura (Narwar) and PadmavatT (Pawaya),
(some of the texts of the Puranas read Padmavati,
instead of Campavati). Ganapati Naga issued
copper coins, which clearly belong to the fourth
century A.D. and he is mentioned in the Allahabad
inscription of Samudragupta as one of the kings of
Northern India, who were overthrown by that
king. The account of the Gupta empire, as given
in the Vayu, Bhavishyat, Visnu and the Bhagavata
Puranas agree with the known inscriptions.
The Gupta Kingdom in its earliest stage, e.g.,
during the reign of Samudragupta consisted of
Bengal, Bihar, Eastern part of the United Pro-
vinces and perhaps a small portion of the modern
Central Provinces. This kingdom consisted of
the valley of the Ganges (Anu-Ganga), the valley
of the Yamuna (Prayaga), Oudh (Saketa) and

112 RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY REVIVAL.

South Bihar (Magadha). The detailed evidence,
which enabled Sir Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandar-
kar to reconstruct the chronology of the Andhras
or the Satavahaiias, is wanting in the case of the
Guptas. It is clear from the nature of the Pau-
ranic evidence that the Guptas were the last
dynasty of the kings of the middle country who
were known to the final redactors of the Matsya,
Vayu, Visnu, Brahmanda and the Bhagavata Pura-
nas. Therefore it can be stated that the final
redaction of most of the reliable Puranas took
place before the disruption of the Gupta Empire.
This final redaction of the Puranas was one
of the minor results of the activities of the Brah-
manas of Northern India in the fifth and sixth
centuries A.D. Their principal work was the
reform of Hinduism or the Orthodox Brahmaiii-
cal religion from the state of torpor into which
it had fallen during the long rule of the bar-
barians. The rise of Northern Buddhism during
the reign of Kaniska I and the creation of a pan-
theon of superior and inferior deities in it had
constituted that religion into a very formidable
rival of Orthodox Hinduism. Deprived of Impe-
rial patronage during the long centuries which
followed the dismemberment of the Sunga empire,
the priestly classes were unable to retard the
total break up of castes or to do anything which
would make the now unintelligible religion of
the Vedic Aryans more acceptable to the masses.
We do not know much about the condition of the

REVIVAL OF HINDUISM. 113

Orthodox Brahmanical religion during the five
centuries which intervened between the fall of
the Imperial Sungas and the rise of the Guptas.
The inscriptions of the Scythian period are in
the majority of cases Jaina and Buddhist and
if epigraphical evidence is to be relied upon solely
for the reconstruction of the history of our sacred
literature then we must admit that Brahmanism
was not a popular or flourishing religion in Mathura
or the Western part of the United Provinces. The
majority of inscriptions discovered in the dis-
trict of Mathura and its immediate neighbourhood
prove that more than ninety per cent of the sacred
edifices in that locality were Buddhist and Jaina
from the 1st century B.C. till the 4th century
A.D. It is true that one inscription belonging
to the year 24 of the reign of Vasiska records the
erection of sacrificial posts for the great Asva-
medha sacrifice, but this is a solitary instance.
Inscriptions concerning the Orthodox Brahmani-
cal religion or deities are very few in number and
indicate that the public patronage of this re-
ligion had almost ceased,

With the consolidation of the power of the Im-
perial Guptas in Northern India the situation
changes at once. The majority of records dis-
covered up to date are Brahmanical and not Jaina
or Buddhist. It cannot be denied even for a
moment that State patronage went to Brahmanas
only, though there is no direct evidence to prove
this statement. The indirect evidence is to be
8

114 RELIGIOUS AtfD LITERARY REVIVAL.

found in the five Damodarpur and the four Farid-
pur plates, all of which refer to settlements of land
on Hindu gods or Brahmanas.

The attempt of the Brahmanas to re-establish
the religion of the Vedic Aryans can be seen from
the performance of the Asvamedha by Samudra-
gupta and his grandson Kumaragupta I. The per-
formance of the Agnihotra and the five great sacri-
fices by Brahmanas in the Kotivarsa district also
indicate the initiation of Vedic sacrifices in the
jungle country in Northern Bengal where they
were not known before. But Vedic sacrifices no
longer appealed to the masses and therefore a very
large number of images were carved. The wor-
ship of images in India most probably became
widespread after the introduction of Northern
Buddhism during the rule of the great Kusanas.
How widespread the worship of images had become
will be found in a next chapter. The most pop-
ular gods were Visnu, Siva, and Surya. But
forms of these deities with which we are familiar
were not so widely diffused as they are now. For
example the standing image of Visnu with four
hands is rare among Gupta sculptures. We find
Visnu either in the form of some of the incarna-
tions or riding on Garuda. The later Avataras
such as Parasurama, Ramacandra and Balarama,
Buddha and Kalkin are unknown. The most
popular Avatara was the Boar (Varaha). The
Damodarpur plates mention the White Boar Sveta-
Varaha-svamin. Koka-mukha-svamin is most pro-

HINDU DEITIES OF THE GUPTA PERIOD. 115

bably Siva and Durga, as in the case of the Kosam
image dedicated in G.E. 139. 1 The phallic emblem
of Siva (lingo) is fairly common. The ordinary
modern Unga, which is a cylinder with a round
edge top is also known. Such is the Unga dedica-
ted by Prthivisena, the commander-in-chief of
Kumaragupta I at Karamdanda in G.E. 117.
The shaft is circular with a round top but the
lower part is octagonal and the inscription is
incised on this portion. But the Eka-mukha-linga
was more common. In these lingas there is a
human face on the body of the shaft. The later
Caturmukha-linga is rare in the Gupta period.
Eka-mukha-lingas of the Gupta period are very
common in Benares city and in the shrine of the
Aksaya vata inside Allahabad fort. Such are the
magnificent lingas discovered by the writer at
Saiikargadh and Khoh in the Nagod State of the
Baghelkhand Agency of Central India, 2 and the
gigantic specimen discovered during the excavation
of the Gupta temple found on the plateau of
Bhumra in the same State. This Unga is one of
the largest known and was discovered inside the
sanctum. 8

The seals discovered by Bloch, Spooner, and

1 Annual Report of the Archaeological Purvey of India 1913-14,
p. 264, PI LXX (6.)

2 Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western
Circle for the year ending 31st March, W20, pp. 104-5, PL XXVIII-
XXIX.

3 lbid.,jor the year ending 31st March, 1921, pp.96-7, PL XXII (b).

116 RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY REVIVAL.

Marshall at Vaisali and Bhita help us to determine
the nature of some of the principal Hindu shrines
of the Gupta period. The most important of them
still existing is that of the Foot-print of Vinu at
Gaya. The Bloch collection contains a magnificent
specimen of the seal of the shrine. The upper part
bears the mace, an ornamental symbol perhaps a
trUula, a conch, a wheel and the symbols of the
Sun and the Moon. Among these the mace, conch
and the wheel are the special emblems of Visnu.
The legend is Sri-Visnupada-svami-Narayana. 1
The seal of the temple of Amratakesvara Siva
at Benares comes only second in importance be-
cause that shrine is no longer in existence. The
seal bears on its upper part a linga with a Yoni-
patta and there is a Trisula on each side. Ac-
cording to the Matsya Purana Amratakesvara was
one of the eight principal Saiva shrine of Benares.
It was so famous that the Ahom kings of Assam
built a temple of Siva of that name in the village
of Ramsa in the Kamrup district. 2 The god is
mentioned in a eighteenth century inscription on
Kamakhya hill in the same district. 3 Spooner
found many seals of temples at Vaisali but none of
them are so important as those mentioned above.
Such is the seal of the temple of Rajadharmesvara
in which the emblem is not clear. 4 The seal of

1 Annual Report of the Arch&ological Survey of India, 1903-4.
p 110, No. 31, PI. XL 3.

2 Ibid., pp. 104, 110 ; PL XL 2.

3 Origin of the Bengali Script, University of Calcutta, 1919, PL X.

* Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India 1913-14, p. 135
No. 226.

PRINCIPAL HINDU SHRINES. 117

the temple of Aramiklsvara belongs to the Gupta
period though Spooner thought it earlier in date.
The emblems are a vase, two trees and a combined
trisula and a battle-axe (parasu). At least two
specimens were discovered at Vaisali but the loca-
lity is not known to us. 1 The third seal is un-
fortunately mutilated but the legend is very in-
teresting as it mentions a tlrtha or a holy place. 2
The fourth specimen is far more interesting as it
is a seal of a temple of the Sun-god. The upper
part is occupied by a fire-altar, which is an emblem
characteristic of the connection between fire wor-
ship and Sun worship. Spooner saw Iranian in-
fluence in this emblem. 3 Marshall found a similar
seal at Bhita but there is some difference in the
legend. The Vaisali seal reads Bhagavato Aditya-
sya "(the seal of the temple) of the lord Sun,"
but the term Bhagavato is omitted in the Bhita
specimen, which may mean that it is the seal of a
person and not a temple. 4 Though Spooner 9 s
discussion of the origin of Sun worship is biassed
some of his observation are correct. The cult of the
Sun has almost disappeared from India now, but
the images of that deity, discovered all over India
and over long centuries from the first to the twelfth,
prove that at one time prior to the Musalman
conquest it had a firmer hold on the people of our

1 Ibid., p, 142. Nos. 369, 396 ; PL XLVIII.

2 Ibid., p. 143, No. 449.

3 Ibid., pp. 118-20, 149 f No. 607 ; PL XLIX.
* Ibid., 1911-12, p. 58, No. 98, PI. XXI.

118 RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY REVIVAL.

country. Images of the Sun are fairly numerous
in the Gupta period and are to be found both as
separate images and as decorative figures in
Chaitya- windows or plaques. These sculptures will
be discussed in a subsequent chapter but the seals
indicate that the cult of the Sun god was still very
popular in the Northern India. This is proved
by the popularity of the altar of the Sun, which
appear on Sassanian and Scytho-sassanian coinage,
and on private seals of the Gupta period. In the
Vaisali collection of 1903-4 there are at least four
seals with this altar. Marshall also discovered
four seals at Bhita in 1908-9 with the Fire-altar.
Spooner discovered a few in 1913-14 with many
different varieties of the altar, the most important
of which is No. 607.

Works on Hindu ritual of the Gupta period
have not been discovered as yet and therefore it
cannot be stated definitely whether the modern
Hindu ritual had its origin in this period or not.
There seems to be some ground for supposing
that the present Hindu ritual was evolved out
of the old Vedic ritual during this period.

The revival in and the reform of the Brahma-
nical or the Hindu religion is also evident from
the subdivisions of castes in North-eastern India.
Generally speaking castes and sub-castes in the
Eastern part of the United Provinces, the North-
eastern part of the Central Provinces, the whole
of Bihar and Bengal do not correspond to the
caste system of the Punjab, Rajputana, or Malwa

THE CULT OF THE SUN. 119

on the one hand and Gujarat and the Maharastra

on the other hand. We are not speaking of such

provinces of Southern India in which Dravidian

languages are still exclusively spoken. In such

provinces of Northern, Central, and Western India

where Indo- Aryan languages are spoken the caste

system can be divided into three great divisions :

I. The North-eastern castes.

II. The castes of the Punjab and Northern

Rajputana.

III. The castes of Southern Rajputana, Malwa,

and Northern Gujarat. By the term
Northern Gujarat is meant the an-
cient province of Uttara-lata consisting of
the Kadi Prdnt of the dominions of the
Gaikwad of Baroda, the Mahi-kantha
States, the Southern part of the Mallani
district of the Jodhpur State and the
corresponding portion of the district of
Thar and Parkar of Sindh, consisting of
the desert taluqas of Mithi, Diplo and
Nagar-Parkar. The caste system of
British Gujarat, which is Daksina-Lata
is slightly different.

IV. The castes of Southern Gujarat or the dis-

tricts of Broach and Surat, Northern
Konkan consisting of the districts of
Thana, Kolaba and Ratnagiri, as well as
that of the Maharastra.

The difference in the caste system is to be
noticed on the following points only :

120 RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY REVIVAL.

I. The absence of a pure Katriya caste and
the approximation to it of various royal families.

II. The division of the Vaisya community into
two great groups, the Vanika proper with their
sub-divisions and a very large number of functional
sub-castes who are regarded as Sudras but are
really Vaisyas.

III. The divisions of Sudras into three separate
groups :

(i) The higher Sudras,
(ii) the intermediate Sudras, and
(iii) the lowest Sudras and untouchables.
Such differences in the caste system of the
Eastern and Western Provinces of Northern India
point to one conclusion : that the castes and sub-
castes and of the North-eastern Provinces were
changed and reclassified long after the last reduc-
tion of the Manava-Dharma-Sastra and these
classifications were changed when the Hunas con-
quered the whole of the Western Provinces of
Northern India and the West-central districts of
Central India. To go deeper into the subject is
impossible within the limited compass of this
treatise. The castes of Northern Gujarat suffer-
ed a second change on account of the obliterating
influence of militant Jainism of the period of
Hemacandra Suri and his royal patrons Kumara-
pala and Siddharaja Jayasimha of Anahilapataka.
No further changes in the basic rules of the castes
of the North-eastern Provinces were needed up
to the end of the 12th century, even when the

THE KRStfA-CULT AND VAIStfAVISM. 121

people abandoned Mahayana proper and the ob-
scene and revolting rites of Kala-Cakra-Yana and
Vajrayana under the Palas of Bengal.

The gods worshipped, though practically the
same as of modern Hindu India were slightly differ-
ent both in shape and in name. The worship of
Vinu was universal as at the present day but the
form in favour in the Gupta period was slightly
different. Except among the sculptures recently
discovered by Mr. K. N. Dikshit M.A. of the
Archaeological Survey of India, Eastern Circle at
Paharpur in the Rajshahi district of Northern
Bengal, images of Radha and Krsna are absolutely
unknown in the Gupta period. Even bas-reliefs
representing the life of Krsna, as described in the
10th Skandha of the Bhagavata Purana, are
exceedingly rare. The only specimen known is
the huge image unearthed at Sarnath and sup-
posed by Rai Bahadur Pundit Dayaram Sahni
as an image of Krna holding the Govardhana
mountain, which is a case of mistaken identi-
fication. 1 More importance is given to the wor-
ship of the Avataras, "incarnations" of Visnu
than to Krsna. Among the Avataras the Boar
incarnation appears to have been regarded as
more important than any other. The deities
mentioned in the Damodarpur plates are Sveta-
Varaha-Svamin and Koka-Mukha-Svamin. 6veta-

1 Not included in the Catalogue of the Museum of Archeology at Sar-
nath.

122 RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY REVIVAL.

Varaha-Svamin is undoubtedly the Boar incar-
nation of Visnu but Koka-Mukha-Svamin is still
unknown. Most probably it was an image of
Siva and Parvatl. The cave excavated by the
Sanikanika chief, who was the son of the Maha-
raja Visnudasa, contained two images, one of the
four-armed Visnu attended by his wives and
another of Durga as Mahisa-mardini. 1 The un-
dated cave inscription of Candragupta II at
Udayagiri records the dedication of the cave as a
temple of Siva by one Virasena, a hereditary
minister. But the Varaha cave, though unin-
scribed, is distinctly a Vaisnava shrine belonging
to the early Gupta period . 2 In the same group at
Udayagiri is to be found the colossal image of
Visnu lying on the snake-king Ananta twelve
feet long. 3 The popularity of the Boar incarna-
tion of Visnu can be gauged from the erection
of the great Boar by Maharaja Dhanyavisnu, the
younger brother of the deceased Maharaja Matr-
visnu in the first year of the reign of the Huna
king Toramana, which marks the end of the
Gupta period proper. In this period two forms
of the Boar incarnation were adopted (1) a man
with a Boar's head, and (2) a real boar as at
Khoh in the Nagod State. 4 Other examples

1 Gupta Inscriptions, p. 22.

2 Cunningham-Archaeological Survey Reports, Vol. X, p. 48-49.

3 Ibid., p. 52.

4 Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India for the year
ending 3lst March, 1920, p. 106, pi. XXIX.

SAIVA IMAGES. 123

of the incarnations of Vinu, belonging to
this period, are to be found at Kaman in the
Bharatpur State. There is a fragment bearing
the Fish, Tortoise, Boar, Man-Lion and Dwarf
incarnations. Most probably the series was com-
plete. 1 The oldest image of the four-armed Visnu
is to be found in the Udayagiri cave mentioned
above. The next specimen was that the dedica-
tion of which was recorded in the inscription of
the emperor Skandagupta at Bhitari in the Ghazi-
pur district to which a village was granted. 2
During the reign of the same emperor Cakrapalita,
the son of Parnadatta, the Viceroy of Kathiawad,
after the restoration of the great dam of the
Sudarsana lake, erected a temple of Visnu and
dedicated an image of Cakrabhrt, " the wielder of
the Discus." 3 The last example of the dedication
of an image of Visnu is that of the colossal image
at Eran in the Sagar district of the Central Pro-
vinces to which a flag-staff (Dhvaja-stambha),
was dedicated in the year 165 during the reign
of the emperor Budhagupta by the Maharaja
Matrvisnu and his younger brother Dhanyavisnu. 4
The earliest example of a Saiva sculpture belong-
ing to the Gupta period has been found at Mathura.
The second is the figure of Mahisamardim in the
cave at Udayagiri near Sanchi excavated in G.E.,
82, 6 with those of the Seven Mothers. The third

l Ibid., 1919, pp. 64-5, pi. XXIV. * Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 53-56.

3 Ibid., pp. 55-56. * Ibid., pp. 69-90.

5 Cunningham- Archaeological Survey Report Vol. X, p. 50.

124 RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY REVIVAL.

instance is the temple dedicated by Vlrasena. 1
The fourth instance is the Lingo, dedicated under
the name of Prthivisvara by Prthivl^ena, the
minister and commander-in-chief of the emperor
Kumaragupta II, which is now preserved in the
Lucknow Museum. It is the only known instance
of a Lingo, belonging to the Gupta period which is
neither a natural Linga nor a Mukha-lingam. 2 It
was dedicated in G.E. 117. The Bilsad pillar
inscription of the year 96 mentions the dedication
of a temple of Mahasena or Kartikeya at Bilsad
in the Eta district and this may also be counted
among instances of Saiva temples and images. 8
The Nama-lingam mentioned in the fourth Damo-
darpur plate is the next instance. 4 The most
beautiful Saiva sculptures, with the exception
of those discovered at Benares, were found at
Kaman, whence they have been removed during
recent years to the Ajmer Museum. Such is the
great Caturmmukha-lingam with figures of Visnu,
Brahma, Siva, and Surya on its four sides. The
earliest bas-relief representing the marriage of
Siva and Parvati discovered in India also came
from Kaman to this Museum. The remaining
examples of Saiva sculptures are the Mukha-lingas
discovered by the writer at Khoh and Bhumra in
the Nagod State. The Khoh and the Bhumra
Lingas are Eka-mukha-Lingas. The Khoh speci-

1 Ibid., p. 51-52. 2 Epi. Ind., Vol. X, pp. 71-72.

3 Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 43-45.
* Epi. Ind., Vol. XV, p. 139.

SAURA IMAGES. 125

men is undoubtedly one of the best specimens of
portraiture ever discovered amongst specimens of
Gupta art. 1 It is certainly far superior in this
respect to the gigantic Eka-mukha-Linga dis-
covered in the interior of the temple at Bhumra. 2
The use of natural Lingas appears to have ceased
before the beginning of the Gupta period proper,
because all Lingas which can be definitely assigned
to the Gupta period are either plain shafts or
Eka-mukha and Caturmmiikha-Lingas.

After Visnu and Siva the next important deity
in Hinduism of the Gupta period is Surya. The
worship of this deity has practically disappeared
from modern Hinduism and with the exception of
solitary shrines in important holy places like Gaya
and Benares, temples dedicated to the Sun god
are extremely rare. In the Gupta period inscrip-
tions prove the existence of a number of shrines
of Surya. The earliest record which mentions
this deity is the Indor Khera copper plate in-
scription of the time of the emperor Skandagupta.
From this inscription we learn that there was
a temple of the Sun at Indrapura, a town in the
Antarvedl or the Ganges-Jumna Doab, built by
two Ksatriyas named Acalavarman and Bhru-
kunthasimha. 8 There was a great temple of the
Sun god in the ancient city of Dasapura in Malava,

1 Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western
Circle for the year ending 31 st March 1920, pi. XXIX.

2 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 16 ; the temple
of Siva at Bhumara, pi XV (c).

* Gupta Inscriptions pp. 70-77.

126 RELIGIOUS AND LITERAEY REVIVAL.

modern Mandasor in the Malwa Prant of the
dominions of the Maharaja Siride. During the
reign of Kumaragupta I, when Maharaja Bandhu-
varman was the Governor of Dasapura, this
temple was built by the Guild of silk-weavers
from their accumulated wealth. After 36 years,
when it had fallen into disrepair, it was rebuilt
by the same Guild in V. 8., 529=471 A. D. 1
Images of the Sun god are common. The most
beautiful example of the representation of the
Sun god is to be found in a medallion discovered
at Bhumra where the figure is of the type
of a Scythian king. 2 It is robed exactly like
Kaniska 3 as seen in his statue discovered at Mat
in the Mathura district. There are no horses in
the Bhumra medallion but there are seven such
on the Linga from Kaman in the Ajmer Museum. 4
In this case the Sun god is squatting on his
haunches like the unknown Kusana statue from
Mat. 5 In many cases the forms of Hindu gods
and goddesses are totally unlike their present
forms. Mahisamardini, now called Durga, is re-
presented with ten hands at the present day, with
eight or twelve in the mediaeval period (800-1200

1 Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 80-87.

2 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India No. 16, pi. XI V (a).

3 Coomaraswamy History of Indian and Indonesian Art, pi.
XVIII, Fig. 65.

4 Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western
Circle for the year ending Slst March 1919, pi. XXVI.

5 Coomaraswamy History of Indian and Indonesian Art. pi.
XV I II, Fig. 64.

CONDITION OF BUDDHISM. 127

A. D.), with four hands at Badami l in the sixth
century, is to be found with the same number
of hands in Gupta sculpture proper, e.g., at
Bhumra. Similarly in the case of Vainava
sculptures the image of Visnu seated on the coils of
the snake Ananta is to be found at Badami 2 and
on the door lintel of the later Gupta temple at
Deogadh but no where else in later times. Such
images are not worshipped at the present day and
very probably became obsolete after the close
of the Gupta period.

That Buddhism was flourishing is proved beyond
doubt by the great mass of decorative sculpture
and number of images discovered at Sarnath alone
of all places. There cannot be any doubt about
the fact that Sarnath or Buddhist Benares was
included in the empire of the early Guptas up to
the end of the reign of Bhanugupta. Therefore it
cannot be explained for what reasons the Gupta
era and the names of most of the Gupta emperors,
with the exception of Kumaragupta II and Budha-
gupta, are omitted in the votive inscriptions of
Benares while Candragupta II is mentioned by
name and Gupta era is used in the Sanchi inscrip-
tion of the year 93 3 and the Gupta era used with-
out the name of the reigning emperor Kumara-
gupta I in the Sanchi inscription of 131. 4 Even
the Mankuwar Buddha discovered in the Allahabad

1 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 25, Basreliefs
of Badami, pi lib. 2 ibid., pi. XVII a.

3 Gupta Inscriptions, pp.St-32. 4 Ibid., pp. 261-2.

128 RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY REVIVAL.

district mentions Kumaragupta I as the ruling
emperor in the year 129. 1

Jaina inscriptions of the Gupta period betray a
certain peculiarity. In the Kahaum pillar inscrip-
tion of the reign of Skandagupta, the emperor is
mentioned by name and the date given in the
Gupta era. It records the erection of a stone
pillar with five images of the principal Jaina
Tirthankaras (Adi-kartrs). In the majority of an-
cient and mediaeval Caturmukhas or Pratima-
sarvatobhadrika only four Jinas are represented.
Even on the facets of modern Jaina Caumuhas
or Merus four, eight, and twelve are the usual
numbers. Odd numbers, specially five is un-
known to Jaina Iconography. Bhagwanlal In-
draji suggested that they are the images of
Adinatha, Santinatha, Neminatha, Parsvanatha,
and Mahavlra-Varddhamana. 2 From the year
135 onwards though the Gupta era is used, votive
Buddhist and Jaina inscriptions found in Mathura
do not mention any king, whether Buddhist or
Hindu.

A class of terra cotta plaques, so long surmised
to be representations of the goddesses of Fertility,
Fecundity or the mother goddess, can now be
recognised as representations of Siva and Durga.
The terra cotta plaques in the collection of Major
B. D. Basu, I.M.S. (retired) when compared
with the stone figure of Siva and Durga dedicated

i Ibid., pp. 46-47. 2 Qupta Inscription*, pp. 66-8.

IMAGES ON THE KAHAUM PILLAB. 129

by Maharaja Bhimavarman in G.E., 139 prove
the truth of this statement. 1

Very little was known of the condition of
plastic art in ancient Dabhala, mediaeval Dahala,
Jubbulpur and Rewa in the upper Narmada -Tons
valley. The fortunate discovery of an inscribed
image at Dhuan Dhar near the falls of the Narmada
at Bhera Ghat or the Marble Rocks has proved that
in the 2nd century A.D., plastic art was yet in its
nascent stage. One such image was introduced
in later times into the circular temple of the
Sixty-four Yoginls. This temple contains images
of three different dates of which the inscribed
images, described by me in my memoir on the
Haihayas of Tripurl and their monuments, were
dedicated by queen Nohala, wife of Laksmana-
raja. 2 Earlier than these there are several im-
ages in this circular temple all of which are stand-
ing and uninscribed. 8 These images evidently
belong to the Gupta period, when the Parivrajaka
Maharajas and the chiefs of Ucchakalpa ruled
over the country between the rivers Tons and
Narmada. The evolution of the human figure
in this country, as evidenced by the Dhuan Dhar
images discovered by the late Mr. H. Panday and
the 10th century images of the Cedl period,
would point out that the intermediate images
must belong to the Gupta period.

1 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India 1913-14, pp.
262-4 ; pi. LXXb-c.

2 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 23, pp. 79-91 .
8 Ibid., p. 86, No*. 49-52.

9

CHAPTER IV.

ABCHITBCTURB.

Specimens of civil and domestic architecture of
the period are still very rare, in spite of the
excavations carried on by the Indian Archaeo-
logical Department at Rajagriha, Pataliputra,
Vaisali, Benares, Bhita, Kosam, and Kuruksetra.
Marshall's dating of the buildings at Bhita is very
appealing but totally unscientific. The assign-
ment of such early dates to a building simply
because a single seal or stone-axe was found
in a chamber is unconvincing. The amount of
material discovered by the late Drs. Bloch and
Spooner at Vaisali prove that the chamber
in which the seals were discovered belong to
the Gupta period along with the connected build-
ings of the same series and stratum, but noth-
ing is left of such buildings today and even the
bricks of the walls excavated have been carried
away. Similarly, the Gupta structures discovered
by Spooner in the uppermost stratum of his ex-
cavations at Pataliputra have also disappeared.
Even when they were just unearthed they convey-
ed very little to the student of the history of our
architecture.

There remains to be discussed the architecture
of the sacred buildings of the period of which a
few examples have survived up to our times.

DATE OF THE MAHABODHI TEMPLE. 131

Even at the present day, there is considerable
divergence of opinion amongst scholars regarding
the true type of temples of Gupta period proper.
Earlier writers were of opinion that like most
modern and mediaeval temples, temples of the
Gupta type also possessed ikharas or spires.
The most prominent examples cited by Cun-
ningham and other earlier writers are the great
brick temples at Bhitargaon in the Cawnpore
district and Mahabodhi or Bodh-gaya in the
Gaya district. The same class of writers des-
cribed other Gupta temples, e.g., those at Sanchi,
Tigowa in the Jubbulpur district and at Bodh-
Gaya as being flat-roofed. Recent discoveries of
Gupta temples have proved that the Gupta temple
proper did not possess a Sikhara. In the case
of the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh-Gaya the argu-
ments produced for assigning it to the Gupta
period are : that it was seen by the Chinese pilgrim
Yuan Chwang, that the dimensions x given by him
agree with those of the present temple before its
repairs, that the Ceylonese king Meghavarna sent
an embassy to Samudragupta asking for a per-
mission to build a monastery at Bodh-Gaya 2 , and
finally the Chinese pilgrim I-Tsing states that
the Mahabodhi Vih&ra was built by the Ceylonese.
Chavannes has proved from Chinese records that
the Mahabodhi Vihara was built by a king of Cey-
lon. "Near the Bodhi tree was the Mahabodhi

i Coomaraswamy History of Indian and Indonesian Art, p. 81.
Smith Early History of India, 4th Edition, p. 304.

132 ARCHITECTURE.

Vihara built by a king of Ceylon." l Writers
like Mr. E. B. HaveU think that the Mahabodhi
temple was built in the first century B.C. 2
After a thorough examination of the entire struc-
ture of the Mahabodhi temple the writer could
find no trace, both inside and outside, of deco-
rative motifs of the Gupta period in any part
of it. On the other hand all other temples wheth-
er Buddhist or Hindu, which can be definitely as-
signed to the Gupta period on the ground of epi-
graphy, always show the use of decorative motifs
distinctive of the Gupta period, e.g., the original
main Shrine and the Gupta monasteries at Sarnath,
the Hindu temple at Mundesvari near Bhabua in
the Arrah district, the Gupta temple at Bodh-Gaya,
the temple of Parvatl at Nachna-Kuthara in the
Ajaygadh State, the temple of Siva at Bhumara
in the Nagod State, the later Gupta temple at
Deogadh in the Jhansi district and the Gupta
temple at Sanchi in the Bhopal State.

The original outline of the Mahabodhi temple
was of a different shape, which was changed when
it was encased in fresh masonry at the time of
its repairs (1880-92). This slim outline of the
ikhara can be seen in earlier photographs. 3 The
outline of the original &ikhara along with the

1 Takakusu I-Tsing, quoting Chavannes, Memoirs, p. 84 ; p. xxxii
and Note 2.

2 A Study of Indo- Aryan Civilisation, p. 100.

8 R. L. MitraBuddha-Gaya, pi. XV ; Cunningham Mahabodhi,
pi. XXXI

TEMPLES AT KONCH AND BHITARGAON. 133

absence of particular decorative motifs of the Gupta
period proper prove that the Mahabodhi temple
could not have been erected earlier than the 8th
century A.D. There are two other temples of the
same type and probably of the same date in South
Bihar, one of which, though not repaired, is still
in better preservation than the original Mahabodhi
temple. These are the temple of Siva at Konch,
near Tikari, in the Gaya district and the great
Buddhist Vihara at Nalanda in the Patna district.
The latter was excavated and partly destroyed
by the late Mr. A. M. Broadley, I.C.S., when most
of the carved stones were removed to the Museum
founded by him at Bihar whence they were removed
to the Calcutta Museum in 1897-98. The ruins
have been re-excavated recently by the Archaeolo-
gical Survey of India. In this temple the ikhara
collapsed long ago. According to an inscription
discovered on the door-jamb of this temple it was
rebuilt in the llth year of the reign of Mahipala
I of Bengal i.e., towards the close of the 10th cen-
tury A.D. The motifs employed here and at
Konch prove that the present Mahabodhi temple
can not be earlier than the 8th century A.D.

The great brick temple at Bhitargaon in
the Cawnpore district lies twenty miles to the
south of Cawnpore town. The temple was first
described by Cunningham in 1875-76 and he
assigned it to the Gupta period. 1 It was more

i Archaeological Survey Reports Vol. XI, pp. 40-46.

134 ARCHITECTURE.

accurately surveyed in recent times by Dr. J. Ph.
Vogel, formerly a Superintendent of the Archaeo-
logical Survey of India. Dr. Vogel states,
"The outer ornamentation of terra cotta sculp-
ture is certainly the most striking feature of the
Bhitargaon temple (Plates IV and V). The walls
rise in bold mouldings, their upper portions being
decorated with a row of rectangular panels alter-
nating with ornamental pilasters. It has been
noticed above that the early plinth of the Nirvana
temple at Kasia is embellished in a very similar
fashion and that on that account there is good
reason to ascribe the Bhitargaon temple to the
early Gupta period." 1 The exterior walls of this
temple were decorated with terra cotta panels in
niches, proving that it did not belong to the
type of the sancta at Bhumara or Nachna
Kuthara. Moreover, there is a ikhara in which
there is a series of arches which are not ex-
actly Caitya- windows. 2 The plinth mouldings are
totally absent proving the difference between it
and the temples at Nachna Kuthara and Bhumara. 8
Therefore, its affinity lies more with the temple
at Deogadh than with those of Nachna Kuthara
and Bhumara because of the presence of the
stumpy iSikhara. 41 The art of the terra cotta
panels of the Bhitargaon temple have been assigned

1 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1908-9, p. 9,
Ibid., pi I.

3 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 16. pi. II.
* Cunningham- Archaeological Survey Report, Vol. XI. pi. XV.

TERRA COTTA PANELS FROM "BHITARGAON. 135

to the Gupta period without sufficient reasons.
A closer comparison with the products of the
three great schools of Gupta Art in India e.g.,
Mathura, Benares, and Pataliputra prove that the
terra cotta panels of Bhitargaon are later in date
than the great Deogadh panels or the finer bas-
reliefs of Sarnath. The mediaeval art of the
United Provinces still remains to be studied.
Sufficient remains of the periods of Bhoja I,
Adivaraha and his son Mahendrapala I, have been
discovered all over the United Provinces but these
scattered remains have not been analysed yet.
Inscribed records of Bhoja I l on sculpture exist
at Deogadh and Pehoa and some of Mahipala I at
Asni in the Fatehpur district. At the same time
the &ikhara of the Bhitargaon temple and its
decorative motifs bear a curious resemblance to
those of the temple of the Somavamsl kings in the
Raipur district of the Central Provinces. 2

The temples of the early, later and post-Gupta
periods are enumerated below :
I. Early Gupta (319-550 A.D. ) :

1. The temple of Siva at Bhumra, about
six miles from Unchehra railway sta-
tion on Jubbulpur-Itarsi Section of the
G.I. P. Ry., discovered by the writer in
1920.

i Ibid., Vol. X, pi. XXXIII.

* Ibid., Vol. XVII, pi. XVI i E. B. Havell A Study of Indo-Aryan
Civilization pi. XXX V, L, and LI.

136 ARCHITECTURE.

2. The earlier temple of Siva at Nachna

Kuthara, called temple of Parvati by
Cunningham, in the Ajaygadh state,
about 10 miles from Bhumra, des-
cribed by Cunningham and by the
writer in 1919.

3. The temple called " Lad Khan's temple "

at Aihole in the Bijapur district of the
Bombay Presidency, built in the Early
Calukya times.

II. Later Gupta (551-605 A.D.) :

4. The later Gupta temple at Deogadh in

Jhansi district, generally mistaken to
be an Early Gupta structure.

III. ' Post-Gupta (606-700 A.D.):

5. The small Post-Gupta temple at &arikar-

gadh in the Nagod State, discovered
by the writer in 1920.

6. The Post-Gupta temple at Nachna

Kuthara in the Ajaygadh district,
discovered by Cunningham and des-
cribed by the writer in 1919.

7. The Post-Gupta temple at Mundesvari,

near Bhabua in the Arrah or Shahabad
district of Bihar and Orissa.

Though no large inscription has been discovered
in the temples at Deogadh, Bhumra, and Nachna
Kuthara, the dates of these three temples can be
accurately deduced from short inscriptions and
mason's marks. From these data we can safely

THE EARLY GUPTA TEMPLE TYPE. 137

deduce that the flat-roofed temples of Bhumra
and Nachna Kuthara belong to the Early Gupta
period, which ended in the middle of the 6th
century A.D. These two temples must be
described before considering the Later and Post-
Gupta temples.

In the case of both of these temples the archi-
tect was concerned more with the provision of
a covered path of circumambulation (pradaksina-
patha) as at Elephanta, than with a fiikhara. In
fact, though there is a small chamber above the
main shrine in the case of the Early Gupta temple
at Nachna Kuthara, there is no indication of any
Sikhara in the case of both of these structures.
In both cases the flat roof of the sanctum or the
chamber above it indicates that there was jio
&ikhara. The earlier temple at Nachna Kuthara
possesses a small flat-roofed chamber above the
sanctum, proving thereby that the architect did
not intend to build a ikhara over this shrine.
These two temples prove that the origin of the
&ikhara or spire in Indian temple architecture is
much later than the period of domination of the
Early Gupta Emperors in Northern India. From
its style as well as the mason's marks in the
temple of Siva discovered at Bhumra, this one
is the earlier of the two. The remains of this
shrine were excavated by the writer in 1920-21.
The entire shrine was 35' square. In front of
this square area was the plinth of the Mandapa or
porch measuring 29 '-10* by 13'. There is a flight

138 ARCHITECTURE.

of steps in front of this porch, on each side of
which were discovered the plinths of two smaller
shrines, measuring 8' 2" by 5' 8". In the
centre of the square portion of the plinth is the
sanctum or Garbha-grha, measuring 15' 6"
square, built of finely dressed Kaimur red sands-
tone without any mortar and roofed with long
flat slabs. The rest of the space in the square
area, which enclosed the sanctum, was a covered
path of circumambulation as can be proved from
the analogy of the exactly similar existing
structures at Nachna Kuthara and Aihole, which
are lighted by stone-windows of pierced screens on
the sides.

The earlier temple at Nachna Kuthara is practi-
cajly of the same size as that at Bhumra. The
sanctum in this case measures 15' 6" on the out-
side and 8' inside. The larger chamber, or path
of circumambulation, which encloses the sanctum
is 33' on the outside and 26 ' in the interior. The
Mandapa in this case measures 26' by 12'. The
steps at Nachna Kuthara are 18' by 10' while those
at Bhumara are 11'- 3" by 8' -5". The masonry
in the case of both temples is finely coursed ash-
lar. The difference between these two temples
lies in the detailed and exceedingly fine decora-
tions of the Bhumra temple compared with which
that at Nachna Kuthara is much plainer. While
the path of circumambulation and the porch
of the Bhumra temple are completely ruined, the
entire structure at Nachna Kuthara was in a much

THE GUPTA TYPE IN OTHEE PROVINCES. 139

better state of preservation in 1919. There is
another point of difference between these two
temples, which is the absence of any structure
over the sanctum in the case of the temple at
Bhumra. The only example of a flat roofed
shrine surrounded by a covered path of circum-
ambulation in which there is no structure over the
sanctum, the temple at Bhumra, is unique in this
respect. Coomaraswamy places the temple of Lad
Khan at Aihole, without sufficient reason in circa
450 A.D. Beyond the resemblance with the earlier
temple at Nachna Kuthara in having a small
square cell above the sanctum and a covered path
of circumambulation around the latter, lighted
by large windows of pierced screens, there is no
other reason to place the date of the erection of
this temple earlier than the time of Kirttivarman
I of Badami, i.e., the first half of the 6th century
A.D.

The Early Gupta Temple was therefore, in type,
a flat roofed sanctum, with a covered path for
circumambulation, having an open porch in front
decorated with pure Gupta motifs. It is not pos-
sible for us to determine how this type came to be
copied in the 6th century A.D., at Badami; but
the designs survived in the Malabar country up
to the end of the 16th century. On the Malabar
coast, especially in the modern districts of North
and South Kanara, square shrines, surrounded
by one or more covered paths of circumambula-
tion, have been discovered in very large numbers,

140 ABCHITECTUBE.

from Mudabidri near Mangalore to Gersoppa and
Bhatkal in the north. In the case of all of these
temples, there is no ikhara over the sanctum,
but the excessive rainfall of the districts demanded
that the slab-roof should be sloping instead of being
flat. Hence the roofs of the sancta as well as the
single or double paths of circumambulation are
made of stone slabs, placed in a slanting position
like tiled roofs of modern buildings. This parti-
cular type of temples resembles the Early Gupta
Type in many particulars; e.g., the want of a
ikhara, one or more covered paths of circum-
ambulation, a small open porch in the centre of
the facade and want of ornamentations on the ex-
terior. These temples in the north and south Kan-
ara district are Hindu and Jaina. The Jain tem-
ples are called Bastis and some of them contain
big and elaborate establishments. The general de-
cline of Jainism along the Malabar coast has caused
the desertion of many of these Bastis, but due to
the munificence of the Vijayanagara emperors and
the chiefs of Sugandha or Sonda, the majority of
Hindu temples are in a much better state of pre-
servation, comparatively. The example of the
great Jaina Basti at Bhatkal in the extreme south
of the North Kanara district of the Bombay Presi-
dency may be cited. In this case the roof of the
sanctum, the path of circumambulation and the
porch are all sloping and constructed of long thick
plain slabs of stone finely dove-tailed and placed
on heavy stone beams. The exterior is severely

THE MALABAR AND EARLY CALTTKYAN TYPES. 141

plain but the interior shows an amazing mass of de-
corative carving of the south Indian type which
is quite different from the decadent Hoysala
motifs of Hampe, Penukonda, Chandragiri and
Udayagiri. Another feature of these Malabar
temples is that in the majority of cases they are
built on stone piles, having empty spaces under
the floors. There is a lamp post (dlpa-stambha) in
each of them, which is a monolithic pillar surmoun-
ted by a stone lantern, standing apart from the
building. The sloping roofs of the Jaina Basti of
Bhatkal decrease gradually in height ; the roof of
the sanctum being the highest, next to it comes
that of the first path of circumambulation, then
comes the second path of cirumambulation, while
that of the porch is the lowest. It is impossible
at the present day to find out how the Early
Gupta-Temple-type came to survive in a modified
form in the extreme south-west of the Indian
peninsula and survived there for eleven centuries
after the Gupta period. Some links have been dis-
covered recently in the country between East Cen-
tral India and the Malabar Coast. Though these
links possess ikharas, their plan consists of a small
Garbha-grha enclosed by a covered path of circum-
ambulation. Such are the temples of Samgames-
vara, Mallikarjuna * and Virupaksha 2 at Pattad-
kal in the Bijapur district of the

1 Cousens Chalukyan Architecture of tJ
XXXV.

2 Ibid, pi. XLV.

142 ARCHITECTURE.

dency. A similar arrangement exists in the
Meguti temple 1 , the Huchchimalli-gudi 2 , temple
No, 9 3 at Aihole and in the two temples at Maha-
kuta 4 in the same district. The second link is to
be found in the group of Chandella temples at
Khajuraho in the Chhattarpur State near Now-
gong, slightly S.S.W. of Bhumra and Nachna
Kuthara. In the Khajuraho temples, in one or
two cases, a small passage has been left between
the Garbha-grha and the three Ardha-mandapas
on three sides of it.

Out of the two early Gupta temples, the one at
Nachna Kuthara was in a better state of preserva-
tion and from its analogy we can guess that the
path of circumambulation at Bhumra also was
devoid of detailed ornamentation in the interior.
The exterior in this case also may have been
ornamented and the slabs discovered during the
excavations, consisting of sunkel panels divided by
pilasters, with figures of ganas or goblins alter-
nately, may have formed the exterior decoration. 5
The very great number of ornamental sculptures
discovered during the excavation of the temple at
Bhumra proves that the Mandapa at that place
was much more elaborately decorated than the
existing porch at Nachna Kuthara. This Mandapa
possessed at least one finely decorated gateway.

i Ibid., pi IV. 2 Ibid., pi. XIII.

3 Ibid., pi. XVI. * Ibid., pi XXVII.

5 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 16 ; the Temple
of Siva at Bhumra, pp. 8-10 ; pi IX-XI.

THE ABCHITECTUBE OF THE BHUMBA TEMPLE. 143

Four fragments of this gateway were recovered
and on them we see the shaft of a pilaster,
shaped like the rough bark of the date-palm.
A parallel band bears on it that exquisitely fine
arabesque which is characteristic of pure Gupta
work. Miniature dwarfs are turning somersaults
at the corners of the bases of the pilasters. 1 The
roof of the interior of the porch was supported by
graceful tapering pillars, embedded in foliated
vases, the shafts of some of which are plain and
some fluted. 2 Set against the plain ashlar
masonry of the inner wall of the path of circum-
ambulation and the sanctum were numerous
pilasters with plain or octagonal shafts but
ornamented with square bosses bearing some of
the finest arabesque medallions, ever discovered
in India, as well as Klrtimukhas.* The zenith of
artistic excellence is reached in the case of the
ornate slabs of the flat roof, many of which
were recovered in a wonderful state of preserva-
tion. One of them bears on its surface a mass
of arabesque foliage with a long stem, clinging
to it are superb little Amorini; on the other
we see a giant creeper with huge corrugated
leaves reminiscent of Acanthus leaves of Corin-
thian architecture, and on a third the representa-
tions of huge waves with breaking crests. 4 These
roofing slabs are of different sizes and on others,
which are narrower, we find arabesque which is

i Ibid., pi IV. 2 ibid., pi. VI.

3 Ibid., pi V. * Ibid , pi VII.

144 ARCHITECTURE.

relatively mediocre compared with the three
described above. There are others in which leaves
are arranged in squares as well as geometrical
patterns. 1 Very probably the porch of Mandapa
was open on three sides and the lower part of its
sides was composed of decorated slabs. The
exterior of the porch was decorated with a line of
indescribably fine Caitya-windows, containing
round medallions with figures of Hindu gods and
goddesses. These Caitya-windows can be crossly
divided into four classes ; (a) according to size and
(b) according to ornamentation. Larger and
smaller Caitya-wmdows were probably placed
alternately along the cornice. The larger Caitya-
windows are ornamented along the circumference
of the medallions either with (i) arabesque or (ii)
two small lotuses. 2 The medallions contain figures
of Ganesa, Brahma, Yama, Kubera, Kartikeya,
Siva dancing, Siva seated on his bull, Surya, Devi
as Mahisha-mardini and Kama. In one or two
cases the smaller (7a%a-windows contain either
small figures of dancing Amorini or full lotus
rosettes. From analogy it appears that such
Caitya-wmdows were placed alternately according
to size. Such is the position of these decorative
figures on the cornice of the so-called Dharmaraja's
ratha at Mamallapuram in the Chingleput district
of the Madras Presidency. 3 Exactly similar but

i Ibid., pi VIII. 2 Ibid., pis. XII XIV.

3 Havell A Study of Indo-Aryan civilization. The ancient and
mediaeval architecture of India. London, 1915, p. 87, fig. 36.

ORIGIN OF THE &IKHARA. 145

smaller Caitya- windows have been discovered in
the early Gupta temple at Naehna Kuthara. 1

The masonry of both of the early Gupta
temples is finely coursed small ashlar. The
architect did not provide for the extremes of
expansion and consequently all stones of the
surface are either badly cracked or chipped at
the corners, a characteristic to be found in
the Dasavatara temple at Deogadh in the
Jhansi District, the unfinished temple on the
mound at Nemawar, on the Narmada, in the
Indore State 2 and in the Saiva monastery at
Chandrehe in the Bewa State. 8 No mortar has
been used in the construction of any of these two
temples, nor was clamping resorted to. There
was no great weight upon the walls and pillars of
these two temples as the height was not much and
the roofs all flat. The collapse of these two
temples is due entirely to the cracking of the
lintels and displacement of the foundations by
tropical vegetation.

Towards the close of the 6th century A.D., a
new member was added to the top of the flat roof
of the sanctum. This was the beginning of the
tiikhara in Northern India. The earliest example
of this new member in Indian Architecture is
to be found in the later Gupta temple at Deogadh

1 Cunningham Archaeological Survey Reports, Vol. XXI, pi. XXVI.

2 Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Westen*
Circle, for the year ending 31st March, 1921, pp. 102-6, pi. XXVII.

3 Ibid., pp. 835, pi. XIV.

10

146 ARCHITECTURE.

in the Jhansi district. The photograph published
by Cunningham in 1875 shows the remains of this
new member, decorated with Caitya- windows and
other distinctly Gupta decorative motifs. 1 Other
temples of the same period are those discovered
by the present writer at Sankargadh, 2 in the Nagod
State and by Cunningham at Nachna Kuthara, 3
in the Ajaygadh State. The temple at Sankar-
gadh is earlier than the later temple at Nachna
Kuthara. The date of this small temple can be
fixed by a comparison of its carved door-frame
with that in the later Gupta temple at Deogadh.
During a recent visit to Deogadh the writer
found that the plinth of the Dasavatara temple
has been fully excavated. The plan of the
temple is slightly different from that given by
Cunningham. It is now certain that in this temple
also there was a covered path of circumambulation,
one beam of which is still sticking out ; but there
were four entrances to it instead of one, and all of
them were provided with small porches and stair-
cases. There were four small temples at the four
corners which were probably capped by small
Zmalakas, many of which were discovered during
the excavations. On each side of each of the stair-
cases there was a niche, only one of which is nearly
entire.

1 Cunningham Archasological Survey Reports, Vol. X, pi. XXXV.

2 Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western
Circle, for the year ending 81st March, 1920, pp. 104-5, pi. XXVII.

* Ibid., 1919, p. 61, pi. XVII.

THE DASAVATARA TEMPLE AT DEOGADH. 147

Surrounding the main temple there were a
number of smaller shrines, the plinth levels of
which are much lower than that of the
Dasavatara temple. But they appear to be of
a later date from some carving on some of
them. One of them bears on it a row of square
rosettes, placed alternately between inverted
stepped pyramids, a design too common in the
mediaeval Jain temples on the top of the hill at
Deogadh. The excavation of the area surround-
ing the Dasavatara temple has revealed many
interesting facts unknown to Cunningham and
earlier writers. The first is that of large pillars
with the regular Gupta decorative motif 8 of half
and three-quarters medallions on the shaft and
foliated vases at the top or the bottom.
Several such have been discovered, it appears at
different times, but the one which lies by the
side of the new sculpture-shed nearest to the
Dasavatara temple bears on it a longish inscrip-
tion in two lines in characters of the late sixth
century. Evidently such pillars were used in
the four porches and the temple cannot be
much earlier than 575 A.D. Another interest-
ing feature discovered during the recent excava-
tions is the presence of a number of vignettes
in the medallions of Caitya-windowa. One of
them is very clearly a vignette within another,
while the second shows a door- way or niche within
a vignette. The number of Caitya-windows dis.
covered prove the truth of the author's previous

148 AROHITBCTURE.

theories about the employment of these members
in the flat-roofed temples of Bhumra and Nachna
Kuthara. In addition to the figures inside the
medallions discovered at these two places, the new
Deogadh-finds include the well-known Sarnath
motif, of twin columns with cruciform capitals
inside the medallions of Caitya-windows. 1

The importance of the Deogadh temple lies
in its fiikhara. The feilcham of the Dasavatara
temple is low with gradual curves in it as in the
case of the temples of Parasuramesvara and
Muktesvara at Bhuvanesvara, the twin temples
at Gandharadi in the Baudh State and a num-
ber of Early Calukyan temples at Aihole and
Pattadkal in the Bijapur district of the Bombay
Presidency. Only the lower portion of the ftikkara
of the Dasavatara temple remains, but the entire
contour can be judged and determined from it.
Surrounding the base of this low pyramidal fcikkara
was the flat roof of the path of circumambulation,
the edge of which was decorated with large and
small Caitya- windows with medallions as are to
be found on the edge of the free-standing rathas
'at Mamallapuram in the Chingleput district. Two
large pillars stood in the centre of each facade,
supporting the porch and on its sides rose a
short wall, on which were placed dwarf pillars
and pilasters supporting the flat roof. Against
each of these two walls on the sides of each

1 D. R. Sahni, Catalogue of the Museum of Archaeology at
Sarnath, pp. 254-58.

THE DOOR-FRAME OF THE DEOGADH TEMPLE. 149

porch rose in relief a slender but fairly tall niche
containing some divine figure. Above the line of
the topmost plinth-moulding were used large
thick slabs of stone bearing stumpy pilasters
alternated with figures of ganas. The smaller
temples in the four corners most probably con-
tained the bassi relievi discovered in previous
years. 1

In the remaining portions of the Sikhara, the
decorative motif predominating, is the Caitya-
window. They were, however, much more distinct
in Cunningham's time than at the present day.
This is the beginning of the long history of this
motif which became unrecognisable in its later
stylized form.

In its front facade the entrance to the sanctum is
fitted with a door-frame of the same style as those
at Bhumra and Nachna Kuthara. We find the
same divine figures, larger in number, at the bot-
toms of the door-jambs, which consist of more than
one upright ; the continuation of some of the ara-
besques and superimposed panels on the lintel, the
false extension of the sides of the lintel to give an
idea of massivity and finally the addition of a large
boss in the centre of the lower part of the lintel
bearing a fine bas-relief. In the Siva temple
at Bhumra this boss bears in relief a fine bust
of 6iva, the place of which is taken in the
Dasavatara temple by a small figure of Narayana

1 Coomaraswamy, History of Art in India and Indonesia, pi. XLIV,
fig. 167.

160 ARCHITECTURE.

seated on the coils of Ananta or Sesa. The
representation of Visnu of this particular style
are extremely rare and no other specimen is known
to us in Northern India. The only other specimen
known to the writer is to be found in the great
Vai?nava cave-temple (No. IV) at Badami in the
Bijapur district of the Bombay Presidency. 1 *

The Dasavatara temple presents another new
feature in its arrangement and decorative details
of the three great niches containing the great
bas-reliefs. Here we see for the first time the
familiar Gupta motifs in actual use. Each niche
is contained in a sunken panel formed by two
uprights and a horizontal beam but most of the
decorations, in all cases, go above this beam. In
the case of the upright, the decorations running
parallel to them, are continued in the interior
but not outside. These uprights are pilasters of
the familiar Gupta type ; square at the bottom,
plain in the lower half, bearing a narrow band
of arabesque on an elevation at the bottom and
the centre. In the upper half ornaments are more
profuse and beginning with the three-quarters
medallion containing a bas-relief it ends with a
dwarf-foliated vase bearing a square abacus.
Above this is a cruciform capital, partly Indo-
Persepolitan in style, as below each arm one can
see lions couchant in the approved and well-known
method. The medallions of the pilasters contain

1 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 25, pL
XVII a.

THE FRAMES OF THE DEOGADH PANELS. 161

in the case of the niche containing the great
&ea-sayin, a four armed Ganesa seated on the
left and a two-armed figure on the right. Inside
the area enclosed by these two pilasters there
are two more uprights, a pair against each
pilaster, both of which bear arabesque in the
interspaces of meandering creepers, which is
continued in the two lower bars of the lintel.
A third bar is interposed below the real lintel,
supported on cruciform capitals, and in this case
also, the ornament is slightly variegated arabesque.
On the great lintel itself, we see one of those extre-
mely nimble artistic ideas executed in stone, consist-
ing of a creeper with foliage, entirely unnatural, but
which, somehow or other, looks very natural, with
playful Amorini in the centre. Above the real
lintel rises another tier with alternated sunken
panels. It looks, from a distance, as if short uprights
have been placed on the horizontal beam to support
the sloping roof of a temple. The sunken panels
bear niches or doorways carved in very shallow
relief and the surface ones real lion's heads or
KlrttimuJchas. The sloping roof above is of the
same shape as the Mandapas (Jagamohanas) of
early mediaeval Orissan temples like the Parasu-
ramesvara * at Bhuvanesvara or the twin temples
at Gandharadi 2 in the Baudh State. A row of
small dentils appear below the roof but over it

1 Monmohan Ganguly, Orissa and her remains ancient and
mediaeval, pi. XII.

2 Journal of the Bihar & Orissa Research Society, Vol. XV, pp. 73-80
pi. I-II.

152 ARCHITECTURE.

is continued one of the principal architraves of
the temple. It is brought over the roof of each
of the niches by two advancing recessed corners.
The ornamentations consist of a row of sunken
panels, oblong in shape, containing niches in mini-
ature and separated from each other by a number
of flat pilasters bearing either, three long pilasters,
or a mass of arabesque resembling small Acanthus
leaves.

The ornamentation of the niches on the three
sides of the Dasavatara temple differs and it
is apparent that the temple must have been
thoroughly repaired sometime in the 7th or 8th
century A.D. It is in these later additions that a
definite connection can be traced between .the
early Gupta decorative style of niches and the
slightly later Gurj jara-Pratihara style, a very good
example of which was found by Pundit Govind
Malaviya to the proper right of the great Jaina
temple on the low hill to the west of the Dasavatara
temple. 1 The original idea underlying the addi-
tion of this new member over the flat roof of the
sanctum must have been to accentuate or empha-
size the position of the sanctum and to distinguish
it from the rest of the structure. The corners
of the ikharas of the temples at Deogadh and
Sankargadh show a slight curvature, which is to be
found in the earliest mediaeval temples of Orissa ;
in the Parasuramesvara temple at Bhuvanesvara

1 Cunningham Archceological Survey Reports, Vol. X, pi. XXIV.

AUXILIARY SHRINES OF THE GUPTA PERIOD. 153

and the twin temples at Gandharadi in the Baudh
State. In these the height of the ikhara from the
point of its junction with the side walls is exactly
one-and-a-half of the side walls. Unaccountably
the same proportion is to be observed in the brick
temples at Sirpur, in the Central Provinces which
do not belong to the 6th century as Coomaraswamy l
supposes but to the 8th century according to the
Sirpur inscription of the Somavamsl kings. 2 The
ikhara became a regular feature of Indian temples
from the beginning of the 7th century A.D., though
even so late as the 10th, an upper chamber con-
tinued to be erected in certain cases ; such as the
one on the top of the sanctum of the Buddhist
temple (No. 45) at Sanchi. 8

There are a number of temples, also belonging
to the Gupta period, which are generally taken to
represent the type of temples of this period, be-
cause they were the earliest to be discovered.
Such are the small temples of Bodh-Gaya, in the
Gaya district, Tigowa, in the Jubbulpur district, and
Sanchi, in the Bhopal State. These temples consist
of a square sanctum with a small porch or ver-
andah in front of it. The temple at Tigowa is
probably earlier in date than the Gupta period
proper, because the pillars and pilasters of the
verandah bear Indo-Persepolitan capitals. The

1 A History of Art in Indica, and Indonesia, pi. LI, Fig. 186.

2 Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XI, pp. 184-97.

8 Annual Report oj the Archaeological Survey of India, 1913-14,
Part II, pi. XXII.

154 ARCHITECTURE.

size of the small temples at Sanchi and Bodh-Gaya
prove that they were auxiliary temples and not
principal shrines. But because they were the
earliest known temples of the Gupta period, they
came to be called the representative type of
temples of the Gupta period. Recent discoveries
have proved that the Gupta temple at Bodh-Gaya,
to the right of the passage as one gets out of the
doorway of the Great Temple, is perhaps the same
as that built by the Ceylonese. The Gupta temples
at Sanchi and Bodh-Gaya are Buddhist temples
or shrines, the type of which had just lost its
originality, because at this stage both Buddhist
and Jain temples were beginning to be unified with
the Hindu or Brahmanical temple type.

The oldest known temples of Northern India,
belonging to the earlier part of the 7th century
A.D., are the second temple at Nachna Kuthara
and the temple of Mundesvarl, near Bhabua, in the
Shahabad or Arrah district of Bihar and Orissa.
At Nachna Kuthara the second temple possesses a
fine fiikhara. It lies to the south-west of the early
Gupta Temple and enshrines one of the largest
four-faced Lingas (Caturmukha-Mahadeva) ever
discovered. In front of the sanctum there was a
small porch of twelve pillars which had collapsed
when the present writer saw it in 1919. The
sanctum is a plain square cell without an Antarala,
on the top of which is a modest Sikhara. The
upper part of the Sikhara, consisting of the pinnacle,
is damaged. From a distance this temple looks

THE LATER TEMPLE AT NACHNA KTJTHARA. 155

like other temples of the mediaeval period of
Northern India (800-1200 A.D.), but a closer
scrutiny reveals certain features, which tend to
prove that this temple must be very closely allied
in date to the fifth and sixth century temples
described in the preceding pages. The most
important feature is the door-frame. The resem-
blance of the plastic work and the arrangement of
its door-frame to that at Bhumra is so complete
that it is extremely difficult to believe that they are
even slightly different in date. The arabesque of
the first band with the climbing Amarini, the fly-
ing figures of the lintel and the false recesses at
the ends of the lintel containing female figures all
point out to a contiguous building period and not
a distant one. There was no path of circum-
ambulation in this case and the exterior of the
walls of the sanctum are perfectly finished and
decorated with small niches. The stone door-
frame of the sanctum is one of the very rare
examples of 7th century art discovered up-to-date
in Northern India. The presence of the river god-
desses, Gariga and Yamuna, in the case of the
early Gupta temples at Bhumra, Besnagar, 1 Deo-
gadh 2 and the earlier temple at the same place
show that it was a constant feature in Gupta archi-
tecture proper. But these figures are absent at

1 Coomaraswamy History of Art in India and Indonesia, pi.
XLVII,fig.l77.

2 Cunningham Archaeological Survey Reports, Vol. X, pi.
XXXVI.

156 ARCHITECTURE.

the bottom of the jambs of the post-Gupta temple
at Nachna Kuthara, though they are present in
the Mundesvar! temple. The stone door-frame of
the 8th century temples at Dhamtari and Sirpur
in the Central Provinces are slightly different from
that of the post-Gupta temple of Nachna Kuth-
ara.

The temple of Mundesverl, discovered by the
late Dr. T. Bloch in 1905-6, has not drawn that
amount of attention, which it deserves. It was
actually in existence in the Harsa year 30 635-6
A.D. The only person who has mentioned it in the
history of architecture is Coomarswamy ; but even
he has omitted to publish its photograph at the
time of its discovery. Bloch discovered fragments
of a votive inscription one section of which was
discovered by the late Mr. P. C. Mukharji as early
as 1891. This inscription was inscribed on a
separate pillar and records a donation by a
noble named Bhagudalana in the reign of a minor
prince named Udayasena, who held the titles of
Mahasamanta, Mahapratlhara, and Maharaja and
who was evidently a subordinate chief under
Harsa. This inscription mentions the erection
of a temple (Matha) close to the temple of Vinl-
tesvara and certain donations to a temple of
Vinu called Mandalesvara. The present name
Mundesvarl is evidently a corruption of the ancient
Mandalesvara. 1 This temple underwent consider-

Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IX, pp. 282-3.

THE TEMPLE OF MUNDEVABJ. 157

able changes during the Pala period (800-1200
A.D.) when many additions and alterations were
carried out. Though the Silchara has disappeared
and in the place of the large smooth ashlar work
the Public Works Department of the British
Government has crowned it with a low para-
pet of undressed or roughly dressed masonry,
sufficient indications remain to prove that this
building is a Post-Gupta structure. The most
noticeable feature in the Mundesvarl temple
is its plan ; it is neither square nor circular,
but hexagonal. Temples with such plans are
extremely rare in India. The decorations con-
sists of a broad round moulding at the base of
the plinth of the same type as that at Bhumra
and the stone-work of the earliest main shrine
at Sarnath, near Benares. The plinth is further
decorated with Kirttimuklias, with garlands hang-
ing as loops from their mouths, and tassels at the
junctions of the loops. The carvings of the great
stone door-frame consists of bands of arabesque
work, superimposed panels containing single or
double human figures, and other well recognised
Gupta decorative motifs. The carvings of the
pillars and pilasters of the windows, bearing neat
<7/^a%a-windows on them, all proclaim the
Mundesvarl temple to be a direct descendant of
Gupta temples proper, yet not very far removed
from the age of the. Early Guptas. As at Nachna
Kuthara and Bhumra, as well as Aihole and
Pattadkal, pierced stone-frames admit light into

158 ARCHITECTURE.

the interior and even the bottoms of the jambs of
such window-frames bear the figures of the river
goddesses, Ganga and Yamuna. Fragments of
bas-reliefs discovered by Mr. J. C. French, I.C.S.,
exhibit the general decadence of Post-Gupta plas-
tic art.

Gupta architects evolved a temple-type in
which there was provision for a covered path of
circumambulation surrounding the sanctum, which
was closed on three sides and which provided one
entrance only and an open porch in front. The
subsequent modifications of this temple type are
beyond the limit of our discussion but in the Post-
Gupta period we find the addition of a modest
ikhara without any other important changes.
Excavations at Mundesvari and ankargadh may
yet reveal traces of a covered path of circumam-
bulation.

CHAPTER V.

PLASTIC ART.

The general impression that the Gupta age is
the Golden age of Indian culture is almost en-
tirely dependent on the evidence of its plastic art.
The plastic art of the Gupta period proper has
been studied to some extent in one part and very
much neglected in others. The prevalent idea of
the denotation and connotation of the term is also
vague and art-critics generally try to convey the
idea of excellence by the use of the term " Gupta ".
Thus, the term " Gupta Art " has been applied to
the early Calukyan art of South-western India 1 ,
though the Guptas had no connection either his-
torically or culturally with the country over which
the early Calukyas ruled. The scanty resemblance
in artistic ideals is solely due to the imitation of
the North, which is noticeable in the 6th and the
7th centuries in all parts of the South, both in
architecture and in art.

Gupta art is really a renaissance due to the
transformation in the ideals of the people of Nor-
thern India in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D.
This transformation was based, on an assimilation
of what was old, an elimination of what was exotic
and foreign and finally a synthetic production of

1 Coomaraswamy. A History of Indian and Indonesian Art pp.

160 PLASTIC ART.

something entirely new, which was essentially
Indian. In order to determine the exact nature
of this transformation it will be necessary in the
first place to consider the antecedents of Gupta
art and in the second place to analyse it into its
different constituent elements; i.e., to consider
what Gupta art actually produced within the
limits of the realms of the early Gupta empire.
In other words, for a synthetic study of this great
renaissance, it will be necessary to divide it accord-
ing to its centres of activity or production. The
greatest centres of artistic activity in the Gupta
empire were the ancient Scythian capital of
Mathura,the great Buddhist stronghold of Benares,
and finally the ancient metropolis of India, the
venerable city of Pataliputra. There were minor
centres of activity, such as Eran or Airakina,
Dasapura, or Mandasor, etc. While the develop-
ment of plastic art in the Buddhist city of Benares
has been closely watched by the excavators during
the last quarter of this century, the interest evinced
by scholars in the history of the development of
the history of the Mathura school of art of this
period has been more or less of a dillettante nature.
That a school of art existed during the period of rule
of the early Guptas in Northern India is not yet
fully believed either by the scholar or by the artist.
The stray sculptures of Udaigiri or Bhilsa, or
Mandasor may have excited passing interest but
the entire production of different centres has
never been analysed on the same basis and., so

MATHURA SCHOOL OF THE GUPTA PERIOD. 161

far as I am aware, no attempt has been made for
a general synthesis. To trace the graphical out-
line of the artistic development of the provinces
of Northern India, it will be necessary to fall
back on dated sculptures. There are a few pro-
duced by the Mathura school, while the dates of
the majority produced by the Benares school can
be accurately deduced from the characters of their
votive inscriptions and it is only in the metro-
politan school that we are, even now, at a loss
both for an adequate number of specimens and
some data for deducing their dates.

In the Mathura school, the traditions of the
Kusana school continued up to the middle of the
5th century A.D. Up to 448-9 the great quarries
of mottled red sandstone at Karri produced materi-
al which was fashioned by artists of the Mathura
school and carried away to distant places. The
image of Buddha, discovered at Mankuwar, in the
Karchana Tdhsil of the Allahabad district, dedi-
cated in G.E. 129, during the reign of the emperor
Kumaragupta I, is one of the latest examples of the
migration of products of the Mathura school. Be-
cause the inscription states that the image is one of
Buddha, therefore, it is possible for us to recognise
it as a Buddhist image. The head is shaven and
the posture is abhaya, very often adopted by Jinas
also. The presence of the lions and the wheel on
the pedestal do not help us. In its proportions,
the treatment of the torso and the expression on
the face of the main figure, this image, of 448-9
11

162 PLASTIC ART.

A.D., does not differ in the least from early
Kusana Buddhist images of the 1st and the 2nd
century A.D. The Mankuwar image, therefore,
serves as a typical example of a great conser-
vative force in the Mathura School of sculpture
even in the middle of the 5th century A.D.
Codrington is distinctly wrong in stating that
" this figure, the standing Buddha in the Mathura
Museum, and the Sarnath Buddha, are the most
perfect examples of Gupta sculpture. This (the
Mankuwar image) is probably the earliest of the
three, the Sarnath Buddha being the latest l ".
Among dated specimens of the Mathura school,
belonging to the Gupta period, there is another
which is sixteen years earlier in date than the
Mankuwar image. This is the Mathura Jaina
image of G.E. 113 dedicated during the reign
of Kumaragupta I. 2 The generic resemblance
between these two specimens is so very strik-
ing that it is difficult to determine for what
reasons Codrington classifies the Mankuwar image
with regular Gupta figures from Mathura and
Sarnath. With the exception of a very slight
Usnlsa there is no indication in the Mankuwar
image about its late date. The existence of a
Jaina image from Mathura of A.D. 432 was per-
haps unknown to Messrs. Rothenstein and Cod-
rington. This Jaina image is headless. The

1 Codrington and Rothenstein Ancient India, p. 60.
Epigraphia Indica, Vol. II, p. 210, No. XXXIX.

THE PERSISTENCE OF KUSANA INFLUENCE. 163

modelling of the torso is typically early Ku^ana
in both images. The legs are shapeless and out
of proportion in the Jaina image but the method
in modelling is the same in this figure and the
Mankuwar figure, which is absolutely different in
the Sarnath seated Buddha (B (6) 181 of the Sar-
nath Museum.) The lions of the throne, the wheel,
and its base and even the modelling of the Buddhas
on the Mankuwar image and the kneeling wor-
shippers on the Jaina specimen are typically
Kusana and do not show the regularity of pro-
portion and equipoise of the regular Gupta type
of images of the Benares school. These two
images prove that there is marked differentia
between the products of the Mathura school and
those of the Benares and Pataliputra School
of the Gupta period ; the marked features of the
Kusana School lingered on right up to the middle
of the 5th century A.D., when they were modified
by certain influences which were simultaneously
at work all over the country.

Codrington states " The Gupta century pro-
vides a definite series of motives, which increases
in number and imaginative complexity as the
period of the great cave-temples draws near. It
was at Ajanta, Aurangabad, and Elura that the
mediaeval period began. It stands for a definite
culture, but one differing considerably from the
Gupta. The one is classical, the other, romantic.
Sir John Marshall is rightly stirred by the simpli-
city of the Gupta shrines. The * refinement' and

164 PLASTIC ART.

' clear definition', not only of these little buildings,
but of the sculpture that adorns them, is striking
and unique " l . The time has now come for a
broader and more definite delineation of the most
marked features of Gupta art and it cannot be
better illustrated than in the process of the meta-
morphosition of the Mathura school of sculpture.
The new ideal as expressed by the images of the
beginning of the 5th century shows a close approxi-
mation to the style of Benares in its most noticeable
features, viz :

(1) The marked Mongoloid features of the

upper part of the face, especially the
long tangential eye-brows,

(2) The conventional arrangement of the

draperies especially the disappearance
of the lines indicating folds of garments
and

(3) The enlargement of the halo to form a

miniature back-slab and the introduc-
tion of the Gupta style in arabesques
along its margin.

The introduction of this style in Benares itself is
difficult to trace. Pandit (now Rai Bahadur) D. R.
Sahni, the compiler of the catalogue of the Sarnath
Museum of Archaeology, has not attempted it. A
special study of the contents of the Sarnath
Museum does not help in the least as all inscribed
specimens show this particular feature, the first

1 Ancient India, p. 62.

DECLINE OF THE MATHURA SCHOOL. 165

one mentioned above. In the Mathura school the
change is noticed in the first place by the final
adoption of the curling hair and the usnlsa along
with that of ornamental foliage and arabesques
for the ornamentation of the halo. The most
noticeable example is M.5 in the Indian Museum,
Calcutta, in which the Mongoloid type of the eyes
is to be noticed, perhaps, for the first time. 1 In
the Mathura school, the conventional lines indicat-
ing the folds of the drapery continued to be used
for sometime and Buddha images of the Gupta
period minus the lines of the drapery are rare.
The best examples are A. 5 in the Mathura
Museum. 2 During the rule of the early Guptas
over Northern India the output of the Mathura
school of sculpture diminished steadily. Very few
Jaina images were dedicated and most of the
products, especially images, are either Hindu or
Buddhistic. It cannot be said that Buddhism was
yet on the decline, we have the testimony of Fa-
Hsien on that point. It was flourishing exceeding-
ly at Benares, though languishing at the Buddhist
Holy of Holies, Mahabodhi, as proved both by
the statement of Fa-Hsien and the paucity of
images at that place. The reason of the general
decline of the Mathura school of sculpture must
be, therefore, a decline in the material prosperity
of the people of that city. Jainism, too, must

1 Anderson Catalogue and Handbook on the Archaeological collec-
tion in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, part I t p. 181.

2 Vogel Catalogue of the Mathura Museum o] Archaeology, pp.
49-50, pi. IX,

166 PLASTIC ART.

have declined, on the evidence of images, but it
revived after Mahmud's sack of that city in 1018
A.D. The extent of the influence exerted by the
Benares school over the older school of Mathura
can be better gauged by a comparison of two
Buddha images of these two schools now in the
Indian Museum, Calcutta, S.14 l and M.5. In
these two the Mongoloid appearance of the upper
part of the face and the tangential eyebrows are
almost identical, the robes differ in the conven-
tional lines indicating the drapery and there is
more ornament on the halo of M.5 than in the
case of S.14. This comparison will be sufficient
to prove that the Mathura school, at a later date
in the Gupta period succumbed to the influences
of the Benares School.

That there was a very ancient school of sculp-
ture at Benares, at least, from the Post-Maurya
period onwards, has been sufficiently demonstrated
by the discoveries of Marshall and his assistants.
In its heyday of glory the great Mathura school
of the Ku$ana period succeeded in imposing its
sway at Benares and images were brought from
Mathura for dedication at Benares and were also
made locally in the Benares style. A certain
number of images in the Sarnath Museum, in the
Ku?ana-Mathura style show the use of red paint,
which the sun-light and rain of eighteen centuries
have partly effaced. Mr. Sahni has not expressed

1 Anderson Catalogue and Handbook, etc., part II, pp. 11-12.

THE BENARES SCHOOL OF THE GUPTA PERIOD. 167

any definite opinion on the origin of these painted
images, but while the technique is Kusana-Mathura,
the material is distinctly Chunar instead of Karri
sandstone. In the third and fourth centuries
A.D., there is a decline in the output, however
meagre, and images of the post-Kusana period are
surprisingly few. Suddenly in the 5th century
there is a great increase in plastic activity at
Benares and a total change in the ideals of the
artists. The new type of images betray very little
connection with the old Kusana type, but for-
tunately the number of inscribed specimens is so
very great that it is possible to work out the dates
of the gradual evolution both of images as well as
of bas-reliefs. The earliest images discovered at
Sarnath, which belong definitely to the Gupta
period, are those which show the use of that
particular form of Ma in which the base line is
quite separate, being in fact a horizontal projection
from the lower end of the right vertical. The
earliest examples of this type of inscriptions were
discovered by the excavators of Sarnath in the
earlier part of the 19th century, the best examples
of which is stele S.3. 1 This type of Ma is used
throughout in the Karamdanda inscription of
G. E. 117 of the reign of Kumaragupta I, but is
not to be found in the Allahabad pillar inscription
of Samudragupta or the two Mathura inscriptions
of Chandragupta II. In certain cases only, there

1 Ibid., p. 7.

168 PLASTIC ABT.

is a modification of the features but these are
exceptions to the general rule. The best examples
are S.34 1 of the Indian Museum, Calcutta and
the great Dharma-cakra-Buddha-bhattaraka dis-
covered by Mr. F. 0. Oertel in 1904-5. 2

We have now to discuss the effects of the new
Buddha-type in the eastern provinces of Northern
India. The influence of the Benares school was
more widely felt towards the east than to the
west. The only reason for this appears to be the
activity of the artists in the metropolitan district
of the Gupta empire. Quarter of a century ago
Gupta sculptures were exceedingly rare in Bihar
and Bengal ; but the recent excavations of Nalanda
have thrown such a brilliant flood of light on the
plastic art of the eastern countries of Northern
India that it is no longer possible to deny the
existence of such a school in and around Patali-
putra. The differentiative features of this eastern
school we shall discuss later on. In connection
with the Benares school we shall have to discuss
its influence on that of Pataliputra. Images dis-
covered at Nalanda, both in stone and in metal,
definitely prove that the first distinctive feature
of the Benares school had permeated as far as
Nalanda. This is noticeable both in early Gupta
and later Gupta sculptures. The great metal
image of Buddha discovered at Nalanda 3 shows the

1 Ibid., p. 19.

2 Catalogue of the Sarnath Museum of Archeology, pp. 70-71 , No*
B(b) 181.

3 A History of Fine Art in India and Indonesia, pi. XLII.fig. 161

PATALTPUTRA SCHOOL OF THE GUPTA PERIOD. 169

tangential eyebrows, the schematic arrangement
of the curls of hair and the typical usnlsa of the
Benares school. It differs from the regular Bena-
res type of Buddha in its stylistic arrangement of
both the upper and the lower garments and in the
presence of the conventional lines indicating the
folds of the drapery. Exactly similar characteris-
tics are to be observed in the large copper image
of Buddha discovered at Sultanganj, in the Bhagal-
pur district, and now preserved in the Birmingham
Museum. 1 In Buddha images these two charac-
teristics differentiate the Pataliputra school from
that of Benares, which were handed down by post-
Gupta artists to the great Eastern Indian School of
mediaeval sculpture (800-1200 A.D.). The curly
fringe of the upper and lower garments along with
the conventional lines indicating the folds of the
drapery show the indebtedness of the Pataliputra
school to the Indo-Greek school of Gandhara.
For some time, the Mathura school of the early
Gupta period retained the lines of the drapery but
the curly fringe disappeared early in the Kusana
period. The influence of the Benares school was
exerted more strongly outside the metropolitan
province of the Gupta empire. An image of Buddha
discovered at Biharoil, in the Rajshahi district of
Bengal, is distinctly of the Benares type, so much so
that it deluded Rai Bahadur Pandit Dayaram Sahni,
M.A., into believing that it was actually made

1 Ibid., pi XLI,fig.l60.

170 PLASTIC ART.

at Benares and transported to Northern Bengal
for dedication. The technique is distinctly that of
the Benares school in its entirety, but the material
is not Chunar sandstone, thereby proving that mere
identity of features and technique do not indicate
locality so far as the Benares school is concerned.
The Biharoil image shows the curly fringe of the
drapery gathered together in the proper left hand.
Moreover, the tangential eye-brows are less pro-
nounced. The eastward extension of the in-
fluence of the Benares school was further demons-
trated by the discoveries at Dah Parbatiya, near
Tezpur in Assam, of a stone door, frame of the
Gupta period in which the moulding of the forms
of the river goddesses, Ganges and Yamuna, at the
bottom of the jambs is distinctly reminiscent of
the Benares school x and at the same time different
from the mouldings of similar forms on the jamb
from Besnagar now in the Boston Museum of Fine
Art. 2

In figure-work the influence of the Benares
school is less distinct in Central India. It is pre-
sent to some extent only in the Eka-mukha-lingas
discovered by the writer at Khoh and Bhumra, in
the Nagod State of Central India. In the case of
the face on the linga at Khoh, the eye-browa

1 Ibid., 1924-25, pp. 98-9. pi. XXXII a-c.

2 Coomaraswamy A History of Fine Art in India and Indonesia
pi. XLVII, fig. 177.

HINDTJ SUBJECTS IN BAS-RELIEFS. 171

are only slightly elevated. 1 But in that at
Bhumra the tangential stroke is more pronounc-
ed. 2 They are altogether wanting in the rather
primitive figure of Visnu in cave No. II at Uday-
giri, near Bhilsa in the dominions of the Maharaja
Scindia.

Further on it is impossible to trace the influence
of the new type of the human figure as evolved by
the artists of the Benares school of sculpture of the
early Gupta period. In one respect, the three great
schools of Gupta sculpture agree, which is their
method of treatment of bas-reliefs. Another
important feature of all Gupta schools is the
introduction of subjects from the orthodox Brah-
manical or Hindu religion into bas-reliefs and on
this subject all the three great northern schools as
well as their offshoots agree. Bas-reliefs, primarily
employed for the depiction of the Buddha-Car ita
or the Jatakas began to be employed for the
depiction of scenes of Hindu mythology the best
known examples of which are the great lintels
from Gadhwa in the Allahabad district, now in the
Lucknow museum, and the three great panels on
the Dasavatara temple at Deogadh, in the Jhansi
district. It is in the separate treatment of these
bas-reliefs discovered at Rajaona, in the Hunger g

1 Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western
Circle, for the year ending 31st March 1920, pi. XXIX.

2 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India No. 16 ; The
temple of Siva at Bhumara, pi. XV (c).

3 These pillars with the bas-reliefs were wrongly described by me

172 PLASTIC ART.

district and those at Nalanda that the distinct
features of the Pataliputra school came to be re-
cognised.

The Pataliputra school of sculpture still remains
to be studied as a distinct and separate movement
in the plastic activity of the Gupta period. The
remains, except at Nalanda, are few and yet
inconsiderable so far as images are concerned.
But we are more fortunate in the case of bas-
reliefs. Certain images from Nalanda have been
referred to the Gupta period by the successive
excavators of that site but, it appears to me,
without sufficient reason. In the Eastern pro-
vinces it is rather difficult to distinguish between
early Gupta and Post-Gupta sculptures. Conse-
quently unless we proceed on the basis of inscribed
specimens it will be difficult to arrive at any
satisfactory conclusion. Inscribed images of the
Early Gupta period are still very few in North-
eastern India and those that have been discovered
at Nalanda or Mahabodhi show certain character-
istics which are different from those of the Benares
school. All such images are Buddhist and the
difference lies in the modelling. The Benares
school shows the return of the human figure to the
normal in all images except those of the Buddha in
which abnormalities remain in the shape of unna-

as coming from Chandimau in the Patna District in Ann. Rep. Arch.
Survey of India, 1911-12. They were originally discovered at Rajaona
in the Munger District Vide Cunningham. Arch Survey Reports,
Vol, III, pp. 154-5.

THE HITMAN FIGURE IN GUPTA ART. 173

turally long ears, the tangential eye-brows, etc.,
but we do not find any of these signs in Bodhisatva
figures. The order of the Bodhisatvas, according
to celestial adherence or Dhyani Buddhas, is intro-
duced for the first time with prominence in the
Benares school. This is to be seen in images of
Lokesvara which bear a comparatively large figure
of Amitabha on the head. It took sometime to
reconcile the artist to the idea of celestial adhe-
rence in Benares and to make the Dhyani Buddha
a miniature figure, more decorative than expres-
sive, on the crown or the head-dress of the Bodhi-
satva. In the Pataliputra school we find that,
even in the middle of the 5th century A.D., the
idea of celestial adherence had been quietly assi-
milated by the artists of the metropolitan school
and unnaturally large figures are altogether absent.
In the treatment of the human figure, Gupta
artists all over India, are characterised by their
uncommon devotion to real naturalism and sym-
metry and total rejection of all mannerisms intro-
duced into the Mathura school of the Kusana period.
Such mannerisms are noticeable in very early and
late Mathura-Kusana products and a certain class
of them are totally devoid of all sorts of artistic
convention. Such are the splendid torsos and
heads recovered by Fuhrer from different mounds
of Mathura towards the close of the last century. 1

1 Now in the Lucknow Museum.

174 PLASTIC ART.

It is in this characteristic that the strongest
appeal of Gupta art really lies. Codrington
says, " Gupta art has been praised for its in-
tellectuality. It would be better to treat it as
the natural outcome of ancient Indian art, with
its vivid appreciation of form and pattern, and its
love of the quick beat and rhythm of living things
and of their poise and balance in repose." 1 The
poise and balance or in other words, real naturalism,
and symmetry were . introduced into Gupta art
after some effort. The sculptures in the Udaigiri
caves, near Bhilsa in the Gwalior State, for
example, do not all belong to one and the same
date, and consequently, they betray different stages
in the progress of local art. The images in
the verandah of the Sanakanika cave at Udaigiri
all betray a certain amount of stilted and stiff
expression which we do not find in the next reign,
i.e., that of Kumaragupta I. The development
of the door-frame is also incomplete and the
carved door-frame in this cave 2 compares very
unfavourably with those of the temples at
Bhumra 3 and Nachna Kuthara 4 , and Deogadh.
The same characteristics are to be observed in the
6ea-sayin in another cave as well as the smaller
sculptures in Vlrasena's Cave or Cave No. 6 at

l Rothenstein Ancient India, p. 62. * Ibid., pi. 29A.

3 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India ; the temple o] &iva at
Bhumra, pi. III.

4 Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western
Circle, for the year ending 31st March 1919, pi. XVI.

EARLY AND LATE GUPTA ART. 175

the same place. Even the elaborate door-frame
or Candragupta's cave at the same place is not
of this type. 1 A change is to be noticed in the
Varaha or the great Boar incarnation which is
very close to Virasena's cave, in which the elastic-
ity of all the figures, including the quardruple
frieze of gods on the adjoining wall shows that the
new impulse was already working. Virasena's cave
and the Sanakanlka cave belong very definitely to
the reign of Candragupta II and from these three
specimens of plastic art it appears certain that
the zenith of excellence was reached by Gupta
artist during the reign of Kumaragupta I. The
same conclusion is also apparent from the
execution of dies. The finest coin issued by a
Gupta mint-master is undoubtedly the Peacock
type of Kumaragupta I. Another point noticeable
in the Varaha cave is the grace and elasticity of the
figure of Prthvi, a slight figure, poised lightly on the
left shoulder of the Boar, and grasping the dreadful
snout caressingly. The same amount of poise and
elasticity is also to be observed in the figure of the
Naga and the headless figure behind it. 2

To another portion of Central India belongs the
credit of possessing the best examples of facial
expression in Gupta art. I do not think that the
face on the Eka-mukha-linga at Khoh has been
surpassed in this direction. That on the specimen

i Ancient India, pL 33 B. & C.

* William CohnIndiscfa plastik, Tafels 22-23.

176 PLASTIC ART.

found inside the temple at Bhumra also belongs
to the foremost rank, but the figure of the kneeling
dwarf discovered by the writer at Khoh certainly
stands second only to the linga at Khoh 1 . The face
of the Ganesa discovered inside one of the smaller
temples in front of the bigger temple of Siva at
Bhumra is also natural but inexpressive. 2 Much
more expressive is the bust of Siva 8 on the boss of
the lintel at Bhumra compared to which the face
of Narayana on the boss of the lintel of the Dasa-
vatara temple at Deodgadh is mute.

We must now pass on to the next great division
of Gupta plastic art, bas-reliefs. Going back to the
Benares school we find a new class of Buddhist
stelae, in which the decorative influence of Gand-
haran art is clearly manifest. Such stelae are met
with for the first time in India proper and are
used solely to depict the principal scenes of
Buddha's life. They fall into two classes : (a)
stelae with eight principal or more scenes from
the Buddha's life and (6) those portraying a single
incident of the Buddha's life, e.g., the great miracle
of SravastT. In the first class, the arrangement of
single or double superimposed panels clearly indi-
cate that the scheme was borrowed from the
style of side-decoration of niches in Gandharan
Stupas, in which there were single or double

* Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western
Circle, for the year ending 31st March, 1920, pi. XXX.

2 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey, No. 16, pi. XV (a).

3 Ibid., pi. Ill (6).

STELAE OF THE BENARES SCHOOL. 177

oblong superimposed panels on the sides and
curved panels, enclosed within one or more arches,
at the top. This scheme does not generally appear
in the Mathura school though superimposed
panels containing bas-reliefs are to be found on
the backs of pillars. 1 Scenes from Buddha's life
in the Mathura school have been found for the
greater part on architraves, either in single or
double rows, separately. S uch stelae of the Benares
school are, therefore, an innovation peculiar to that
locality, many examples of which were discovered
in the previous century. Examples of such
stelae are to be found in the museums at Calcutta
and Sarnath only. Stelae with the principal
incidents of Buddha's life can, again, be divided
into two classes : (i) More elaborate and (ii) less
elaborate. In the first class are to be placed such
stelae which contain more than four scenes of the
Master's life and usually eight. Such are S.I of
the Indian Museum, Calcutta and C (a) 3 of the
Sarnath Museum. These stelae are usually divid-
ed into several horizontal rows, each containing at
least two panels with bas-reliefs. In the second
class are to be placed such bas-reliefs in which
there is only one series of four superimposed
panels usually containing the four principal inci-
dents of Buddha's life ; such as S.3 of the Calcutta
Museum and C (a) 1 of the Sarnath Museum. 2

1 Anderson Catalogue and Handbook, part I. t pp. 186-90.

2 Vogel and Sahni Catalogue of the Museum of Archaeology at
Sarnath, pi XIX.

12

178 PLASTIC ART.

The Calcutta Museum possesses a peculiar stele
which bears three superimposed bas-reliefs. This
stele must have stood separate yet it does not
begin with the birth or Maya's dream about her
conception and does not end with the Mahaparinir-
vana. This peculiar stelae contains the scene
of Perfect Enlightenment at the bottom combined
with the allurement of Mara's daughters and the
attack of Mara's army, the first sermon in the
centre, and the Devavatara near the top. It is
difficult to judge whether there were bas-reliefs
over the top (S. 4). 1 Stele bearing single incidents
of Buddha's life become more important in the
Benares school and the most prominent incident
chosen was the great miracle of Sravastl, S. 5 in
the Indian Museum, Calcutta and C (a) 6 of the
Sarnath Museum. 2 Other incidents are also, com-
mon but rarely represented; such as Buddha at
the time of the Perfect Enlightenment dedicated
by the Buddhist elder (Stkawra) Bandhugupta.*
These stelae were the peculiar creations of the
artists of the Benares school and they do not seem
to have found favour anywhere outside the limits
of Buddhist Benares. Very few specimens of
this particular type of stelae have been discovered
elsewhere. Subsequent schools adopted and
elaborated the ideas of the Benares school and
some adopted the system of separate images, but

1 Anderson Catalogue and Handbook, part II, p. 7.

2 Catalogue of the Museum oj the Archaeology at Sarnath, pi. XXI.
* Ibid., pi IX.

BAS-RELIEFS OF THE BENARES SCHOOL. 179

none used the superimposed stele of the Benares
type.

In other respects the Gupta school at Benares
is rather poor in bas-reliefs. The only superior
example is the great lintel with the Kshantivadin
Jataka, in which there are altogether six panels. 1
Even in this specimen, the Benares school suffers in
our estimation compared with the Pataliputra
school. There is a certain lack of dignity in the
figures of this bas-relief which is divided into six
parts by being enclosed by six conventional Caitya-
windows. The first and the last panels contain
figures of Jambhala, of which one is a very crude
bit of carving. 2 The second panel from the proper
left shows a better idea of proportion in the case
of the Bodhisatva but a neglect of it in the case
of the dancing girls. 3 The third panel, that of
the dance is on the whole better balanced and
would compare favourable with other bas-reliefs. 4
But the artist lost his head when he came to
panel 5 and there is a total want of poise and
balance in the figure of the king which is not the
case anywhere else in the Gupta bas-reliefs. The
figure of the king or the executioner appears to be
toppling over the head of the ascetic Bodhisatva. 6
If we compare this bas-relief with those on the
pillars from Rajaona, we find that the Benares
school is far behind the general standard of excel-

1 Ibid., pp. 233-4, pi. XXIII. * Ibid., pi. XXIV.

3 Ibid., pi XXV. * Ibid., pis. XXVI-XXVII.

5 Ibid., pi XXVIII.

180 PLASTIC ART.

lence than the Pataliputra school of the same
period. The penance of Arjuna surrounded by
four pits of fire and the separation of this scene
from his departure to Indra's heaven with Matuli
is far superior in vivacity, arrangement, and to
some extent even in perspective to all bas-reliefs
of the Benares school. In the second panel from
Rajaona, which is better preserved, the different
events narrated in proper sequence of the fight
between Siva and Arjuna and Siva's blessing are
not separated by any ornaments but show superior
poise and virility. Even the giant horned-Klrtti-
mukhas are far superior to any discovered in
Benares or anywhere else.

It is in the treatment of the bas-reliefs that we
notice for the first time another difference between
the Gupta schools of the East and the Centre ; the
treatment of the female bust. Female figures of
the Mathura school, which can be definitely as-
signed to the Gupta period are very rare, but such
figures are more abundant in Central India and
in the Eastern countries. A comparison instituted
between the busts of female figures discovered at
Besnagar, 1 Pathari, 2 Benares, 3 Rajgir, 4 and Tez-
pur 5 in Assam prove that the artists of North -

1 Coomaraswamy History of Fine Art in India and Indonesia, fig.
177.

2 Ibid., fig. 178.

8 Catalogue of the Sarnath Museum of Archaeology, pL XXVI-
XXVII.

* History of Fine Art in India and Indonesia, fig. 176.

5 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1924-25, pi.
XXXII a-c.

"GUPTA ART" AT AJANTA AND ELLOBA. 181

western and West-central India depicted full
over-developed busts of the aboriginal type,
while those of the East followed the more slender
development of the female torso in the North-
eastern Provinces. The difference is perhaps
much more accentuated in the bust of the Apsa-
ras 9 an accessory figure in one of the images in the
Gwalior museum. 1

A tendency is growing in recent years to call all
contiguous phases of renaissance in art in distant
provinces of India, " Gupta. " Such mistaken
terminology are being used by well-known art
critics like Coomaraswamy. Coomaraswamy says
" There exists many ' caves ' of the Gupta period.
At A j ant a caves, XVI and XVII are Viharas dating
about 500 A.D., Cave XIX a caitya-hall datable
about 550 ; all of these contain paintings, referred
to below. 2 " Similarly with regard to the Visva-
karma ca%a-hall the same author says "the
excavation is Gupta or early Calukya dating about
600. 3 " There is no contiguity either in date or in
locality between early Gupta art and those of
Ajanta, TEllora, or Badami. It is extremely doubt-
ful whether any paintings in any of the caves at
Ajanta can be referred to the fifth century A.D.,
the earlier paintings belong to the pre-Christian
centuries and those in the later caves bearing
painted labels are certainly not earlier than 600
A.D. Neither Ajanta nor Ellora nor Badami

1 History of Fine Art in India and Indonesia, fig. 173*

2 Ibid., p 76. Ibid., p. 77.

182 PLASTIC ART.

were ever included within the dominions of the
Gupta emperors and their artists did not begin
work before the final destruction of the Gupta
empire. Such authors often date specimens
without stating any reasons, reliable or unreliable,
and the absence of data never deters them from
coining incongruous terms and nomenclature*
The only authorities which Coomaraswamy can
quote about the date of the Visvakarama caitya-
hall are Fergusson and Burgess, none of whom
were ever competent to date an Indian monument
from an inscription. It is prima facie wrong to
give a proper name to a movement, when it takes
place at a different locality, and at a much later
date. Coomaraswamy and others want to express
the idea that the symmetry and poise, introduced
into northern art some time in the 5th century
A.D., appears in the art of south-western India
also a century and a half later. It was a renais-
ance in art, the impulse having been felt much
earlier in the north than in the south-west ; but
for that reason it is not necessary to design it in a
way which is distinctly misleading.

The time when the early Gupta empire was
crumbling to pieces and when the Hunas had
already advanced into the centre of India, saw
the rise of a remarkable group of monuments in
Central India, all of which denote a step in Gupta
plastic art. Eran is already known to us as the
findspot of a number of important inscriptions,
the most important of which were inscribed

ANTIQUITIES AT ERAN. 183

towards the close of the 5th, and the begin-
ning of the 6th century A.D. One of the latest
of these records are incised on a pillar which
is the dhvaja-stambha of Visnu erected by the
brothers, Matr-visnu and Dhanya-visnu, when
Surasmicandra was the Viceroy of the country
between the Yamuna and Narmada. This pillar
can be easily recognised by the presence of a figure
of Garuda on its top bearing on it the wheel of
Visnu. It lies at a distance from the temple of
the Boar and was erected in G.E., 165484-5
A.D. Close to it is the second pillar which bears
on it a record of Goparaja, the general of Bhanu-
gupta who died here in a battle with the Hunas
in 191=510-1 A.D. All over the highlands, on
which these two pillars are situated, can be seen
ruins and images. The most important of them is
the colossal figure of the Boar incarnation of Visnu
which was dedicated by Dhanya-visnu, after the
death of his brother Matr-visnu, in the first year
of the reign of Toramana, the Huna king. This
Boar is slightly different in conception from that
in the cave of Udaygiri near Bhilsa as it portrays
a quadruped mammal and not a human figure
with a Boar's head. As an object of art this
colossal figure is an abject failure. It resembles
an elephant more than a boar and anatomical
details have been grossly neglected. So much so,
that it cannot bear any comparison with the
Udaygiri boar. By the side of this boar stands a
beautiful porch of a temple on four-fluted columns,

184 PLASTIC ART.

of the Bhumra type, bearing ? cruciform capitals
with winged figures below them. This is only a
part of the early Gupta temple enshrining a
big image of Vinu, still in situ. In style, this
figure is far superior to that of the Earth goddess
depicted on the breast of the boar and it seems
that the temple of Visnu and the image of
the god are both earlier than the Boar. This
image of Vinu, the only specimen known to us
belonging to the early Gupta period, shows a
definite decline in the portrayal of the human
figure, when compared to the little image of
Ganesa and the two attendant figures discovered
at Bhumra in 1920.

Only one class of images remains to be dis-
cussed, about which very little is known ; metal-
casting. The discovery of the metal image of
Buddha at Nalanda was preceded by that of a
colossal figure of Buddha at Sultanganj in the
Bhagalpur district in the last century. With the
exception of these two figures very few metal
specimens of the early Gupta period are known to
us. Stray images in metal have been discovered
at different places and many writers commit the
mistake of herding them together. Thus, Coomara-
swamy says that among Gupta sculpture in metal
should be included the Sultanganj image and
4 'other important examples include the richly
decorated, copper and silver inlaid, brass figure
(fig. 163) from Fatehpur, Kangra ; the Boston
bronze Buddha, said to have been found in Burma

METAL SPECIMENS. 185

(fig. 159) ; and the rather clumsy statuettes from
the Banda district, Bengal; and the fragments
from Bezwada ; small gold Buddha in the British
Museum" l .

If anything produced in India which is
graceful can be called Gupta then only all these
specimens can be relegated to the Gupta period.
The Banda statuettes belong more to Central
India than to Bengal as the Banda district is in the
southern part of the United Provinces and they
belong to Chandella rather than Gupta art as
they were produced in the llth century A.D. The
Buddha figure from Kangra may be Post-Gupta
but the figure in the Boston Museum has no
connection with the Early or Post-Gupta period.
The fragments from Bezwada certainly belong to
the 10th century A.D; while the figure in the
British Museum is scarcely earlier. The Sultanganj
image provides a second specimen of the Patali-
putra school, in which, like the Gupta school at
Mathura, the lines of the drapery were not
eradicated. The face is also of a different type
and a comparison with that of the metal figure
in the Boston Museum shows clearly that the
latter is centuries late in date.

The very high reputation which Gupta Schools
of Art enjoy, at the present day, depends much
more on architectural and artistic decorative
motifs employed by them. One of the most

l History of Fine Art in India and Indonesia p. 85.

186 PLASTIC ART.

important evolutions in decorative motifs is the
stylization of the caitya-wmdow, a subject which
has not received the amount of attention which it
deserves. The high pointed opening in the upper
part of the facades of caitya-gharas or Buddhist
cathedral-halls lost their grandeur early in the
Gupta period. A comparison of the facade of
the caitya-halls at Karla and Bhaja, in the
Poona district with those at Nasik and Kanheri
will prove that the great horse-shoe-shaped
window was fast diminishing in size. 1 From the
middle second century B.C,, the shape of the
caitya-window became a favourite design for the
decoration of the solid walls of the Oaifa/a-halls
and door-lintels. 2 The increase in the side wings
of the design is apparent in the Gupta period.
In actual Caitya-halls we find it late in the 6th
century in the facade of Cave No. 19 at Ajanta. 8
As an architectural motif the increase in the size
of the side wings made it possible to use it in
diverse ways. Another innovation was the con-
version of the Caitya- window into a regular tre-
foil arch as in the facade of the later Visvakarma-
at Ellora. 4 But the evolution of the stylized
Caitya- windows from the 6th to the 12th century
A.D., is beyond the scope of this enquiry.

In the main shrine at Sarnath, numerous caitya-
windows were used in the older structure of the

1 Codrington Ancient India, pis. 4-5.

2 Ibid., pi. 6. 3 Ibid., pi. 36 A ; 37B.

4 History of Fine Art, in India and Indonesia fig. 155.

STYLIZED CM/TiM-WINDOWS. 187

Gupta period, when that monument was rebuilt with
stone. Some of these stones, specially the carved
ones, were again used in the construction of the
plinth when that temple was rebuilt in brick in
the 9th or 10th century A.D. At this time, certain
caitya- windows were used for the construction of
the lowest plinth line. The comparison of the cai-
tya-wmdows in stone, both fragmentary and entire,
in the plinth of the main shrine at Sarnath enables
us to declare that that shrine, as it was discovered
in 1904-05, cannot be a monument of the early
Gupta Age. The Museum of Archaeology at
Sarnath now becomes very useful to the student
of Gupta Art, as it contains the best collection of
caitya-windows of the Gupta period. Unfortu-
nately for us, the learned compiler of its Cata-
logue, Rai Bahadur Pandit Dayaram Sahni, M.A.,
now Deputy Director of Archaeology in India for
exploration, could not find suitable terminology
for the expression of his ideas, and therefore, it is
extremely difficult to find out which section
of the catalogue contains his description of
this famous collection of caifa/a-windows. All
of them are described under the heading "D(i).~
Pediments and face-stones." l Some of them are
undoubtedly pediments as they are stones from
plinth-mouldings and string-courses of early
Gupta buildings ; but it is very difficult to under-
stand what is meant by face-stones. As has been

1 Catalogue of the Museum of Archaeology at Sarnath, pp. 254-64.

188 PLASTIC ART.

demonstrated above the caitya-window was used
at Bhumra and Deogadh as a free-standing
decorative motif and was used later on in relief
against members of architecture. The large and
small caifa/a-windows discovered at Bhumra were,
no doubt, used along the cornice of the temple,
alternately according to size, and as the majority
of the Sarnath specimens belong to this variety,
they should not have been styled "face-stones".
As at Bhumra, the ca%a-window of the Gupta
period is really a trefoil in which the central arc is
larger than the side ones and in which the side
arcs are still leaf -shaped rather than arcs proper.
In the middle of the larger arc is to be found
a circular sunken panel, usually called the medal-
lion. The rim or circumference of this medallion
is enclosed by a line of beads, the place of which
is sometimes taken by rosettes as at Deogadh.
The rest of the interspaces, specially the space in
the side wings is occupied with small lotus rosettes
or arabesque. 1 The Sarnath Museum can boast
of a much greater variety in the contents of these
caitya- windows than any other site of early Gupta
date. The best specimens show a seated or
standing figure of some deity as in the Bhumra
medallions and in certain cases only a running
cupid. 2 In many cases the medallion is filled up
with a large lion's head. At this stage, we are

1 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India No. 16 , the temple
oj &iva at Bhumara. pi. XIII a-c.

2 Ibid., pi. Ill (a).

TYPES OF CAITYA-WI8DOWS. 189

introduced to a new style in ca%a-windows, the
best examples of which are to be found on the
lintel bearing the representation of the Kshanti-
vadin Jataka. In this case the ca%a-window
motifs are placed in relief in front of a minia-
ture temple crowned by an Amalalca. The caitya-
window has changed its shape by the meta-
morphosition of the circular medallion into a
trefoil medallion. The sides of the circle have
separated and between these two semi-circles is
introduced an ellipsoid curve at the top. The
introduction of this new member causes the caitya-
window itself to become divided into two unequal
parts with two side-wings on each side instead
of one. The Central arc of the Caitya- window
contains the curved end of the ellipse and is
supported at the end of the upper part on two
square pilasters. Such trefoils contain standing
figures of deities. 1 In the second class, we find
that though the caitya- window proper has become
divided into two parts, with two side-wings on
each side, there is no connection between the
upper half and the lower. In the upper half the
medallion is almost a complete circle and contains,
in the majority of cases, a horned lion with
arabesque as its mane. Such caitya-windows are
interposed along the beam of the lintel between
the larger ones. The medallion, in the 1(

1 Catalogue of the Museum of Archceology
XXV.

190 PLASTIC ART.

is shaped roughly like an ellipse and consists of
two semi-circles joined together by parallel straight
lines. They contain figures of dwarfs of the
Bhumra and Deogadh types. 1 The contents of
such medallions in the Sarnath collection of free-
standing Caitya-w'mdows is varied, the most
important among which are the types which
contain figures of animals, not to be found in
other schools except that of Benares. In certain
cases we find Buddha, in others, figures of minor
deities as at Bhumra, but in the majority of cases
we find Kirttimukhas or lion's heads. In one
particular case the caitya-wiudow being placed in
an angle of a plinth-moulding its medallion is
obscured and can hardly be seen. Here, the
ingenuity of the artist is displayed by the represen-
tation of a portion of the lion's face instead of the
entire front. (D. i. 21.) In certain cases the front
paws of the lion are also shown in addition. Many
of the Sarnath medallions contain Buddhas in the
Bhumisparsa mudra. In one case there is a four
armed male holding a rosary, wheel, and a vase. 2
In certain cases, the medallion is a trefoil and
contains the figure of a Buddha in the Abhaya
mudra. Many similar medallions contain a pair
of pilasters with cruciform bracket capitals. 8 In
other cases there is a row of dentils, just below

1 Ibid. , pi. XXV II J-

2 Catalogue of the Museum of Archaeology at Sarnath, pi. 255, No.
D(i) 16.

3 Ibid. , p. 257 No. D(i) 29.

PILLARS AND PILASTERS. 191

the Caitya-windows, shaped as grotesque lion's
heads. 1

The peculiarly fashioned pillars or pilasters of
the Gupta period are to be found in all three
schools as well as in Central India. The earliest
examples of such pillars or pilasters discovered
during the Mathura excavations of the previous
century were brought to public notice by the late
Dr. V.A. Smith. 2 The principal characteristic of
such pillars and pilasters is that the lower half
or third is generally square in section and quite
plain. This plain portion ends in four single or
double projections, one on each face, one set contain-
ing arabesques or some other ornaments, and the
second half or three-quarters circular panels also
containing ornaments. Above this portion the
shaft is octogonal or hexagonal and round and
bears on it one or more projections bearing either
ornaments or arabesque. In the majority of cases
such pillars or pilasters emerge from the wide
mouth of a low vase with foliage at the corners.
In many cases there is a round band ornamented
with a twisted rope of pearls or other ornaments,
which acts as a cushion for the abacus. In the
case of the Mathura pillars, the square projections,
immediately above the plain portion, contains
panels with grotesque animal figures emerging out
of a mass of exquisite arabesque and the semi-

1 Ibid., p. 258. No. D(i) 42.

2 Oxford History of India, 2nd edition, p. 160.

192 PLASTIC ART.

circular panels above contain lotus rosettes.
Between these panels and the cushion ornamented
with the twisting-rope pattern there are two heavy
projections, one bearing ganas alternated with
Klrttimukhas and another with horned-lion Kirtti-
mukhas. Many Sarnath specimens show the vase
with foliage at the corners at the bottom while
many others show the foliage and the vase near
the top. 1 The stilted style of expression of Rai
Bahadur Dayaram Sahni, the compiler of the
Sarnath catalogue, makes it extremely difficult to
understand the details of the ornamentations on
any of the sixty pillars which he has attempted
to describe. A fine example, D(f)31 has been
dismissed with a few words but a fuller description
is certainly needed. One can feel the touch of
the learned editor of this catalogue in footnotes
where the affinities between the Mathura and
Sarnath style in Gupta pillars are discussed and
pointed out. 2

The best examples of the Pataliputra school are
the fragmentary pillars from Rajaona, in which
the lower parts are perfectly plain and square but
the centre bears two projections on each face.
Each of the faces of the lower projection bears a
panel enclosed within raised rims. These panels
have a small pilaster on each side and contain
bas-reliefs ; Bhagiratha praying before &iva on

1 Catalogue of the Museum of Archaeology at Sarnath, pp. 239-45.

2 Ibid., p. 239, Note 1 and p. 240, Note 2, quoting Smith's Jain
Stupa.pl. XLVI, Fig. 3.

PILLARS FROM RAJ AON A. 193

Kailasa, the Ganges coming to the earth on her
Vahana, a Makara, Arjuna receiving the boon
from Siva and then seeing Siva and Par vat! on
Kailasa, etc. Just above the projection there is a
smaller projection, also oblong in shape, contain-
ing a regular semi-circular medallion and arabes-
que foliage in the triangular spaces left between the
periphery of the circle and the sides of the pillar.
The majority of the semi- circular medallions con-
tain horned lions' heads or Klrttimukhas but some
bear winged figures or Suparnas, whose lower parts
end in magnificent spirals of arabesques. * The two
or three pillars discovered during the recent ex-
cavations of the temple of Dasavatara at Deogadh
perhaps score distinct merit as being larger than
any others belonging to the Gupta period. In
decoration they are exactly identical but much
taller than the Rajaona, Bhumra or any of the
Benares pillars. The style of art is perhaps
slightly degenerate compared with that of Bhumra?
but in point of execution of the bas-reliefs, those of
the Pataliputra school are undoubtedly the best.

Unfortunately specimens of architecture of the
Pataliputra school are so very meagre that it
is not possible to speak much about its products.
The excavations of Nalanda have yielded much
that is important, 2 but was used in later periods

1 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1911-12, pi.
LXXIII-LXXV.

2 No connected and reliable account of the Nalanda finds have been
published and the accounts published after the transfer of Dr. Hira-
nanda Sastri, M.A., M.O.L., Ph.D., from the Central Circle of the

13

194 PLASTIC ART.

during the successive reconstructions under the
Palas of Bengal. The only specimen of the
Pataliputra school worth mentioning is the exqui-
site door-frame discovered by the writer at Dah
Parbatiya near the town of Tezpur in the Darrang
district of Assam. This door-frame though not
connected with any dated inscription is undoubted-
ly Gupta because of its use of

(1) trefoil medallions in Caitya- windows on

the lintel,

(2) the use of the figures of river goddesses

on the lower part of jambs,

(3) the false recessed angles of the lintel,

(4) the flying figure in high relief in the

centre of the lower part of the lintel, and

(5) the particularly expressive figures of

ganas on the arms of the cruciform
bracket capitals of the pilasters.

This beautiful lintel is one of the best specimens
of its class of the Gupta period. The carving
on the jambs is continued overhead in four out of
five bands. The lower part of the jambs consists
of single panels, in very high relief against which
are the figures of the river goddesses with female
attendants on each side. The river goddesses
exceed the limits of the panel but the attendant
figurines have been kept very well within bounds.
There are three attendants in the case of Ganga

Aroheaological Survey of India, are too meagre and unscientific,
being for the moat part written by persons not qualified to undertake
such talks.

STONE DOOR-FRAME AT DAH-PARVATIYA. 195

on the right, but two only in that of Yamuna
to the left. Behind the back of each figure appear
two flying geese pecking at the halo of the goddess,
a new feature in the Gupta art. There are five
bands of ornaments on each jamb :

(1) a meandering creeper rising above the

head of a Naga,

(2) the body of the Naga and the Nagl rising

from the top of the square panel at the
bottom of each jamb and continued
between the first and second bands on
the lintel. The tails of these two
serpents are held by the figure of
Garuda in high relief aganist the lower
part of the lintel, and

(3) ornamental foliage consisting of a straight

stem with amorini clinging to it. These
three bands are continued overhead on
the lintel as its lowermost bands of
ornaments.

(4) A pilaster, square in section bearing on it

square bosses covered with arabesque
as projections, which acts as supports
to a number of human or divine figures
and ends in a cruciform bracket capital.

(5) A double intertwined creeper forming

conventional rosettes which is conti-
nued on the side projection of the
lintel.

The lintel consists of a separate piece in which
the lower part bears the first three bands of the

196 PLASTIC ART.

jambs. The fourth band, the pilaster appears to
support an architrave bearing on it five caitya-
windows of two different types : (a) a trefoil in
which all three arcs are of the same size; there
are three caifa/a-windows with such medallions,
one in the centre and two near the ends; (b)
also trefoils in which the upper arc is larger than
the two arcs on the sides. The central medallion
of these five contains a seated figure of Siva as
Lakulisa.

Compared with this elaborate door-frame the
one at Bhumra is much simpler though the orna-
mentation is of a much higher standard of artistic
excellence. 1 The door-frame of the early Gupta
temple at Nachna Kuthara is exactly of the same
type. Unfortunately a part of the lintel is
missing and therefore we cannot judge whether
there was a figure in high relief in the centre of
the lower part of the lintel or not. Here also we
find five bands, two of which only are continued
over the lintel :

(1) a meandering creeper,

(2) a super-imposed row of sunken panels

containing human or divine figures,

(3) a geometrical pattern consisting of dia-

mond shaped ornaments formed by the
crossing of parallel lines,

(4) a pilaster, and

1 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 16 ; the
temple of &iva at Bhumara, pi. III(a).

OTHER GUPTA DOOR-FRAMES. 197

(5) a super-imposed row of half opened
rosettes.

The first and the fifth bands are continued partly
or wholly over the lintel. The second band turns
into a row of flying figures as at Bhumra and the
fifth band ends with the lintel, its continuation
being a modified acanthus leaf pattern as at
Bhumra. 1 At Nachna Kuthara the false projection
of the lintel over the sides of the jambs contain two
female figures with a single gana 2 and not a pair
as at Bhumra. The door-frame of the Dasavatara
temple is exactly of a similar type. The points
of resemblance are :

(1) the presence of a divine figure in relief

in the centre of the lower part of the
lintel,

(2) the continuation of certain bands of

ornaments of the jambs on the lintel,

(3) the false projection of the lintel over the

sides of the jambs, and

(4) the presence of two pilasters supporting

eaves or a roof as at Dah Parbatiya
and Bhumra.

As the Dasavatara temple is later than the
early Gupta temples at Bhumra and Nachna
Kuthara, the ornamentation is more profuse ; but
on account of the chastely bare side walls they

1 Ibid., pi VII(b).

2 Codrington Ancient India, pL 33, O.

198 PLASTIC ART.

are very well balanced. The increase in the
number of large human figures at the bottom of
the jambs and a corresponding increase in the
width of the jambs is compensated by a greater
width of the lintel. As at Bhumra the topmost
course of the lintel is a row of dentils shaped as
Klrttimukhas. Here there is a caifa/a-window
at each end of the eaves and a modified one
in the centre, which, however, is without a medal-
lion. At Deogadh all three cwfa/a-windows are
complete. There is one at the unbroken end of
the early Gupta temple at Nachna Kuthara while
there are five on the door-frame at Dah Parba-
tiya. In the succeeding century, there was a
change ; in the Post-Gupta temple at Nachna
Kuthara, there are three complete ca%a-windows
on the eaves supported by pilasters, but there is no
divine figure in high relief in the centre of the
lower part of the lintel. For this reason alone the
door-frame at Dah Parbitya appears to be older
than that of the Post-Gupta temple at Nachna
Kuthara. The Deogadh temple shows a marked
difference in the object of worship, which is a
huge linga ; but the door frame indicates that
originally it was a temple of Vi?nu. The Bhumra
temple bears on its lintel the bust of Siva, but the
Deogadh temple bears in the boss of the centre
of the lintel a figure of Vinu seated on the coils
of the Naga, Sesa or Ananta, exactly of the same
type as that to be found in cave No. Til (Vai-
nava cave) at Badami in the Bijapur district of

PLATFORM OF THE DA&AVATARA TEMPLE. 199

Bombay. 1 Some writers call this image the
Ehogasana murti* but the authority of such a
nomenclature has not been stated. The same
writer has been misled by the mediaeval repairs
to the Dasavatara temple in stating " the wide
platform on which the temples stand is also
sculptured with scenes identified as being from
the Ramayana. Those reliefs and the pilasters
that divide them are a little later in date. 8 " The
pilasters and the bas-reliefs in the photograph
may be slightly later in date, but the fragment of
the architrave bearing a caitya-window with a
dancing Gana inside the medallion is certainly as
early as any other part of the temple. The
arrangement of the pillars and the fragments of the
bas-reliefs along the sides of the platform of the
Dasavatara temple is certainly not older than the
10th or the llth century A.D. as proved by the
fragment from the Sikhara of a mediaeval temple
bearing on it rows of stylized caifa/a-windows of
the same type to be still found on the &ikhara
of the great Jain temple on the hill at Deogadh.
Fragments of this period were excavated in the
compound of the Dasavatara temple and two
fragments of door-jambs were found by the
writer leaning against the eastern steps to the
path of circumambulation of the Dasavatara

1 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 25 ; das-
reliefs of Badamt, pi XV IL
* Codrington Ancient India, p. xiii, pi. XLA.
3 Ibid., p. 61.

200 PLASTIC ART.

temple itself. The inclusion of the 10th century
fragments in the composition of the arrangement
of pillars and bas-reliefs proves that this, at least,
was no part of the 6th century structure and it is
quite possible that the arrangement was done
in the 18th or even the 19th century. Therefore
these carvings can hardly be called " Sculptures
from the base of the Vishnu temple, Deogadh,
Lalitpur district, Gupta, 5th century". 1

The insetting of the great panels in the
Dasavatara cave introduces us to the subject of
Gupta arabesque and creeper patterns. There
cannot be any doubt about the superior artistic
excellence of all carvings discovered at Bhumra
to those at Nachna Kuthara, Deogadh, and the
smaller Gupta temples at Mahabodhi and Sanchi.
Even the smaller bands of the door-jambs consist-
ing of super-imposed rosettes or spiral-work
cannot be compared with any thing discovered
at Bhumra. The marginal decoration of the great
panels at Deogadh suffer very much in comparison
with the Bhumra fragments. Let us take for
example the meandering creeper issuing out of
conch shells in the inner bands of the jambs at
Deogadh and compare it with the wonderful
volutes of the spiral- work of Bhumra. 2 Every-
where Deogadh work lacks the elasticity of
Bhumra; compare the fragments of the stylized

1 Ibid., p. xii, pL XXXIB.

2 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey oj India No. 16; the temple
of Shva at Bhumara, pL IV.

ART OF BHTJMRA AND DEOGADH. 201

acanthus at Bhumra, 1 and the uninjured mass of
the same work at Deogadh. 2 I have not found
any parallel to the great spiral-work representing
the breaking crests of waves, 3 but even the
smaller bands on the sides of the door jambs are
always infinitely superior in poise and elasticity 4
to any Deogadh work. There cannot be any
comparison with the meandering creeper from
Bhumra, the stem of which is hidden among a
mass of flowering arabesque, with chubby little
climbing amorini in the interspaces. Even the
Bhita fragments 6 in the Lucknow Museum are
stale compared with it. 6 The Deogadh temple
is bigger than the temples at Bhumra or Nachna
Kuthara and therefore it possesses the advantage
of height. Therefore the great pillars of the
porches, of which there were four in number, are
superior to the smaller pillars and pilasters of
Bhumra. But to do justice to the exquisite little
jambs at Bhumra one must admit the unsurpass-
ability of the unique geometrical decoration of
the inner bands of the door-frame and the wonder-
ful elasticity of the conventional buds of the
outer band, both of which bands are continued
over the lintel. The poise in the Kirttimukhas
of the pillars and the pilasters and finally the
exquisite group of the prostrate figures below the

i Ibid., pi. VII (b). 2 Ancient India, pi. XX XI A.

3 Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 16. pi. VII (c).

* Ibid. t pi. IV (b). & Ancient India, pi. XXXB.

Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 16, pi VII (a)

202 PLASTIC ART.

foliated vase at the bottoms of the fluted pillars
have not been surpassed yet. 1 The difference
between the work of Bhumra and Deogadh in
figures can be neatly gauged by a comparison of
the dancing gana in the small caifa/a-window, 2
in Bhumra and the same drab heavy figure found
at Deogadh. 8 There are no parallels to the exqui-
site fluted and plain columns of Bhumra in which
each base is shaped in a unique fashion. The
modelling of the foliated bases at the bottom of
the fluted columns shows four slender figures of
sprites prostrated by the heavy weight of the urn
they bear on their backs, the centre of which is,
again, tied with ribands and ornamented with
loops issuing from the calyx of lotuses. A fringe
of semi-lotus patterns ornament the edge of the
urn. Apparently from the heads of the prostrate
(/anas rise a mass of ornamental foliage which
really issue out of the urn. The conventional varie-
ties of this particular motif are more noticeable
at Bhumra than anywhere else. In the case of
the columns with round shafts, the urn has a
narrower neck than its middle and the neck only
is fringed with a conventional acanthus pattern;
but the place of the foliage at the corners is taken
by four projections at the corners, which look
more like peacocks with tails spread fanwise, but
are really a new style in arabesque. 4

i Ibid., pis. III-VI. 2 ibid., pi VI (6).

8 Ancient India, pi. XXXI B ; the caitya- window in the upper row.

* Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 16, pi* VI (a).

BAS-RELIEFS. 203

The art of Bhumra shows the climax reached
in the production of human forms during the
Gupta period, that of Deogadh the first stage in
its decline and the fragments of bas-reliefs at
Mundesvari the final decline in the post Gupta
period of the 5th century. Intermediate between
them are the great fragments from Gadhwa in the
Allahabad district, now preserved in the Lucknow
Museum. In decorative art the Gadhwa frag-
ments appear to be earlier than the earliest
period of the building of the Dasavatara temple
at Deogadh. The climbing Nereids in the arches
of the meandering creeper are of the Eastern or
the Pataliputra school type from the modelling
of their torsos. 1 All four bas-reliefs preserved in
the Lucknow Museum are certainly older than the
oldest work at Deogadh and cruder in comparison
with the finished art of Bhumra. The figure
work of Gadhwa bas-reliefs is strongly reminiscent
of the Mathura school though in the lintels the
special characteristics of the Benares school are
seen to be overcoming Mathura influence. 2

The remains at Mandasor are still imperfectly
known though some of the sites around the city
were recently excavated by the Archaeological
Department of the Gwalior State. The remains
were discovered by Captain (now Lieutenant-
Colonel) C. E. Luard, M.A., 8 in 1907 and finally

1 Ancient India, pi. XXX B. 2 /&td., Fig. A, C-D.

3 2nd., Ant., Vol. XXXVII, 1908, pp. 107-10, pis. I-III.

204 PLASTIC ART.

exposed by Mr. M. B. Garde. 1 The pillar at
Khilchipura, described by Luard, is certainly of
the Mathura-Kuana type, with its super-imposed
panels containing figure work surmounted by the
ancient Mauryan flat lotus. 2 So also the figure
of Siva from Sondni 8 and the Dvarapalas are
slightly different from the best type of the Benares
school. The Dvarapalas remind one very strongly
of the great colossus (Visnu) inside the ruined
temple at Eran in the Sagar district of the Central
Provinces. The affinity between the local pro-
ducts in Central India is further evident in the
treatment of monoliths. The great pillars of
Yasodharman 4 resemble the Eran pillars of G. E.
165 arid 191. The continuation of the use of the
bell-shaped abacus and the pure honey-suckle in
the capital on the pillars of Yasodharman as well
as the Gupta capital on the top of Bhilsa hill, the
palm capital in the Lucknow Museum all tend to
prove the slavish imitation of Maurya and Sunga
motifs in the Gupta art of Central India. 5 The
date of the Bagh caves is far from certain and
in spite of what Marshall and his colleagues have
said in the recent monograph 6 it must be admitted
that no convincing proof has been discovered

1 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India 1925-26,
pp. 187-8. pi. LXVIII (0-6).

2 Ibid., pi. LXIX (b); see also Ind., AM., Vol. XXXVII, pi. III. 4.

3 Ibid., pi III. 5.

* Ind., Ant., Vol. XVII, pi. I : Annual Report of the Archaeological
Survey of India 1925-26, pi. LXVIII (c).

5 Ibid., pi. LXVIII (a). The Bagh caves.

THE BAGH CAVES. 205

which would permit us to come to any reasonable
conclusion regarding dates of the painting and
sculptures in this series of excavations. The
Buddha figures of the Bagh caves l strongly
resemble the South-Indian type of the second or
mediaeval group of caves at Ajanta.

Bagh is situated to the north of the Narmada
but to the south of the Vindhyan ranges, a few
miles north of Kukshi on the road from Dhar
to Khandesh. It lies more than sixty miles due
east of Maheshwar, the ancient Mahishmati, once
the capital of the Holkars. Such figures as
are still preserved in the Bagh caves show that they
are exact replicas of the series of caves of Western
India beginning with Poladungar and Dhamnar in
the north, and ending with the later caves in the
Poona and Satara districts of the Bombay
Presidency. Thus the free-standing columns of
cave No. I remind one very strongly of the later
cave called Jogesvari, near Andheri in the Thana
district of Bombay. 2 Some however are fluted
but with spirals. 3 In the majority of cases the
cruciform bracket capitals are ornamented with
the " wing" patterns so profusely used in all three
wings of the great cave or Cave No. I at Ghara-
puri or Elephanta, off Bombay. 4 The later date,
than the Gupta period proper, is proved, in the
case of all caves at Bagh by the total rejection of

l Ind., Ant., Vol. XXXIX, 1910 pi. III. 2 The Bagh caves pi. III.
8 Ibid., pis. 7F-F. * Ibid., pi. IV.

206 PLASTIC ART.

the apsidal form in Caitya-Gharas such as Cave
No. I. 1 The only pure Gupta motif is that of
the Caitya- window with circular medallion in the
centre of Cave No. IV. 2 So, also, the three
Buddhas and Bodhisatvas on the right and left
walls of the vestibule of Cave No. II and the two
Bodhisatvas in the same cave 8 are of the same
type as those at Montpezir or Mandapesvara near
Borivli in the Thana district of ^Bombay and the
mediaeval caves at Ajanta. The facades of caves
No. II, IV, and V 4 are exactly like the smaller
caves at Gharapuri or Elephanta, 5 Therefore,
the Bagh Caves, though they are to the north
of the Narmada, cannot be taken to be specimens
of Northern Cave temples. Sir John Marshall's
opinion on the style of the paintings leave no
doubt about their southern origin : "On the other
hand, as far as their artistry is concerned, there is
little to choose between the pictures of Bagh and
Ajanta. Both exhibit the same broad handling
of their subjects, the same poetry of motions, the
same wonderful diversity in the poses of their
figures, the same feeling for colour and the same
strong yet subtle line-work. In both, decorative
beauty is the key-note to which all else is at-
tuned, and both are as free from realism as they
are from stereotyped convention". 6

1 Ibid., pi. I. 2 2bid. t pis. VIII-XII.

8 Ibid., pis. VI-VIII. * Ibid., pis. II-X.

B Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey 1922*23, pi. XII.

a The Bagh caves, p. 17.

TERRACOTTAS. 207

Our knowledge of Gupta terracottas is yet
in its infancy. Much has been discovered
though very little has been preserved. In the
last century, hundreds of bricks stamped with
the name of Kumaragupta, were discovered at
Bhitari, near Saiyadpur in the Ghazipur district,
and removed to the Museum at Lucknow,
where many of them are still preserved. Prom
the form of th writing it appears that these
bricks were apparently used for constructing
some religious edifice in the reign of Kumara-
gupta I. They are box-moulded and much
larger than modern tiles. A carved brick was
recently discovered at Bilsad in the Etah dis-
trict bearing on it concentric circles filled with
ornamental foliage and arabesque. This is the
most elaborately decorated tile of the Gupta
period that has ever been discovered.

Basai-relievi in terracotta are still very rare.
We must not take into consideration the hun-
dreds of thousands terracotta plaques discovered
at Bodh-Gaya, Nalanda, etc., where they were
left as votive offerings by Buddhist pilgrims.
Beginning with the plaque which figures the
cover of the Journal of the Bihar and Orissa
Research Society, in which Kharoshthi has been
used, down to the 12th century A.D., these
plaques were cast in wooden or metal moulds
and turned out by thousands. Some of them
certainly exhibit superior moulding but as a
class they cannot be called objects of arts.

208 PLASTIC ART.

The best examples of terracotta plaques, known
at present, which can be relegated to the Gupta
period, were found in 1926 at Dah Parbatiya
in the Darrang district of Assam around the
stone door-frame discovered there. Fragments
of two terracotta plaques were discovered at
this place by officers of the Public Works
Departments of Assam. They show the nice
poise and the naturalism of the human figure.
Unfortunately both of them were recovered in
a damaged condition. 1

1 Annual Report of the Archwological Survey of India, 1925-26,
pl.LIV(f).

CHAPTER VI.

COINAGE.

Allan's Catalogue of the coins of the Gupta
dynasties in the British Museum has thrown
much new light on the subject of the coinage of
the Gupta empire, so that certain minor problems
only remain to be solved, which must await fresh
discovery. Earlier writers on the subject, es-
pecially the late Dr. V. A. Smith, paved the way
for the preparation of Allan's great work, but
they were obsessed with numismatic theories,
which proved a bar to the solution of the many
intricate problems which presented themselves
in the last century; such as, a second capital
of the Gupta empire in the United Provinces, etc.

With the rise of the Gupta empire there
was a reformation of the currency in Northern
India and the current coinage was modified by
Samudragupta, the second monarch of the Gupta
dynasty. Coins of Candragupta I, are known in
sufficiently large number but it is extremely
doubtful whether they were issued by the king
whose name they bear. This idea is Allan's,
and his grounds are that instead of being of
the Later Kushan type, they are actually of
the type of Samudragupta. " The earliest Gupta
coins follow the standard of their late Kushan
prototypes. Ten well preserved coins of
14

210 COINAGE.

Samudragupta's Standard type average 118*9
grains (highest 120*6 and 121), four of the archer
type 118'1 (highest 120), six of the Candragupta
I type, 119 grains (highest 121 and 123), two
of the Kaca type (most specimen of which are
worn), 117-6 (highest 118), five of the Lyrist
type, 118-6 (highest 120'7 and 120) six of the
Asvamedha type, 118*3 grains. These figures
agree very well with the weights of the late
Kushan coins of the third century which run
from 118 to 122 grains. With the types and
standard of their northern neighbours the
Guptas seem also to have adopted the name
dinara, by which these coins were known to the
Kushans this name is to be traced to the Roman
solidus. The variations of four to six grains in
well preserved specimens of the same type of
Samudragupta's coin may be due to variations
of the standard in different districts, but it
probably shows that little effort was made to
strike the coins accurately on a particular stan-
dard, and that they were considered rather as
medals than coins. This standard may be
defined as of about 121 grains." l

Samudragupta issued coins in which the
obverse type of the late Kusana coinage, e.g.,
the Standing King was copied, but he intro-
duced many other variations into it like Jalal-
uddln Muhammad Akbar and Nuruddm

1 J. Allan Catalogue of the Indian coins in the British Muaeum-
Oupta dynasties. London, 1914 pp. cxxxi-cxxxii.

SAMUDRAGTJPTA'S COMMON TYPE. 211

Jahangir. These are also coins but were struck
as memorial medals on certain occasions. " The
commonest coins of Samudragupta, the son
and successor of Candragupta I, are of the type
to which Vincent Smith has given the name
Spearman or Javelin, but which may more
correctly be called the Standard type. It is
evident that Samudragupta's Standard type is
a close copy of the later coins of Kushan type,
such as have been described by Cunningham
(Num. Chron., 1893, PL VIII, 2-12 and PL IX) ;
practically the only alterations, apart from the
legends are on the obverse, where the Kushan
peaked camp is replaced by a close-fitting cap,
while the trident on the left gives place to a
Garuda standard (garudadhvaja), the emblem of
Visnu. The king's name is still written vertic-
ally; this custom, which was to survive till
the end of the dynasty, is to be traced back
through the later Kushan coinage to Chinese
influence in Central Asia/ 5 1 Along with the
ordinary Standard type of his gold coins
Samudragupta also issued gold coins of the
Archer type, the Battle-axe type, Tiger type,
Lyrist type, Asvamedha type and the Kaca
type. Allan attributes the coins bearing the
names of Candragupta I, and his wife Kumara-
devl to Samudragupta. He considers that these
coins were issued by Samudragupta, and not

1 Ibid , p. Ixv.

212 COINAGE,

by his father Candragupta I, to commemorate
his father and mother. 1 His arguments are :
(i) If the coins bearing the names of Candra-
gupta I and Kumaradevi were really
issued by Candragupta I then we are
at a loss to account for a return "to
a relatively slavish imitation of Ku-
shan type after the comparative
originality of his father's coins ", in
the Standard type of Samudragupta.
(ii) "Were the Gupta coins a local develop-
ment in Magadha of the late Kushan
coins, from which they are obviously
derived, one would expect the latter
to be present in finds of Gupta

coins we must, therefore,

place the origin of the Gupta coinage
in a period when the Guptas had
come into closer contact with the
late great Kushans whose (eastern)
Panjab coinage they copied; what
historical knowledge we possess points
to this period being, not in the reign
of Candragupta I, but in that of
Samudragupta." 2

(iii) Apart from the initial presumption that
the Candragupta coins, being farther
removed from the Kushan type than
the Standard type, which had no

1 Ibid., p. faxiii. 2 Ibid., p. Ixvi.

MEMOEIAL MEDALS. 213

predecessor struck by Candragupta I,
are later, a careful comparison of
their fabric with that of the latter
points to their having been struck
by Samudragupta."

(iv) " If Candragupta I issued coins it would
be remarkable that Samudragupta
did not immediately continue their

issue." l

Allan's contention that the coins bearing the
names of Candragupta I and his wife Kumara-
devi were memorial medals struck by Samudra-
gupta receives support from other coins' types of
Samudragupta, e.g., the Lyrist, Tiger, Asva-
medha, and Kaca types. Of these types the
Asvamedha is also a memorial medal, having
been struck on the occasion of the great sacrifice
performed by Samudragupta after his campaigns
in the north and the south. The Tiger, the
Lyrist, the Archer, and the Battle-axe are
similarly freak types, struck on special occasions
in addition to ordinary Standard type issued for
ordinary circulation. Like the Candragupta I
type, the Kaca type still remains unexplained
and may be taken to have been struck as a
memorial medal in memory of a near relative
or a very dear friend.

The credit of the reform in the currency of
Northern India, therefore, clearly belongs to

1 Ibid., p. Ixviii.

214 COINAGE.

Samudragupta. Like the currency reforms of
Farid-ud-din Sher Shah the new currency of
Northern India in the beginning of the 4th cen-
tury A.D. brought about a purity in the metal.
The later Great Kusana currency, the coinage
of the Little Kusanas and even that of the
Scytho-Sassanians, were for the most part
struck in impure gold. At times, gold coins can
scarcely be recognised as such on account of
the heavy admixture of baser metals. 1 Like
the coinage of the Great Kusanas the coinage of
Samudragupta is entirely in gold and copper.
The gold predominates and very few copper coins
of Samudragupta have been found. The author
knows of only two copper coins discovered near
Katwa in the Burdwan district of Bengal, which
bear on the obverse a figure of Garuda on the
top and the name Samudra in one line at the
bottom, while the reverse is perfectly illegible. 2
The Standard type of the gold currency of
Samudragupta bears on the obverse " King
standing L 9 nimbate, wearing close-fitting cap,
coat and trousers, ear-rings and necklace, holding
in I. hand standard bound with fillet, dropping
incense on altar with his r. hand ; on L, behind
altar, is a standard bound with a fillet, sur-
mounted by a Garuda facing. Beneath the king's
arm Samudra or Samudra Gupta" in one or two

1 V. A. Smith Catalogue of coins in the Indian Museum, Vol. /,
p. 89, No. 14.

2 These coins were purchased by a private collector.

THE STANDARD TYPE. 215

lines. Surrounding the king's figure is the legend,
Samara-sata-vitata-vijayo jit = ari-pur = aji to

divam jayati.

The reverse is characteristic of Great Kushan
or later Great Kusana coinage. " Goddess
(Laksmi) seated facing on throne, nimbate,
wearing loose robe, necklace, and armlets,
holding fillet in outstretched r. hand and cornu-
copiae in I. arm; her feet rest on lotus; traces
of back of throne on r. of most specimens;
border of dots. Symbol on I. on r. Parakramah. 1 "
The variations in the varieties of the gold
coinage of Samudragupta are mostly on the
obverse, the reverse changing very rarely. Thus
in the second type we find "King standing Z.,
nimbate, dressed as in preceding type, holding
bow in L hand, while r. holds arrow, the head
of which rests on ground; Garuda standard on
I. the name of the king is written vertically.
The legend on the obverse is Apratiralho vijitya
ksitim sucaritair-divam jayati. And that on the
reverse is Apratirathah. In the coins of Samudra-
gupta the obverse legend is sufficient to identify
the type of its coins. Allan divides the Archer
type into two varieties for a slight difference in
the obverse legend. 2

The remaining types of the gold coinage of
Samudragupta may be called freak types and
medals, except the Battle-Axe type which is a

1 Allan Catalogue, etc., p. 1. 2 ibid., p. 7.

216 COINAGE.

regular development of the Kushan standing king
type. In this type as in the Archer type the king
holds a battle-axe (Parasu) in the place of the
standard or the bow. The legend shows in certain
varieties the syllable Kri under the king's left
arm. Allan divides this type into three varieties.
The first shows the name Samudra in a vertical
line under the left arm. Surrounding the entire
flan on the obverse is the larger legend Kritanta-
paraur-jayaty-ajita-raja jet=ajitah. The second
variety shows the name of the king in two parallel
vertical lines as Samudragupta. In the third
variety we find the syllable Kri. 1 In all three
variety the reverse shows the figure of a goddess
seated on a throne with the legend Kritanta-
parauh. 2 The rarest of Samudragupta's freak
types is the Tiger type in which we see on the
obverse "King standing 1. 9 wearing turban,
waistcloth, necklace, ear-rings, and armlets,
trampling on a tiger which falls backwards as he
shoots it with bow in r. hand, I. hand drawing
bow back behind ear ; on I. ; behind tiger crescent-
topped standard as on Battle-axe type." The
difference between this type and the regular
types of the gold coinage of Samudragupta is
that the king's name does not appear on the
obverse at all, nor is there any circular legend.
Under the left arm appears the legend Vyaghra-
parakramah. On the reverse the figure of the

i Ibid., p. 14. 2 ibid , p. 12.

THE LYRIST AND AVAMEDHA TYPES. 217

sitting goddess gives place to a standing figure of
Ganga standing on her Vahana, a Makara and
the legend on the right is Raja Samudraguptdh. 1
The second freak type is the Lyrist. "King
seated, nimbate, cross-legged to L, wearing
waistcloth, close-fitting cap, necklace, ear-rings,
and armlets, on high-backed couch, playing lyre
or lute (vino) which lies on his knees; beneath
couch is a pedestal or footstool inscribed (si)."
In this case also there is no king's name under
the left arm but it is given as a circular legend
Maharajadhiraja-&ri-Samiidraguptah 2 . On the
reverse we come across, once more, the figure of
the seated goddess facing the left, on a wicker
stool and the name of the king is given once
more in a vertical line to the right, Samudra-
guptah. The third class of coins of this type
is the Asvamedha : " Obverse : horse standing I.,
before a sacrificial post (Yupa), from which
pennons fly over its back; on some specimens
a low pedestal below. Beneath horse (si). 99
There is a long circular legend on the obverse:
Eajddhirajah Prthivlm-avitva divam jayaty-aprati-
varyavlryah. The reverse shows "The chief
queen (Mahisi) standing I., wearing loose robe
and jewellery, holding chowrie over r. shoulder
in r. hand, I. hangs by her side; on I. is a
sacrificial spear bound with fillet; around her
feet a chain (?) extending round spear and on

i Ibid., p. 17. 2 Ibid., p. IS.

218 COINAGE.

some specimens gourd (?) at feet. No symbol."
The legend on the reverse is Asvamedha-para-
kramah. 1 The name of Samudragupta does not
appear on any of this class of coins and they
have been attributed to this king solely on
the ground of the average weight and the
biruda parakramah. They differ from the Asva-
medha coins of Kumaragupta I in the biruda
Mahendra, which appears on the reverse of
the latter and the uncertain legend on the
reverse of the latter's coinage Jayati divam
Kumarah. 2 We must now return to the medal-
lions struck by Samudragupta in memory of his
parents and his relation or friend, Kaca. The
memorial medals of Samudragupta struck in
memory of his parents are very elaborate.
"Obverse: Candragupta I standing to /., wearing
close-fitting coat, trousers and head-dress, ear-
rings and armlets, holding in /. hand a crescent-
topped standard bound with fillet, and with
r. hand offering an object, which on some coins
is clearly a ring, to Kumaradevl who stands
on I. to r. wearing loose robe, ear-rings, neck-
lace and armlets, and tight-fitting head-dress;
both nimbate. On r. on either side of the
standard Candragupta, on I. Kumaradevl or
rl-Kumaradevi or Kumaradevi-$ri." The re-
verse shows the seated goddess of the orthodox
type but on a lion: "Goddess (Laksmi), nim-

l Ibid., p. 21. 2 2bid., p. 68.

THE KACA MEDALS. 219

bate, wearing long loose robe, seated facing on
lion couch ant to r. or L, holding fillet in
outstretched r. hand and cornucopia in I. arm;
her feet rest on lotus ; behind her on I. are
traces of back of a throne on most specimens;
border of dots. Symbol on Z." The reverse
legend is simply Licchavayah. 1 The memorial
medals issued in the name of Kaca are ex-
tremely rare, being rarer than the Asvamedha
type. The obverse shows the name Kaca in a
vertical line and the type resemble the Standard
and Archer types of Samudragupta. " Obverse :
King standing to I. dressed as in preceding
types, holding standard surmounted by wheel
(cakra) in L hand, and sprinkling incense on
altar with r. hand." The name of Kaca is
written under the left hand exactly in the same
fashion as the name of Samudragupta on his
regular coins and there is a long circular legend:
g&mavajitya divam karmabhir = uttamair-jayati.
On the reverse we see the figure of a stand-
ing goddess standing to the left, wearing a loose
robe, holding a flower and cornucopia in left
arm. The reverse legend is Sarva-raj occhetta
to the right of the figure. 2 Allan thinks that
"The similarity of the obverse legend to that
of the Archer type forms one of the strongest
proofs of the identity of Kaca with Samudra-
gupta. The ' highest works' are sacrifices, and

Ibid., p. 8. 2 Ibid., p. Id.

220 COINAGE.

may be referred to the Asvamedha sacrifice
with more probability than the Sucaritair of

the Archer type The reverse legend

Sarva-raj = occhetta 9 * exterminator of all the rajas,'
is regularly applied to Samudragupta, and to
him alone, in the inscriptions of his succes-
sors; it is not found in the extant portions of
either of his two known inscriptions, but similar
expressions are found in them V In the light
of Numismatics this proof is unconvincing,
because in the case of no other king of the
Gupta dynasty do we find another name of
the king under the left arm of his figure on
the obverse. In the ordinary type of the coins
of the Gupta kings only one name is given
under the left arm, e.g., Candra for Candragupta
II or Candragupta III, Kumara or Ku for
Kumaragupta I or Kumaragupta II and
Skanda for Skandagupta. We know that
Devagupta was another name of Candragupta II
from the Sanchi inscription of the year 2 93 and
from the inscription of his daughter Kubera-
naga 3 , but this name has never been used on
the coinage of that king. Consequently, it is
impossible to believe in spite of the adjective
clauses and the weight of Numismatic evidence
that Kaca was another name for Samudragupta.
We have already referred to him in very rare
copper coins of this king.

1 Ibid., p. ex. 2 Gupta Inscriptions, p. 29.

8 Epi. Ind. Vol. XV, p. 41.

THE COINAGE OF CANDRAGUPTA I. 221

No coins of Ramagupta, the son and succes-
sor of Samudragupta, have been discovered
and he is not referred to in any of the inscrip-
tions of the later emperors of this dynasty.
He was succeeded by his younger brother
Oandragupta, in whose reign we find a more
bewildering variety of coins. Candragupta was
the first emperor of the Gupta dynasty who
introduced a silver coinage, A silver coinage
became necessary after the conquest of Malava
and Kathiawad, where the early and later
Western Kshatrapas had been issuing such coins
from about the 1st century B.C. The gold
coinage of Candragupta II shows a definite
effort to leave the standard of the later K i^a-
nas and to approach that of the heavier
standard of the Indian Suvarna. Allan distin-
guishes three standards :

(1) "Of these the first is that of 121

grains in use in the preceding reign ;

(2) The second of 125 or 126 grains;

(3) and the third of 132 grains. All these

are found in the Archer type."

After discussing the weights of the different
types of the gold coins of Candragupta, Allan
is of opinion that "It is clear, then, that two
standards may be distinguished in most types
one of 121 grains and another of 126 grains;
the latter, which becomes usual in Kumara-
gupta's reign, is due to approximation to local

222 COINAGE.

standard." 1 The Standard type of the coinage
of Samudragupta was not issued by Candra-
gupta II and the ordinary gold coin of the reign
appears to be the Archer type. Allan divides
the Archer type into two different classes, in
the first of which we find the goddess on the
reverse seated on a throne and on the second
on a lotus. The obverse bears the figure of the
king as on the coins of Samudragupta of the
same type: "King standing 1. 9 nimbate, as on
Archer type of Samudragupta, holding bow in
I. hand and arrow in r. ; Garuda standard
bound with fillet on /." The king's name is
given in a vertical line under the left arm of
the figure and around the flan of the coin is the
circular legend Deva-&n-Maharajadhiraja-&n
Candraguptah. 2 Two varieties are distinguished
in this class in one of which the string of the
bow is inwards and the name of the king is
given between the figure and the string. In
the other variety the string is outwards and
the name of the king is given to the right
of the string. In the second class Allan distin-
guishes several varieties :

(a) King drawing arrow from quiver,

(&) King holding arrow in right hand as

in class one,

(c) King holding bow in left and arrow
in right hand, and

1 Allan Catalogue, etc., pp. cxxxii-cxxxiii.

2 Ibid., pp. 24-25.

THE COUCH AND UMBRELLA TYPES. 223

(d) King holding bow in right hand and
Standard on right. 1

In all cases the reverse legend is &ri-Vikramah.

The other types of the coinage of Candragupta

II in gold are the very rare, e.g., Couch type:

" Obverse King wearing waistcloth and

jewellery, seated head to I. on high

backed couch, holding flower in uplifted

r. hand, and resting I. hand on edge of

couch.

Reverse Goddess (Laksmi) seated facing on
throne without back, holding lotus in
uplifted I. hand, resting feet on lotus as
on Class I, var. of Archer type ; border of
dots. Symbol on L"

The obverse and the reverse legend on the
couch type are exactly the same as on the
Archer type.* The next type is the Umbrella
(Chattra) type in which we see:

"Obverse King standing Z. nimbate, cast-
ing incense on altar on I. with r. hand,
while Z. rests on sword-hilt; behind him
a dwarf attendant holds Chattra (parasol)
over him.

Reverse Goddess (Lak?mi) nimbate, stand-
ing I. on lotus, holding fillet in r. and
lotus in I. hand; border of dots. Symbol
on I"

1 Ibid., pp. 26-33. * Ibid., pp. 33-34.

224 COINAGE.

There 'are two classes in this type in which
the obverse legend differ. In the first class the
obverse legend is Maharajadhiraja-ri-Candra-
guptah but in the second it is Ksitimavajitya
Sucaritair-divam jayati Vikramaditya. The re-
verse legend in both classes of this type gives
the complete biruda or Aditya-r&m& of this king.
The Standard type seems to have been copied
from the Battle-axe type of Samudragupta in
which a boy or dwarf appears to the left of the
king. 1 The Lion-slayer type of Candragupta II
was a freak but widely issued type :

"Obverse King standing r. or L 9 wearing
waistcloth with sash which floats behind
him, turban or ornamental head-dress,
and jewellery, shooting with bow at lion
which falls backwards and trampling on
lion with one foot.

Reverse Goddess (Laksml-Ambika) seated
nimbate, facing, on lion couchant to I. or
r. holding fillet in outstretched r. hand
and cornucopia in I. on var a and b lotus
on other varieties ; border of dots.
Symbol on Z."

Allan divides this type into four classes. The
first class shows a different legend around the
flan of the coin on the obverse : Narendra
Candra-prathita-divam jayaty-ajeyo bhuvi Sinha-
vikramah. 2 In this class Allan distinguishes a
number of varieties:

Ibid., p. 12. 2 ibid., p. 38.

VARIETIES IN THE LION-SLAYER TYPE. 225

(a) King to right but cornucopia in the

left arm of the goddess.

(b) The goddess holds lotus instead of

cornucopias.

(c) King to the left.

(d) Goddess holding fillet but lion walk-

ing to the right.

(e) Goddess seating astride on lion.
(/) Goddess holding lotus and fillet.

(g) King standing to the right and

goddess holding lotus only.
(h) Lion retreating.

In the second class the circular legend on the
flan of the obverse and the reverse legend are
both different. In all varieties of the first class
and the third and fourth classes the legend is
tirl-Sinha-vikramah or simply Sinha vikramah.
But in class two the circular legend on the
obverse is Narendrasinha-Candraguptah Prthvlm
jitva divam jayati and the reverse legend simply
Sinha-Candrah. The coins of the second class
are:

" Obverse King standing to r. shooting lion
which falls back, wearing waistcoat with
long sashes behind.

Reverse Goddess seated facing, on lion
couchant L, with head turned back, she
holds lotus in uplifted L hand and holds
r. outstretched empty ; border of dots." *

i Ibid., p. 48.

15

226 COINAGE.

In the third class of the lion or lion-slayer
type we find:

"Obverse King standing I. wearing waist-
cloth and jewellery, holding bow in r.
ha nd and arrow in Z. ; lion on I. retreat-
ing.

Reverse Goddess seated facing on lion
couchant I., holding fillet in outstretched
r. hand and lotus in I. which rests on
hip; border of dots. Symbol 1 on V

The obverse legend is simply Maharajadhiraja-
fi-Candr(iguptah. There is another variety of
this class in which the circular legend on the
obverse is fuller, Deva-rl-Makarajadhiraja-&rl
Candraguptah. In the fourth class of this type
we find the king hunting the lion with a sword
instead of a bow and arrow. Once more the
circular legend on the obverse is exactly as in
Class I of this type. The fuller description of
Allan is worth quoting :

"Obverse King standing r. with L foot on
lion which retreats with head turned
snapping at the king as he strikes at it
with sword in uplifted r. hand. Legend
as in Class I.

Reverse Goddess seated facing on lion
couchant r., holding fillet in outstretched
I. and lotus in outstretched r. hand as
on No. 114." 2

p. 44. 2 Ibid., p. 45.

THE HORSEMAN TYPE. 227

In the last class or type of the gold coinage
of Candragupta II a new type is introduced,
which becomes the usual or general type in the
reign of his son and successor Kumaragupta L
This is the horsemen type :

"Obverse King riding on fully capari-
soned horse to r. or I. ; his dress includes
waistcloth with long sashes which fly
behind him, and jewellery (ear-rings
armlets, necklace, etc.) ; on some speci-
mens he has a bow in I. hand, on others
he has sword at L side.
Reverse Goddess seated to I. on wicker
stool, holding fillet in outstretched r
hand and lotus with leaves and roots
behind her in L ; border of dots. Var. a
with symbol on /. Var. b without symbol."

The circular legend on the obverse is Parama-
bhagavato MaharajMhiraja-&ri-Candraguptah and
the reverse one Ajita-Vikramah. 1

Soon after the conquest of Malava and
Gujarat, Candragupta II was compelled to issue
a silver coinage for these provinces, just as the
Mughal emperor Akbar I was compelled to issue
a new type of rupee for his recently conquered
province of Gujarat. The new type was an
exact copy of the late Western Ksatrapa coinage
having the bust on the obverse with the date
in Brahmi numerals, the whole surrounded by

i ibid.,

228 COINAGE.

traces of meaningless and degenerate Greek
legends. On the reverse the Caitya is replaced
by Garuda, the family crest of the Guptas.
Even the characters of the circular legend on
the reverse was very much affected by the
peculiar numismatic alphabet of Kathiawad.
This legend is Parama-bhagavata-Maharajadhi-
raja-ri-Candragupta- Vikramaditya(h). This is
variety a in the silver coinage of Candragupta
II. In the next variety, 6, this legend varies :
&ri-Gupta-kulasya Maharajadhiraja-&rl-Candm-
gupta-Vikramankasya. 1 Inspite of his long reign
the number of silver coins of Candragupta II
are extremely rare. Some of these coins were
issued in the 9th decade of the first century of
the Gupta era and none issued in the eighth
decade are known, thus proving that while
Malava was captured before 82 G.E. 401 A.D.
Kathiawad was not captured till at least 409.
What was the exact cause for which Candra-
gupta II refrained from issuing a separate type
of silver coinage for Central India, which was
issued for the first time by his son Kumara-
gupta I, is not known to us.

The copper coinage of Candragupta II is
much better known and more varied than that
of his father Samudragupta. The first variety
shows the bust of the king on the obverse
and Garucja on the reverse with the legend

Ibid., pp. 49-51.

COPPEE COINAGE OF CANDRAGUPTA II. 229.

Maharaja-Candraguptah. In the next type the
three-quarters figure of ithe king is given at-
tended by a dwarf. On the reverse we see
Garuda with two hands in addition to the two
wings. There are several varieties in this type,
the distinguishing feature consisting of the
presence and absence of human arms in the
figure of Garuda. In the third type we find
the three-quarters length figure on the obverse
and Garuda on the reverse. While the legend
on the first and second types is Maharaja-
Candraguptah on the reverse, 1 that on the third
type is simply &ri-Candraguptah, on the fourth
type we find legends both on the obverse and
the reverse with the bust of the king on the
obverse. The obverse legend is Sri- Vikrama-
dityah and the reverse legend is Sri-Candra-
guptah. Copper coins of the fifth type show
Garuda standing on an altar with a snake in
its mouth and the simple legend Candraguptah.
On the obverse we find the bust of the king
as on type IV, but no legend. The sixth type
shows no altar on the reverse but the return
of the honorific epithet Sri in the legend,
the obverse legend being absent. Coins of the
seventh type are very small, being approximately
about one-third of an inch in diameter. On the
obverse we see the head of the king and on
the reverse the figure of Garuda holding a

1 Ibid., pp. 52-53.

230 COINAGE.

snake and the simple legend Candraguptah.
On the eighth type tha name of the king only is

given on the obverse in two lines ^ ^j and

the rest of it guptah below Garuda on the
reverse. In the last i.e., the ninth type the name
is still further shortened on obverse as Candra
and we find a vase on the reverse. 1

With the reign of Kumaragupta I Gupta
coinage reaches the highest point of excellence
and variety. The reign of Kumaragupta I
being also the best period of plastic activity, the
coins of this emperor are individual objects
of Art. "The majority of Kumaragupta Fs
gold coins follow the standard of about 126
grains introduced in Candragupta IFs reign
but traces of the early standard survive in the
Archer type ---- A remarkable uniformity is

observable in the specimen of the horseman
type, the commonest coinage of the reign ;
twenty-eight specimens average 125.9 grains
........ The light weight (115 grains) of the

'Pratapa' coin is explained by the traces of
the original type below, which show that it is
some foreign coin restruck, and the unique
elephant-rider coin (wt. 124.1 grains) is obvious-
ly of Kumaragupta's usual standard." 2

In the reign of Kumaragupta I the average
ordinary gold coin was the Horseman type,

i Tbid. t pp. 54-60. 2 Ibid., p. GXXX11I.

THE VARIETIES IN THE HORSEMAN TYPE. 231

which was introduced as a casual or freak type
by Candragupta II. The average ordinary
gold coin of the two previous reigns, with
the standing king on the obverse, of the
Standard or Archer type was not entirely given
up but issued in very small numbers. There
are several varieties in this type according to
the obverse legend :

"King standing, nimbate, to L, holding
arrow in r. hand and bow in L, as on
* Archer' type of Candragupta II, bow-
string inwards. Garuda standard on /.
(Ku) with crescent above beneath /. arm.
Reverse Goddess, nimbate, seated facing
on lotus, holding fillet in outstretched r.
hand and lotus in I. which rests on hip;
border of dots. Symbol 1 on Z."

In the first variety of the Archer type of
Kumaragupta I the obverse legend is Vijit
avanir=avanipatih Kumaragupto divam jayati ,
in the second the complete legend is not
available but it begins with jayati mahitalam,
it is the same in the third variety. In the
fourth variety the obverse legend is Parama-
rajadhiraja <&ri Kumaraguptah. In the fifth it
is Maharajadhiraja &n Kumaraguptah, in the
sixth it is Guneso mahltalam jayati Kumara
(Ghiptah), and in the seventh the obve
is exactly the same as in the fiftl

l Ibid., p. 61.

232 COINAGE.

all cases the reverse legend is &rl-Mahendrah. 1
The second type of the gold coinage is the
finely executed swordsman :

"Obverse King standing Z., nimbate wear-
ing waistcloth and jewellery, casting in-
cense with r. hand on altar on i!., while I.
hand rests on hilt of sword at his side.
Garuda standard on I.

Reverse Goddess (Laksmi), nimbate, seated
facing on lotus, holding fillet in out-
stretched r. hand and lotus in I. which
rests on hip; border of dots. Symbol
on I."

The circular legend on the obverse is Oam =
avajitya sucaritair = Kumaragupto divam jayati.
The reverse legend is fin-Kumaragupto. Like
his grand-father Samudragupta, Kumaragupta I
performed the Asvamedha sacrifice and issued
special coins for distribution, which are much
rarer than the Asvamedha type of Samudra-
gupta. There are only two coins of the
Asvamedha type of Kumaragupta I in the
British Museum :

" Obverse Horse standing r. wearing
breastband and saddle, before sacrificial
pole (yupa) on altar, the pennons from
which fly over its back. Legend uncer-
tain.

i Ibid., pp. 61-66.

THE AVAMEDHA TYPE OF KUMARAGUPTA I. 233

Reverse Queen standing I. nimbate, hold-
ing chowrie over r. shoulder and uncertain
object in I. hand wearing ear-rings,
necklace armlets and anklets. On /. is
a sacrificial spear bound with fillets ;
border of dots. No symbol." l

The Asvamedha type of Kumaragupta I is
to be distinguished from the same type of
Samudragupta by the presence of a legend on
the obverse, its weight and the >4d^$a-name of
Kumaragupta I on the reverse and the weight.
Six coins of the Asvamedha type of Samudra-
gupta weigh 118.3 grains but the first coin of
Kumaragupta I weighs 124.5 grains and the
second, with a ring, weighs 128.8 grains. The
obverse legend begins jayati divam Kumara and
on the second it contains the word Asvamedha.
The reverse legend on both coins is ri Asva-
medha-Mahendrah like the Asvamedha-Parak-
ramah of Samudragupta.

We come to the most numerous type of the
gold coinage of Kumaragupta I, the horseman.
In the beginning of this century the Horseman
type was classified according to the position of
the horse, i.e., horseman to the right and horse-
man to the left ; but at present they are divided
into three classes by Allan, with several varie-
ties in such classes. Class I shows the king
riding to the right on the obverse and a seated

i Ibid., p. 68.

234 COINAGE.

goddess facing the left holding a lotus with a
long stalk on the obverse in the first variety.
The circular legend on the obverse has not
been completely read. It runs : Prthvl-talam

divam jayaty^ajitah. 1 The obverse

legend on the second variety is Ksitipatir=ajito
vi jay I Mahendra-sinho divam jayati. 2 In the
circular legend on the third variety of Class I
Mahendra-sinho gives place to Kumaragupto*
In the second class of the Horseman type of
Kumaragupta I we find:

"Obverse King on horseback to r. as
before, but holding bow in I. hand with
string outwards and without sash.
Reverse Goddess ( Laksmi ? ) nimbate,
seated I. on wicker stool, holding lotus
with long stalk and leaves in L hand
behind and with r. hand feeding peacock
from bunch of fruit, which in this
variety is distinctly represented, border of
dots. No symbol."

There are several varieties in Class II; in
the first one the circular legend on the obverse
is Gupta - kulavyoma - xasi Jayaty = ajeyd-'jita-
Mahendrah. In the second variety of Class
II the legend changes into Gupta~kul=amala-
(Mndro-Mahendra-karm==ajito jayati. In this
variety the horse is going to the left. 4 The

i Ibid., p. 69. 2 ibid., p. 70.

3 Ibid., p. 71. * Ibid., p. 75.

THE LION-SLAYER TYPE. 235

reverse legend in all classes is Ajita-Mahendrah.
Another freak type of the gold coinage of
Kumaragupta I is the Lion-slayer type:

"Obverse King standing r. 9 wearing waist-
cloth with sash floating behind and
jewellery, shooting lion, which falls
backward on r. from leap, with bow in
I. hand r. drawn behind head.
Reverse Goddess (Ambika-Laksmi) nimbate
seated facing on lion couchant r., hold-
ing fillet in outstretched r. hand and
lotus in /. hand or lotus only; border
of dots. Symbol on Z." 1

There are four varieties according to differ-
ing legends. The legends on the first variety
are Saksadiva Narasimho Sinha-Mahendro
jayatyanisam on the obverse and &ri Mdhen-
dra-Sinhah 2 on the reverse. The reverse legend
on the second variety is the same but the
obverse legend is Ksitipatirajita-Mahendrah
Kumaragupto divam jayati. 3 In the third variety
the obverse legend is Kumaragupto vijayl Sinha-
Mahendro divam jayati and that on the obverse
simply Sinha-Mahendrah. In the fourth
variety the reverse legend is the same as in
the third but the obverse legend is Kumaragupto
yudhi Sinha-vikramahS The same legend
occurs with slight variation of spelling which

1 Ibid., p. 76. 2 Ibid., p. 77.

Ibid., p. 78. * Ibid., p. 80.

236 COINAGE.

Allan constitutes into a separate variety. In
his freak coinage Kumaragupta I closely fol-
lowed those of his father, so like the Lion-
slayer type there is a Tiger-slayer type also :
" Obverse King to L, wearing waistcloth,
jewellery, and head-dress, shooting tiger
which falls backwards on I. with bow
held in r. hand, I. hand drawing string
of bow; his r. foot tramples on tiger.
Crescent-topped standard bound with
fillet on I.

Reverse Goddess standing /. in lotus
plant (?) holding lotus with long stalk
behind her in L hand and feeding
peacock with fruit in r. hand; border of
dots. Symbol on Z."

The circular legend of the obverse is n-
mam vyaghra-vala-Parakramah and on the
reverse simply Kumaragupto-'dhiraja. l

A third freak type, the peacock type, is
remarkable as being the most beautiful ever
issued by a Gupta Mint master. Kumara
being one of the names of the divine general,
Karttikeya, the emperor Kumaragupta I identi-
fied himself with that divinity and issued
coins with his own figure on the obverse and
that of the god on the reverse:

" Obverse King, nimbate, standing I.,
wearing waistcloth with long sashes and

i Ibid., p. 81.

THE PEACOCK AND PRATAPA TYPES. 237

jewellery, feeding peacock from bunch of
fruit held in r. hand, L hand behind him.
Reverse Karttikeya, nimbate three-quar-
ters to Z., riding on his peacock Paravani,
holding spear in I. hand over shoulder
(3akti-dhara) 9 with r. hand sprinkling
incense on altar on r. (?) ; the peacock
stands on a kind of platform; border of
dots. No symbol."

The obverse legend has not been completely
read : Jayati sva-bhumau guna-rasi Mahendra
Kumarah, while the reverse legend is simply
Mahendra-Kumarah. 1 There are two other freak
types represented by one coin each, the attri-
bution of one of them only being certain. The
first of these is the Pratapa type, the name being
coined from the reverse legend &ri-Pratapa.
Allan thinks that this coin was re-struck on
another coin which was non-Indian :

"Obverse Male figure, wearing long loose
robe, with arms on breast (in jnanamudra
attitude), standing facing ; on his L female
figure to r., wearing long loose robe and
helmet, with shield on L arm, and holding
out r. hand (closely resembling Minerva) ;
on his r. a female figure wearing long loose
robe, standing I., holding out r. hand and
resting I. on hip ; the two latter appear to

i Ibid., p. 84.

238 COINAGE.

be addressing the central figure Garuda
standard behind central figure.
Reverse Goddess (Laksmi) seated facing
on lotus, holding lotus in uplifted r. hand
and resting L on knee ; border of dots."

On the obverse on either side of the central
figure is the name of the emperor in two vertical
lines. In addition to this there is a long marginal
legend which has not been read. 1 The second
unique coin is of the elephant-rider type. It
was discovered at Mahanad in the Hooghly district
of Bengal. Allan says that it was discovered
with an Archer coin of Kumaragupta I and an
Archer coin of Skandagupta and he is of opinion
that therefore the attribution to Kumaragupta
I is probable. There are legends both on the
reverse and the obverse which have not been
completely read. The type is also unique in
Gupta coinage:

"Obverse King holding rod in r. hand
seated on elephant which advances I. ;
behind him is seated an attendant holding
chattra over him.

Reverse Laksmi standing facing on lotus
flower, grasping stalk of lotus growing
beside her in her r. hand and holding lotus
flower in I. arm; uncertain object (vase?)
on I. ; border of dots. No 2 symbol."

1 Ibid., p. 87. t Ibid., p. 88.

KFMARAGTJPTA'S SILVBB COINAGE. 239

The silver coinage issued by Kumaragupta I
for circulation in Gujarat and Kathiawad is more
numerous and varied than that of his father
Chandragupta II. Allan divides the silver issues
into five classes of which the first three classes
were for circulation in the Western provinces e.g.
Gujarat and Kathiawad. In the first class we
find the bust of the king as on similar coins of
Candragupta II with the word varsha on the
left and degraded Greek letters to the right of
the bust. We see Garuda in the centre of the
obverse surrounded by a long marginal legend :
Paramabhagavata - Maharajadhiraja - &n- Kwmara-
gupta-Mahendradityah. 1 The reverse legend in
the second and third varieties of Class I is exactly
the same. 2 In Class II there is no trace of the
Greek letters on the obverse and the reverse
legend on the first variety is the same as in Class
I. In the second variety this legend begins
with Bhagavata instead of Pararaa. 3 The Greek
legend re-appears in the third class in the first
variety of which the emperor is called Maharaja-
dhiraja but in the second variety this title makes
way for Eajadhiraja, which reminds one of the
Great Kusaan title Rajatiraja.*

The reign of Kumaragupta I is remarkable for
the issue of a separate silver coinage for circu-
lation in Central India. Though the type is the

1 Ibid., pp. 89-94. 2 Ibid., pp. 94-96.

3 Ibid., pp. 96-98. * Ibid., pp. 98-107.

240 COINAGE.

same as the Western Indian coinage there are
slight variation. On the obverse we can see
the bust of the king with the date in Brahmi
numerals but there are no traces of the degenerate
Greek legend. On the reverse we find the peacock
in the place of the Garuda. Allan distinguishes
four varieties in this class. The reverse legend is
also characteristic of Northern Indian Gold
coinage : Vijit-avanir-avanipatih Kumaragupto
divam jayati. This legend is only slightly varied
in the fourth variety by having divi in the place of
divam. 1

One other class of the silver coinage of Kumara-
gupta I proves the great financial stress on the
Gupta Imperial treasury. These are silver-plated
copper coins of the Valabhi fabric, proving that at
Valabhi or in Kathiawad coins of the first class
had to be minted on little pieces of copper covered
with silver-plate during the reign of Kumaragupta
I owing to the scarcity of silver. These coins show
traces of the degenerate Greek legend on the
obverse and Garuda on the reverse, the surround-
ing legend being Parama-bhagavata-rajadhiraja-
&ri-Kumaragupta-Mahendradityah. The copper
coins of Kumaragupta I are very rare and Allan
divides them into two classes. In the first one
we see the king standing towards the left with
Garuda on the reverse. The reverse legend is
Kumaraguptah. In the second type of the copper

* Ibid., pp. 107-10.

GOLD COINAGE OF SKANDAGTJPTA. 241

coins we see an altar on the obverse below which
is the letter &n-Ku and the figure of the seated
goddess on the reverse.

The coinage of Skandagupta, the last great

emperor of the dynasty, is still imperfectly

known, as most of it still belongs to private

collectors like Rai Mani Lai Nahar Bahadur and

Mr. Puran Chand Nahar of Azimganj, district

Murshidabad, and many others. Only two or

three types of his gold coinage are known, of

which the Archer type was the general issue and

were coined on two different standards. At first

it was issued in the old standard of 132 grains :

" Obverse King standing I., nimbate, as on

preceding Archer types, holding bow in I.

and arrow in r. hand. Garuda standard

bound with fillet on I. Beneath Z, arm

(Skanda) .

Reverse Goddess (LaksmI) nimbate, seated
facing on lotus, holding fillet in out-
stretched r. hand and lotus in Z., which
rests on knee. Symbol on Z."

The reverse legend is simply firl-Skandaguptah.
There is a circular legend on the obverse but it has
not been completely restored or read as yet. It
runs as Jayati MahUalam sudhanvl. 1 Later on,
this Archer type was issued on the heavier
standard of the Suvarna (146.4 grains). In these
coins we see :

l Ibid., pp. 114-15.

16

242 COINAGE.

"Obverse King standing I as on early
Archer type, but wearing long sash.
Garuda standard on I. (Skanda) with
crescent above beneath I. arm. Eight
uncertain akaras followed by ( Jayati
divam ri-Kramadityah) (Metre : Upaglti).

Reverse Goddess (Laksmi) seated facing
on lotus as on preceding coins. Symbol
on L (Kramadityah)." 1

The only other known type of the gold coins of
Skandagupta is the king and Laksmi type :

" Obverse On /. Skandagupta standing to
r. wearing waistcloth and jewellery, holding
bow by middle at his L knee in I. hand,
while r. rests on r. hip holding arrow ; on
r. the goddess Laksmi standing 1. 9 holding
uncertain object in uplifted r. hand and
lotus with long stalk behind her in /. hand ;
between them Garuda standard. Legend
as on preceding type (?)
Reverse Goddess (Laksmi) nimbate, seated
facing on lotus, holding fillet in out-
stretched r. hand and lotus in I. which
rests on knee. Symbol on I. ($n-
Skandaguptah ) . "

The circular legend on the obverse has not been
read, but perhaps it is the same as in the lighter
Archer type. 2 The silver coinage of Skandagupta
is as varied as that of his father. The Garuda

1 Ibid., pp. 117-19. 2 ibid., pp. 116-17.

SILVER COINAGE OF SKANDAGUPTA. 243

type was issued for circulation in Western India
as we see the bust of the king surrounded by
traces of the Greek legend on the obverse and a
Garuda on the reverse. The reverse legend is
Pararnabhagavala - Maharajadhiraja - &n - Skanda-
gupta- Kramadity ah. 1 The second silver type is
the bull in which there is no Greek legend on the
obverse but Diva's bull, Nandin, on the reverse.
The legend on this type of the silver coinage is
always defective. The third type, the Altar type,
is remarkable 011 account of the title Vikramadilya
assumed by Skandagupta in it, because his usual
Aditya-n.&me on silver and copper coins is Km-
maditya. In this Altar type the Greek legend
re-appears once more on the obverse but on the
reverse we see a fire burning on an altar. The
legend is very often defective and runs as Para-
mabhagavala - &rl - Vikramaditya - Skandaguptah. 21
Allan divides the Altar type into two classes
according to the use of the term Kramaditya
instead of Vikramaditya* There are two classes
in the silver coinage of Skandagupta issued for
use in Central India. This Central Indian type
can be distinguished from the West Indian type
by the difference in the marginal legend on the
reverse. The West Indian type of the silver
coinage always begins with the word Paramabha-
gavata and the Central Indian Issue with Vijit-

i Ibid., pp. 119-21. 2 ibid., ppt 122-24.

8 Ibid., pp. 124-29.

244 COINAGE.

avanir-avani-patir-jayati, etc. ,. The Central Indian
Issue of Skandagupta are divided into two classes
according to a slight difference in the legend. In
both classes we find :

"Obverse Bust of Skandagupta r. ; date
in Brahmi numerals vertically on r.

Reverse Peacock standing facing with

wings and tail outspread ; border of dots."

The reverse legend is Vijit-avanir-avani-patir-

jayati-divam Skandagupto-yam on the first class, 1

and Vijit-avanir-avani-patih ri-Skandagupio

divam jayati 2 on the second.

With the death of the emperor Skandagupta
the great Gupta empire comes to an end and with
it practically Gupta coinage also. Skandagupta
was succeeded by his half-brother, Puragupta,
who issued gold coins only of the Archer type.
Like those of his great-grandfather Candragupta
II, Puragupta used the Aditya-n&me or biruda of
Vikkrama. In certain coins his name is to be
found in a vertical line beneath the left arm but
on certain coins the name is omitted. The circu-
lar legend has not been completely read or re-
stored as yet. Allan attributes certain enigmatic
coins with the Aditya-n&me Prakasaditya to Pura-
gupta and the subject will be discussed below.
In the British Museum collection there is only
one coin of Puragupta with the king's name under
the left arm and three others without the name of

l Ibid., p. 129. 5i ibid., pp. 1*2-33.

COINS OF SKAKDAGUPTA'S SUCCESSORS. 245

the king. Therefore this king could not have
reigned for more than a year or two. His son and
successor Narasiriihagupta appears to have reigned
a little longer as the British Museum possesses 12
coins in all of this king. All coins of Narasirh-
hagupta are of gold and of the Archer type which
is the only type known from the days of Skanda-
gupta to those of his brother's grandson Kumara-
gupta II. The Archer type of Narasiriihagupta is
divided into two classes according to the fabric.
The coins of a ruder fabric fall into the second
class and appear to have been issued at a time of
great pressure. The coins of this king are very
heavy, being 143.5 to 148.7 grains. 1 The young
king Kumaragupta II was the son of Narasiriiha-
gupta and like his father and grandfather issued
coins of the Archer type only. His biruda is
Kramadityah like Skandagupta. Like the coins of
Narasiriihagupta Baladitya the coins of Kumara-
gupta II are divided into two classes according to
the fabric. The coins of the finer fabric weigh
from 139.5 to 143 grains ; but those of the ruder
fabric from 146 to 151 grains. The second class
shows a long circular legend Maharajadhiraja-ftn-
Kumarayupta- Kramadityah. On both of these
classes, only the first syllable of the king's
name Ku is legible. 2

The regular Gupta dynasty known to us from
inscriptions and coins ends with Kumaragupta II.

i Ibid., pp. 137-39. * Ibid., pp. 140-43.

246 COINAGE.

We know now from inscriptions that the reign of
Kumaragupta II Kramaditya ended sometime be-
fore 157 G.E.^476-77 A.D. and that within three
years of this date Budhagupta was in possession of
Benares, because an inscription of this king dated
G.E. 157-476-77 A.D. has been discovered at
that place. Moreover in G.E. 163 Budhagupta
was ruling over Northern Bengal and in G.E, 165
he was acknowledged as the ruler of Malava. We
have therefore a series of coins and inscriptions
proving that Budhagupta ruled the country from
Northern Bengal in the East to Eraii or North-
eastern Malava to the West. This king did not
issue any gold coins unless we are prepared to
accept the gold coins of the very rude horseman
type bearing the Aditya-mime Prakavaditya as his
coins. The silver coins of the Central Indian
type introduced into the Gupta empire by Ku-
maragupta I are also very rare. Only one such
coin bearing the date G.E. 175 494-95 A.D, and
issued by Budhagupta is known. In Eastern
India Budhagupta was succeeded by Bhanugupta,
who is known to us from the Eran pillar in-
scription of the widow of the general Goparaja,
dated G.E. 191-510-11. A D., and the last Damo-
darpur copper plate dated 224 G.E. =543-44 A.D.
The relationship of Budhagupta to Kumaragupta
I has been surmised but that of Bhanugupta to
Budhagupta is not known. Bhanugupta did not
issue any coins, which have been discovered up to
this time.

LATER GUPTA COINAGE. 247

After Budhagupta the Gupta emperors conti-
nued to reign in Eastern India and a number
of them are known from their coins only.
Allan places the following Gupta kings after
Kumaragupta IT:

(a) Candragupta III Dvadamditya.

(b) Visnugupta Candraditya.

(c) Gh&ottk&c&guptfi-Kramridifya.

(d) Sa,m&c'a,Y&-Nare)idraditya.

(e) Jaya-Prakandayasa.
(/) Vlrasena-Kramaditya.
(<?) Harigupta.

Out of these kings Samacara Narendraditya
has been identified with Samacaradeva men-
tioned as the ruling chief in a copper plate
from Faridpur by Mr. Nalinikanta Bhattasali, 1
M.A., Curator of the Dacca Museum. Ghatot-
kacagupta may be identified with the king of
Malava mentioned in the recently discovered
inscription from Mandasor. 38 Of the remaining
kings Candragupta III and Visnugupta are
regular Gupta kings with proper Adilya'-nsiwes.
Jayagupta is also a Gupta king, as restored
from a copper coin; but the Jayagupta who is
known from gold coins of the Archer type is
perhaps a distinct person as his biruda is not
a proper Aditya* name. Similarly Samacara-

1 Ephi , Jnd. Vol. XVI II, pp. 7/-W.

2 See ante, p. 66 *

3 Catalogue of Indian coins Gupta dynasty, pp. 144-46.
* Ibid., pp. 150-51.

248 COINAGE.

deva and Vlrasena may or may not be Gupta
kings, because they have Aditya-n&mes but their
names are different. Moreover, Vlrasena may
be a name without the affix Gupta similar
to that of Adityasena in the later Gupta
dynasty of Magadha. Vlrasena introduces a
new type, the Bull on his gold coins which is
perhaps borrowed from the bull type of $a-
safika of Gauda 1 or the silver Bull type of
Skandagupta.

Later Gupta coinage introduces us to the
problems of identifications of these kings,
beginning with Candragupta III and ending
with Vlrasena. Unless some more inscriptions
are discovered like the Mandasor inscription
mentioning Govindagupta and Ghatotkacagupta
and the Ghugrahati plate of Samacaradeva,
there is no chance of identifying and locating
these later Gupta emperors. Allan is inclined
to assign the horseman type of the coins of
Prakasaditya to Puragupta, but so long as a
coin of this type is not discovered bearing
the name of Puragupta it will be difficult to
accept this identification. The figure of the
Horseman is quite different from that on the
gold coinage of Candragupta II and Kumara-
gupta I. The specimens of the horseman type
of Prakasaditya all show a degenerate horse
in which a rider is out of proportion and the

l Ibid. , pp. 147-52.

PRAKASADITVTA'S COINS. 249

horse a sorry specimen of the die-sinker's art.
This certainly shows that these coins were
issued at a time when the die-sinker's art had
very much degenerated. It appears to me that
the syllable Ru, beneath the horse is the first
syllable of the name of some other Gupta king
(? Rudragupta) who is not known to us from
any other source. The weight of the coins of
Prakasaditya vary from 136 to 146*2 grains
which would certainly indicate some period of
coinage between Kumaragupta I and Narasirhha-
gupta Baladitya :

" Ob verse King to r. on horseback, slaying
with sword in r. hand, lion which leaps
at him; bow round his body, with string
over L shoulder, Garuda standard on r.
Reverse Goddess (Laksmi), nimbate,
seated facing on lotus, holding fillet in r.
hand and lotus in /., which rests on
knee. Symbol on Z." 1

Long after the close of the 6th century A.D.
coins of the type of the Imperial Guptas con-
tinued to be struck in Eastern Bengal for local
circulation. In weight they did not even ap-
proach the Kushan standard of 118-19 grains,
not to speak of the Suvarna Standard of the
reign of Skandagupta or Narasimhagupta
Baladitya, i.e., 146*5 grains. Three such coins
in the British Museum weigh 81*7, 86'5 and

1 Ibid., pp. 135-6.

250 COINAGE.

02*5 grains. Many such coins have been col-
lected for the Dacca Museum by Mr. Nalinikanta
Bhattasali, M.A., during recent years. These
coins are found in the districts of Dacca and
Faridpur for the most part. In 1925-26 similar
coins were discovered at Sabhar in the Northern
part of the Dacca district and purchased for
the Indian Museum, Calcutta. These coins
generally show the figure of the king standing
on the obverse with the letter Sri and a horse,
and a standing or seated goddess with a
meaningless copy of a legend in Gupta charac-
ters on the reverse. The best preserved coin
in the collection of the British Museum is
described by Allan in the following words :

"Obverse King standing /., holding bow

in /. hand and arrow in r. ; on r, a

horse; on /. 'horseheaded (?) standard.

Border of dots. Above on L (Sri).
Reverse Goddess standing r.; border of

dots. On r. meaningless copy of Gupta

inscr. (?). 551

* Ibid. , p. 154.

Published by the Benares Hindu University and printed by P. Knight,
Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta.

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Plate IV.

DJM (Yam ' of the (lupta temple ai Bhumra, Nagod State,
Central India.

Plate V.

Stone door-frame of the temple of the Gupta period, at Dah Parvatiya,
near Tezpur, Assam.

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Plate VII.

. . JL.

Temple of Dasavatara at the roof of Deogadh Hill

Jhansi District.
(I'hoto by 1'andit (rovind Malftviya, M. A., LL. />.)

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Plate, X

Carved door-lrame from the temple of Mundesvar. ,
Sahabad District, Bihar.

(Photo by J. C. French, Z C' % &)

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Plate XIV.

Pillar of Garuda, dedicated in G. E. 165 by Matrivishru at Eran,
Sagar District, C, P

X

Plate XVII.

(b) Brick bt;.mped with the
name of Kumaragupta from
Saiyadpur Bh atari, Ghaxipur
District, V. P. (Lucknow Mu-
seum No. B 879.)

(a) JAnya dedicated in G. E. IT*

during the reign of
Kumaragupta I, from Karamdanda,
District Gonda U. P. (L ucknow
Museum.)

frate XVlJl.

Image of the 24th Tirtkatikara Varddhamana Mahavira, dedicated

at Mathura during the reign of Kumaragupta in

(j. li. 113 (Lucknow Museum.)

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Plate XX

Buddha in the Dharina-cakra-mudra from Sarnath, Benares.
(SarnathjMuseum.)

Plate XXI.

Fuddba in the Jlhttn<i$j arsa Mudra from Sarnath Benares
(Sarnath Museum.)

6

Plate XXII.

Buddha in the Abhaya Mudra, 9 from Sultang-anj,

District Bhagalpur, Bihar.

(Birming-ham Museum).

Plate XXtll.

Lokesvara Padmapani from Sarnath, Benares.
(Sarnath Museum No. B(a) 1).

Plnte XXIV

Ekamukba linga from ruined temple on the road from Khoh tq
Parasmania, Nagod State, Central India.

X

X

Plate XXVII.

Door-jamb from Bhilsa, Gwalior State, C. I. (Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston.)

Plate XXIX.

Scenes from Buddha's life (l)a. Maya's dream \ Birth

of Buddha, c. the first bath, (2) the Santlodhi,

(3) Dharmu-zakra-pravartana, (4) The Miracle

of Sravasti and (5) Devaoatara, from Sarnath,

Benares (Indian Museum No. S. L)

Plate XXX

Four principal incidents of Buddha's life (1) Birth

(2) tiambotlhi, (3) 7> bar ma-cakra-jvravar tana and

(4) Death, from Sarnath, Benares, (Indian Museum

No. S. 2.)

Plate XXXI.

(1) Deoaoalar'i, (2)
and (3) tfanibodhi) Stele from Sarnath, Benares,
dedicated by the Buddhist Monk Harigupta.
(Indian Museum, Calcutta.)

Plate XXXII.

The Miracle of Sravasti, from Sarnath, Benares
(Indian Museum No. S, 5 )

Plate XXXIII.

Arjuna's penance and departure from heaven on Indra's chariot,

bas-relief on pillar from Rajaona, Munger district Bihar,

(Indian Museum, Calcutta.)

Plate XXXIV.

Arjuna receiving the boon from Siva and later seeing Siva and Durga

on Kailasa, bas-relief on pillar from Rajacna, Munger

District! Bihar, (Indian Museum, Calcutta.)

Plate XXXV.

(a) Scene from Rama's life, deta tched bas-relief from
the Dasavatara Temple at Deogadh, Jhansi District.

Plate XXXV.

(b) Unidentified bas-reliet on the main shrine, Dasavatara
Jhansi'DistrictiU P.

X
X
X

10

Plate XXX VI I.

Ananta-tiuyya ol Visnu in niche of the Dasavatira teirple at llie foot

of Deogadh hill, Jhansi District.
(Photo tnj J\in<(it Gooind MuhtwyOi M* A

Plate X'

Plate XXXIX.

The figure of the K.irth Goddess on the Boar, Yaraha Cave, Udaigiri,
Bhilsa, (Iwalior State.

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Plate XLI.

Ornamental brick from Bilsad, Etah district, U. P.

(Lucknow Museum.)