North Indian Inscriptions

POLITICAL HISTORY

parākrama. Of these the first is found on his coins of the Archer type, and in the amplified form of pṛithivyām =apratiratha in line 24 of the Allahabad pillar inscription and epigraphic records of his successors. The second, Kṛitānta-paraśu, occurs on the Battle-axe Type coins of the monarch, and is associated with the name of Samudragupta in the inscriptions of his successors. The next three epithets of this monarch are connected with the term Parākrama. In the first place, he was Parākrama or Valour Incarnate, and is, therefore, called Parākrama on his coins. The Allahabad pillar inscription gives the epithet Parākramāṅka, which must mean “he whose appellation (aṅka) is Parākrama.”¹ Then this Parākrama has also been joined to vyāghra, and he becomes Vyāghra-parākrama. What this appellation signifies may be seen from how he figures on the coins which give him this designation. There the king is represented as “trampling on a tiger which falls backwards as he shoots it with bow.”² This means that Samudragupta was fond of hunting and took particular delight in tiger hunting. Even now when guns and powder are used for hunting a tiger, it is by no means considered to be a small feat to bag that wild animal. What daring, sharpness of aim and quick action are required of a huntsman who shoots a tiger with an arrow can easily be imagined. It is, therefore, no wonder if an appellation like Arthaśāstra to develop a liking for hunting.³ If Samudragupta’s parākrama was thus remarkable on hunting grounds, it was equally remarkable on the battle fields. It is therefore no wonder, if he brought the whole of India under his sway, celebrated a Horse Sacrifice, and assumed another appellation expressive of this valour, namely, Aśvamēdha-parākrama. As the common factor of these combinations, namely, of Vyāghra-parākrama and Aśvamēdha-parākrama is Parākrama, and as Parākrama by itself also forms his epithet, Samudragupta appears to have been regarded as Parākrama par excellence just as his son, Chandragupta II was Vikrama, and his grandson, Kumāragupta I, Mahēndra, pre-eminently.

       There were other epithets and appellations which we find conjoined to the name of Samudragupta in later Gupta inscriptions. Thus the fragmentary Mathura inscription (No. 10 below) and the Bilsad record (No. 16 below) of the time of Chandragupta II and Kumāragupta I respectively, and the Nālandā plate of Samudragupta (No. 3 below) couple the following with the name of the last mentioned king: (1) Sarva-rāj-ōchhchēttā, (2) Pṛithivyām=apratirathaḥ, (3) Chatur-udadhi-salil-āsvādita-yaśāḥ, (4) Dhanada-Varuṇ-Ēndr-Āntaka-samaḥ, (5) Kṛitānta-paraśuḥ, (6) Nyāy-āgat-ānēka-gō-hiraṇya-kōṭi-pradaḥ, and (7) Chir-ōtsann-Āśvamēdh-āharttā. Of these the fourth appellation, namely, Dhanada-Varuṇ-Ēndr-Āntaka-samaḥ, occurs in line 26 of the Allahabad inscription and the fifth, namely, Kṛitānta-paraśuḥ, on his coins. It is worthy of note that some of these epithets are found associated with the name of Chandragupta II in the Poona plates of Prabhāvatiguptā.⁴ They are (1) Pṛithivyām=apratirathaḥ, (2) Sarva-rāj-ōchchhēttā, (3) Chatur-udadhi-salil-āsvādita-yaśāḥ, and (4) Ānēka-gō-hiraṇya-kōṭi-sahasra-pradaḥ. The first three of the latter group are identical with the first three of the former, and the fourth of the latter is practically the same as the sixth of the former. The third epithet in the first group, again, is associated with the name of Kumāragupta I in inscription No. 21 below, and the fourth is of such a generic character that it may be borne by any king, Gupta or non- Gupta, and, was, in fact, borne even by a Chalukya feudatory in the south, as we will see shortly. The fifth and the seventh may alone be taken to be epithets peculiar to Samudragupta.

       But what about the three epithets common to Samudragupta and Chandragupta II,
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¹ See note on this appellation in the translation of the Allahabad pillar inscription (No. 1, below).
² Allan, Catalogue of the Coins of the Gupta Dynasty, p. 17.
³ Arthaśāstra, ed. by Shama Sastri, Mysore, 1919, 8.3.119 (p. 329).
⁴ Ep. Ind., Vol. XV, pp. 39-44, and Plate.