North Indian Inscriptions

POLITICAL HISTORY

kula, who must have ruled for at least fifteen years, as is clear from a Gwalior inscription.¹ In this connection we have to take note of a third inscription from Ēraṇ (No. 43 below), dated Gupta year 191=509-10 A.D. It speaks of Bhānugupta and Gōparāja as having fought against and defeated the Maitras, apparently in the region of Airikiṇa. As the first of these names ends in gupta, it raises the presumption that Bhānugupta was a Gupta sovereign. This receives support from the fact that he has been called rājā mahān and Pārtha-samō. It seems that Bhānugupta was a supreme ruler, and Gōparaja, his chieftain, the former having presumably succeeded Budhagupta overthrown by Tōramāṇa and that this Gupta sovereign seems to be no other than Narasiṁhagupta-Bālāditya about whom we have to take note of what Yuan Chwang has said about Mihirakula, king of Śākala.² The latter, for some reason, was prejudiced against the Buddhist Church and was therefore bent upon its extermination. At that time Bālāditya, king of Magadha, being a zealous Buddhist, rebelled against the order of the presecution of the Buddhists. When Mihirakula proceeded to invade the territory of Bālāditya, the latter accompanied by his men withdrew to an island. Mihirakula came in pursuit, and was taken prisoner. On the petition of Bālāditya’s mother, the prisoner was set free. His younger brother, having taken possession of Śākala, Mihirakula took refuge in Kashmir of which he made himself master by treachery. This account of the Chinese pilgrim may, on the whole, be taken as worthy of credence. The only flaw noticeable in it is that Yuan Chwang places the event “some centuries previously” to his time. But similar flaws are noticeable also in his account, e.g., of Harshavardhana, king of Kanauj, although he was his own contemporary. This king Bālāditya of Magadha has rightly been taken to be the Narasiṁhagupta-Bālāditya³ of the coins. He represents Bālāditya to be a staunch adherent of Buddhism.

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This is corroborated not only by Paramārtha’s testimony of the interest displayed in Buddhism by Bālāditya but also by inscriptions. Narasiṁhagupta-Bālāditya was succeeded by Kumāragupta III, known from two seals of his (Nos. 45 and 46 below)---one, the Nālandā clay seal, and the other, the Bhitarī copper-silver seal. Neither of the seals furnishes him with a date. They do, however, inform us that his mother was Mitradēvī. Who succeeded Kumāragupta III is not definitely known. But the fifth Dāmōdarpur plate, with a date later than 200, shows that the Gupta power continued in the province up till that time (No. 47 below). Unfortunately, only the suffix-gupta has survived, and many scholars have made attempts to restore the full name. But, as pointed out above, in Inscription No. 47 below, it is, in all likelihood (Vishṇu)-gupta, as coins have been found of one Vishṇu-(gupta)-Chandrāditya who is supposed to be the last Gupta king who issued gold coinage of the type of the earlier dynasty.⁴ There is, again, some doubt in regard to the exact reading of the date. Basak who edited the plate reads it as 214, whereas Rao Bahadur Dikshit takes it to be 224. The correct reading, however, seems to be 211. This suits excellently in every way, because there is an inscription engraved in duplicate on who ‘pillars of victory’, found at Mandasōr, which speaks of a king named Yaśōdharman, who enjoyed territories which were never enjoyed by the Gupta lords and where even the sway of the paramount Hūṇa sovereigns did not penetrate, who was the overlord of “the chieftains as far as the river Lauhitya (Brahmaputra), Mount Mahēndra, the Snow Mountain (Himālaya) whose peaks are clasped by the Gaṅgā, and as far as the Western Ocean,” and, above all, to whom homage was done by Mihirakula
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¹ CII., Vol. III, 1888, No. 37, pp. 161 ff.
² Thomas Watters: On Yuan Chwang, Vol. I, pp. 288-89.
³ Ind. Ant., Vol. XV, pp. 245 ff. and 346 ff.
⁴ Since the above was written, a clay seal of Vishṇugupta has been found at Nālandā and published by Krishna Deva (Inscription No. 48 below).