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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
The following history of the reign of the great conqueror, Samudra Gupta, who was emperor of Northern India, and made extensive, though temporary, conquests in the south, about the middle of the fourth century of the Christian era, is offered as a specimen of the author's projected “Ancient History of Northern India from the Monuments.” Though that projected history may never be completed, I venture to think that fragments of it may not be altogether valueless, and that they may suffice to prove that even now the materials exist for the construction of an authentic and fairly readable “History of Ancient India.”
page 20 note 1 mulkgīrī in Persian.
page 20 note 2 This panegyric (praçasti) is engraved on.the pillar now in the fort of Allahabad, on which a copy of the edicts of Aśōka is also inscribed. “The inscription is non-sectarian, being devoted entirely to a recital of the glory, conquests, and descent of the early Gupta king Samudragupta. It is not dated; but, as it describes Samudragupta as deceased, it belongs to the time of his son and successor, Candragupta II, and must have been engraved soon after the accession of the latter [i.e. about a.d. 380]. Its great value lies in the abundant information which, in the conquests attributed to Samudragupta, it gives as to the divisions of India, its tribes, and its kings, about the middle of the fourth century a.d.” The historical portion of the record is in nearly perfect preservation. The inscription consists of thirty-three lines, of which I the first sixteen are in verse and the rest in prose. The language is good classical Sanskrit. The inscription possesses special literary interest, because it is one of the earliest long compositions in classical Sanskrit to which a definite date can be assigned with confidence. The panegyric was composed by Hariṣēṋa, who held several high offices at the court of Candra Gupta II, and the inscription was engraved under the superintendence of an official named Tilabhaṭṭaka. The metres of the metrical portion are Sragdharā, Çārdūlavikriṷiia, and Mandākrāntā. (Fleet, , “Gupta Inscriptions,” No. 1, pp. 1–17, pl. i.)Google Scholar
page 21 note 1 Line 5. “The fame produced by much poetry.”
Line 15. “And even poetry, which gives free vent to the mind of poets; all these are his.”
Line 27. “Who established his title of king of poets by various poetical compositions that were fit to be the means of subsistence of learned people.”
page 21 note 2 Lines 5, 15, 27, 30.
page 22 note 1 Dowson, "A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology," etc., s.v. Aswa-Medha.
page 22 note 2 The restoration of the practice of the horse sacrifice is referred to in three inscriptions, viz. the Bilsaṛ pillar (No. 10); the Bihār pillar (No. 12); and the Bhitarī pillar (No. 13). The passage in line 2 of the last-mentioned record runs thus: “Who was the giver of many millions of lawfully acquired cows and gold; who was the restorer of the asvarmēdha sacrifice, which had been long in abeyance” (“Gupta Inscriptions,” p. 54).
page 22 note 3 Smith, V. A., “Observations,” p. 97Google Scholar, and frontispiece. The image was found near the ancient fort of Khairigaṛh, in the Khērī district, on the frontier of Oudh and Nepāl.
page 23 note 1 These coins have been very fully described by the author in “Coinage,” p. 65; "Observations," p. 97. The obverse legend includes the title Rājādhirāja, and a boast of the conquest of the earth. The reverse legend is açvamēdha parākramaḩ, “with the power of the horse-sacrifice.” The style of these medals, which connects them with the medal-like Tiger and Lyrist types, indicates an early period in the reign.
page 23 note 2 Smith, V. A., “Coinage,” p. 67Google Scholar; “Observations,” p. 100.
page 23 note 3 Smith, V. A., “Coinage,” p. 64Google Scholar; “Observations,” p. 96; “Further Observations,” p. 6 (168). Only three of these pieces are known.
page 23 note 4 The fact that Pāṭaliputra was the Gupta capital was suggested by Cunningham, in 1880 (“Reports,” vol. xi, p. 153)Google Scholar, and was distinctly asserted ten years earlier by MrOldham, Wilton (“Hist, and Statistical Memoir of the Ghazipur District,” part i, p. 38)Google Scholar. The detailed proofs of the fact were first given by the author in his essay on the “Gold Coins of the Imperial Gupta Dynasty” (J.A.S.B., vol. liii, part i, 1884, pp. 159–163)Google Scholar. DrFleet, was inclined to throw doubt on the fact (“Gupta Inscriptions,” p. 5)Google Scholar, and to revert to the earlier and erroneous view that Kanauj was the Gupta capital. He has been answered by DrBühler, (“On the Origin of the Gupta-Valabhi Era,” p. 13)Google Scholar.
page 24 note 1 The forged grant purporting to have been issned by Samudra Gupta from his “victorious camp” at Ayōdhyā was probably prepared about the beginning of the eighth century. The seal is evidently genuine, and must have at one time been attached to a genuine grant of Samudra Gupta. There is, therefore, reason to hope that other contemporary documents of his reign may yet be found (“Gupta Inscriptions,” No. 60, pp. 254–7, pl. xxxvii).
page 25 note 1 The substitution of Kauśāmbi for Pāṭaliputra as the capital of the Gupta empire will be more fully discussed in the next chapter.
page 25 note 2 The first of the legends quoted is found on the Javelin type coins, the second on the coins of the Archer type, and the third on the Battle-axe coins, which actually exhibit the king as the incarnation of Death, carrying the fatal axe. (Smith, , “Coinage,” pp. 69–72Google Scholar; “Observations,” pp. 101–2.)
page 26 note 1 Aśōka himself was viceroy of Taxila during the reign of his father, Bindusāra, and, according to legend, Aśōka's son Kumãla resided at Taxila (Cunningham, , “Reports,” vol. ii, pp. 112, 113, 149Google Scholar, quoting Burnouf, , “Introduction à l'Histoire du Buddhisine Indien,” pp. 361 and 40Google Scholar; Tsiang, Hiuen, in Beal's “Records of Western Countries,” i, pp. 139–143)Google Scholar. The Yavana Rāja, Tuṣāspa, was Aśōka's governor in Surāṣṭra, or Gūjarāt (Rudradāinan's, Jūnāgaṛh inscription, Ind. Ant., vii, p. 262)Google Scholar.
page 26 note 2 Fleet, , “Gupta Inscriptions,” No. 2, p. 18, pi. iiaGoogle Scholar. Eraṇ was one of the most ancient cities of India, and some of the coins found there appear to he older than the time of Aśōka. The buildings there seem all to date from the Gupta period (Cunningham, , “Reports,” vol. vii, p. 88Google Scholar; vol. x, pl. 76 seqq.). The coins are described by the same author (“Reports,” vol. xiv, p. 149; “Coins of Ancient India,” p. 99, pl. xi). The coin, of which the legend is read from right to left, is commented on by Bühler in his paper “On the Origin of the Indian Brāhma Alphabet,” pp. 3, 43 (Sitzunga B. Kais-Akad. der W. in Wien, Band cxxxii, 1895).
page 27 note 1 The detailed reasoning on which the identification of the countries and kings conquered by Samudra Gupta is based will be found in the author's dissertation entitled “The Conquests of Samudra Gupta,” not yet published.
page 27 note 2 See Fleet's, note in “Gupta Inscriptions,” p. 13Google Scholar. The name Narbadā. is also written Narmadā, and, in less precise form, Nerbudda.
page 28 note 1 Candravarmaa may be, and probably ought to be, identified with the Mahārāja Candravariman, son of Mahārāja Siddhavarman, lord of the Puṣkara lake, who recorded a brief dedicatory inscription on the Susuniā hill, in the Bānkurā district, seventeen miles SSW. from the Rānīganj railway station (Proc. A.SB. for 1895, p. 177). The Puṣkara lake referred to may be the well-known sacred lake of that name near Ājmīr, but this is not probable.
page 28 note 2 The enumeration, arranged alphabetically, is as follows:—
page 30 note 1 (1) Abhīra, (2) Arjunāyana, (3) Kāka, (4) Kharaparika, (5) Madraka, (6) Mālava, (7) Prārjnna, (8) Sanakānika, (9) Yaudhēya.
page 31 note 1 For a discussion of the vast changes during historical times in the courses of the Bengal rivers see MrShillingford's, valuable paper “On Changes in the Course of the Kusī River” in J.A.S.B., vol. lxiv, pt. i (1895), p. 1Google Scholar, and Proc. A.S.B. for Feb. 1895.
page 33 note 1 Dr. Fleet supposes the term garutmad-anka to refer to the Gupta gold coins, or dīnārs, of which some types exhibit, among other devices, a standard surmounted by the fabulous bird, garuḍa, which appears to have been the special cognizance of the Gupta family.
page 33 note 2 Cunningham gives the date as a.d. 358. Gibbon, while admitting that the chronology offers some difficulties, prefers a.d. 360.