The great Vaishnava the supreme ruler of great kings, Skandagupta the Sun of Prowess.[45]
Chapter VII.
The Guptas, a.d. 410–470.
Skandagupta, a.d. 454–470. The beginning of Skandagupta’s reign has been placed about Gupta 133 or a.d. 453: his latest known date on a coin in General Cunningham’s collection is Gupta 149 or a.d. 469.[46]
Budhagupta, a.d. 485.With Skandagupta the regular Gupta succession ceases.[47] The next Gupta is Budhagupta who has a pillar inscription[48] in a temple at Eraṇ in the Saugor district dated 165 (a.d. 485) and silver coins dated Saṃvat 174 and 180 odd (a.d. 494–500 odd). Of Budhagupta’s relation or connection with Skandagupta nothing is known. That he belonged to the Gupta dynasty appears from his name as well as from his silver coins which are dated in the Gupta era and are the same in style as the eastern coins of Skandagupta. On the obverse is the usual bust as in Skandagupta’s coins with the date (174, 180 odd) near the face. On the reverse is the usual peacock and the legend is the same as Skandagupta’s:
देवं जयति विजितावनिरवनिपति श्री बुधगुप्तो
Devaṁ jayati vijitávaniravanipati Śrí Budhagupto.
The king the illustrious Budhagupta who has conquered the earth conquers the Deva.[49]
Since the coins are dated Saṃvat 174 and 180 odd (a.d. 494 and 500 odd) and the inscription’s date is 165 (a.d. 485) the inscription may be taken to belong to the early part of Budhagupta’s reign the beginning of which may be allotted to about 160–162 (a.d. 480–482). As this is more than ten years later than the latest known date of Skandagupta (G. 149 a.d. 469) either a Gupta of whom no trace remains must have intervened or the twelve blank years must have been a time of political change and disturbance. The absence of any trace of a gold currency suggests that Budhagupta had less power than his predecessors. The correctness of this argument is placed beyond doubt by the pillar inscription opposite the shrine in the Eraṇ temple where instead of his predecessor’s title of monarch of the whole earth Budhagupta is styled protector of the land between the Jamna (Kálindí) and the Narbadá implying the loss of the whole territory to the east of the Jamna.[50] In the west the failure of Gupta power seems still more complete. Neither in Gujarát nor in Káthiáváḍa has an inscription or even a coin been found with a reference to Budhagupta or to any other Gupta ruler later than Skandagupta (G. 149 a.d. 469). The pillar inscription noted above which is of the year 165 (a.d. 485) and under the rule of Budhagupta states that the pillar was a gift to the temple by Dhanya Vishṇu and his brother Mátṛi Vishṇu who at the time of the gift seem to have been local Bráhman governors. A second inscription on the lower part of the neck of a huge Boar or Varáha image in a corner shrine of the same temple records that the image was completed on the tenth day of Phálguna in the first year of the reign of
Chapter VII.
The Guptas, a.d. 410–470.
Budhagupta, a.d. 485. Toramáṇa the supreme ruler of great kings and was the gift of the same Dhanya Vishṇu whose brother Mátṛi Vishṇu is described as gone to heaven.[51] Since Mátṛi was alive in the Budhagupta and was dead in the Toramáṇa inscription it follows that Toramáṇa was later than Budhagupta. His name and his new era show that Toramáṇa was not a Gupta. A further proof that Toramáṇa wrested the kingdom from Budhagupta is that except the change of era and that the bust turns to the left instead of to the right, Toramáṇa’s silver coins are directly adapted from Gupta coins of the eastern type. Certain coin dates seem at variance with the view that Toramáṇa flourished after Budhagupta. On several coins the date 52 is clear. As Toramáṇa’s coins are copies of the coins of Kumáragupta and Skandagupta and as most of these coins have a numeral for one hundred the suggestion may be offered that a one dropped out in striking Toramáṇa’s die and that this date should read 152 not 52. Accepting this view Toramáṇa’s date would be 152 (a.d. 472) that is immediately after the death of Skandagupta.
The Gwálior inscription[52] mentions prince Mihirakula as the son of Toramáṇa and a second inscription from a well in Mandasor[53] dated Málava Saṃvat 589 (a.d. 533) mentions a king named Yaśodharman who was ruler of Málwa when the well was built and who in a second Mandasor inscription[54] is mentioned as having conquered Mihirakula. This would separate Mihirakula from his father Toramáṇa (a.d. 471) by more than sixty years. In explanation of this gap it may be suggested that the [1]52 (a.d. 472) coins were struck early in Toramáṇa’s reign in honour of his conquest of the eastern Gupta territory. A reign of twenty years would bring Toramáṇa to 177 (a.d. 497). The Gwálior inscription of Mihirakula is in the fifteenth year of his reign that is on the basis of a succession date of 177 (a.d. 497) in Gupta 192 (a.d. 512). An interval of five years would bring Yaśodharman’s conquest of Mihirakula to 197 (a.d. 517). This would place the making of the well in the twenty-first year of Mihirakula’s reign.
Bhánugupta, a.d. 511.After Budhagupta neither inscription nor coin shows any trace of Gupta supremacy in Málwa. An Eraṇ inscription[55] found in 1869 on a liṅga-shaped stone, with the representation of a woman performing satí, records the death in battle of a king Goparájá who is mentioned as the daughter’s son of Sarabharája and appears to have been the son of king Mádhava. Much of the inscription is lost. What remains records the passing to heaven of the deceased king in the very destructive fight with the great warrior (pravíra) Bhánugupta brave as Pártha. The inscription is dated the seventh of dark Bhádrapada Gupta 191 in words as well as in numerals that is in a.d. 511. This Bhánugupta would be the successor of Budhagupta ruling over a petty Málwa principality which lasted till nearly the time of the great Harshavardhana the beginning of the seventh century (a.d. 607–650), as a Devagupta of Málwa is one of Rájyavardhana’s rivals in the Śríharshacharita. While Gupta power failed in Málwa
Chapter VII.
The Guptas, a.d. 410–470.
Bhánugupta, a.d. 511. and disappeared from Western India a fresh branch of the Guptas rose in Magadha or Behár and under Naragupta Báláditya, perhaps the founder of the eastern branch of the later Gupta dynasty, attained the dignity of a gold coinage.[56]