गुप्त अभिलेख संग्रह (जे. एफ. फ्लीट - गुप्त सम्राटों एवं परवर्ती नरेशों के ऐतिहासिक पाषाण व ताम्रलेख)

2 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
My task, however, quickly assumed more ample proportions; for I found at once
that hardly any of the materials previously collected, in the shape of ink-impressions of
the original records on stone and copper, could be relied on for purposes of critical
editing; and much less for the reproduction in facsimile Plates, which must always be an
inseparable part of such researches, in order that scholars who cannot examine the original
records themselves, may nevertheless be in a position to check the published results that
are submitted to them. I found, in fact, that, with only eleven or twelve exceptions, it
was unavoidable that I should have fresh impressions prepared of all the materials through-
out; and also that, as far as might be practicable, I should examine the original stone-
records in situ, and the original copper-records by collecting them together again from the
various owners of them. The arrangements entailed much correspondence, and a great
deal of travelling, than which nothing is more obstructive of continuous and successful
literary work. And it was not until April, 1885, that I found myself in possession of the
last of the materials required by me, viz. an ink-impression and estampage of the Gang-
dhâr inscription of Viśvavarman, No. 17, page 72.
Meanwhile, of course, a certain amount of progress had been made in the preparation
of the Texts and Translations, and in the arrangement of the Plates and other subsidiary
work; subject always to the fact that no division of the work could be actually finished
off, until it should be known that there were no more materials to come in. And the delay
that was entailed by the necessity of collecting all the previously known materials afresh,
has proved to be no matter for regret; if only for the reason that it enabled me to obtain,
amongst other perfectly new materials, the invaluable Mandasôr inscription, No. 18, page
79, which furnished the information that was required, to set at rest the long-disputed
question of the epoch of the Gupta era. This inscription was only discovered, under my
direction, in March, 1884; and even then the full value of it was not apparent, in conse-
quence of some serious imperfections in the ink-impressions that were first brought to me.
I myself visited Mandasôr at the end of February, 1885; and was then able to examine
this record in situ, and to have proper ink-impressions of it made; and thus to ascertain
its full and conclusive bearing. And it was on this journey that, for the first time, by visiting
Ujjain, I became aware of the almost equally important inscription of Yaśôdharman and
Vishnuvardhana, No. 35, page 150, which gave the key to the whole history of the period,
by supplying a definite date for Yaśôdharman, who was known, from the Mandasôr
inscription, No. 33, page 142, discovered under my direction in March, 1884, to have
overthrown the well-known foreign invader and conqueror, Mihirakula, who, again, I had
previously determined, must have effected the final downfall of the Early Gupta dynasty.
Without these discoveries, the period of the Early Gupta supremacy would have still
remained the subject of argument and doubt. Whereas, with them, I have been able now to
set this question at rest, and thus to establish a starting-point from which we can work back
in developing the Indo-Scythian history; and, also, through fixing, for the first time,