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

INTRODUCTION.
BEFORE entering on the leading subject of this Introduction,—the determination of
the epoch of the so-called Gupta era,—I would give a brief account of the scope
of the book, and the arrangement of its contents.
The leading records are, of course, those of the Early Guptas themselves;¹ from
No. 1, the Allâhâbâd posthumous stone pillar inscription of Samudragupta, down to
No. 16, page 68, the Indôr copper-plate grant of Skandagupta, who, as far as we know
at present, was the last of the direct line of the Early Gupta dynasty. The actual dates
of these records extend from A.D. 401 to A.D. 466.
To the same period belong the two inscriptions of the Rulers of Mâlava; No. 17,
page 72, the Gaṅgdhâr inscription of Viśvavarman, dated² in A.D. 424; and No. 18, page
79, the Mandasôr inscription, dated in A.D. 474, which gives us the date of A.D. 437
for Kumâragupta and his feudatory, Bandhuvarman; and, in doing so, has supplied what
was always felt to be the most urgent desideratum, viz. a date, for any one of the Early
Gupta kings, recorded in a standard era, capable of identification, other than the era which
was habitually used by the Early Guptas themselves. With the exception of a few among
the Miscellaneous Inscriptions, to be noticed hereafter, No. 17 is the last record that
belongs specifically to the Early Gupta dynasty.
But, shortly after the time of Skandagupta, we meet with the two names of Budha-
gupta and Bhânugupta, with the dates of respectively A.D. 484, in No. 19, page 88,
and A.D. 510, in No. 20, page 91. And, coupled with the fact that, in the inscriptions
of the Parivrâjaka Mahârâjas, the Gupta sovereignty is distinctly stated to have continued
down to A.D. 528, the termination of these names raises at least a presumption that
these two kings were of the Early Gupta lineage, though possibly not connected by direct
descent with Skandagupta. Budhagupta comes, chronologically, immediately after
Skandagupta. Bhânugupta comes somewhat later; after Tôramâṇa, whose power mean-
while succeeded that of Budhagupta in Eastern Mâlwa. But, under all the circumstances,
¹I call the members of this family the "Early Guptas," by way of easily distinguishing them from
the later Guptas of Magadha, whose genealogy is given in the Aphsaḍ inscription, No. 42, page 200,
and in the Dêô-Baraṇârk inscription, No. 46, page 213.
²In respect of these three dates, I follow here the equivalents that I have given in my introduc-
tory remarks to the two inscriptions. But, when the proper value of expired years of the Mâlava or
Vikrama era can be determined, perhaps it may be found that these three dates, and any others of the
same series, are each one year earlier than as at present given by me.