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

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; No. 1. PLATE I. 15
choral skill and musical accomplishments;¹—who established (his) title of ‘king of
poets’ by various poetical compositions that were fit to be the means of subsistence of
learned people;²—whose many wonderful and noble deeds are worthy to be praised for a
very long time;—
(L. 28.)—Who was a mortal only in celebrating the rites of the observances of
mankind, (but was otherwise) a god, dwelling on the earth;—who was the son of the
son’s son³ of the Mahārāja,⁴ the illustrious Gupta;⁵—who was the son’s son of the
¹ Nārada is regarded as the inventor of the vīṇā or lute; and, with this reference to him and to
the musical accomplishments of Samudragupta, we have to compare the coins of the ‘lyrist type’ (see,
for instance, Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. LIII. Part I. Pl. ii. Nos. 7, 8), which represent Samudragupta
playing the lute.
² Compare lines 6 and 16 of this inscription.—The title kavirāja, ‘king of poets,’ answering
somewhat to our ‘poet laureate,’ is still in use in Native States.
³ The English terms ‘grandson’ and ‘great-grandson’ are applicable to female as well as male
descent, and are therefore not suitable for use in translations from the Saṁskṛit. The Hindus were
almost always most careful about using properly discriminating terms, e.g. pautra for a grandson
through a son, and dauhitra for a grandson through a daughter; the status of the two lines of descent
differed even more than in European countries; and, in translating, it is necessary to preserve the
distinction accurately.—I will quote an instance in proof. In translating line 12 f. of No. 15 of his
Nêpâl inscriptions, Dr. Bhâgwanlal Indraji (Ind. Ant. Vol. IX. p. 181) spoke of “Vatsadêvî . . . .
“the daughter of illustrious Bhôgavarman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and the grand-daughter of great
“Âdityasêna, the illustrious lord of Magadha.” From this, Gen. Cunningham (Archæol. Surv.
Ind. Vol. XV. p. 163) naturally enough treated Bhôgavarman, who belonged really to the Maukhari
family, as a son, instead of a son-in-law, of Âdityasêna. This mistake could not have occurred, if
dauhitrī had been properly rendered by ‘daughter’s daughter,’ instead of vaguely ‘grand-daughter.’—
The words that are fairly translatable by ‘grandson’ and ‘great-grandson’ are naptri and
pranaptri. They both occur in the grants of the Mahārājas Hastin and Saṁkshôbha, Nos. 21 to 23
and 25 below; and naptri occurs in line 5 of the Bhumarā pillar inscription, No. 24 below, Pl. xvA.
But the use of them is rare.
⁴ Mahārāja, lit. ‘great king,’ appears to have been, in somewhat earlier times, one of the titles
of paramount sovereignty. Thus, it is used, by itself, by Kanishka, Huvishka, and Vâsudêva, who,
there is every reason to believe, were paramount sovereigns, in their inscriptions of the years 9, 39,
and 83 (Archæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. III. p. 31, Pl. xiii. No. 4; p. 32, Pl. xiv. No. 9; and p. 34, Pl. xv.
No. 16); and, in conjunction with the higher title of Rājātirāja, ‘superior king of kings,’ by the same
three kings in their inscriptions of the years 11, 47, and 87 (Ind. Ant. Vol. X. p. 326; Archæol.
Surv. Ind. Vol. III. p. 33, Pl. xiv. No. 12, and p. 35, Pl. xv. No. 18). So also, in conjunction some-
times with the same word and sometimes with Râjarâja, ‘king of kings,’ the two together represent-
ing the Greek basileus basileon, it was used, in Prâkṛit, on the bilingual coins of earlier date; e.g.
in conjunction with Rājātirāja, on the coins of Hemokadphises (Gardner and Poole’s Catalogue of
Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of Bactria and India, p. 124 ff.), and, in conjunction with
Rājarāja, on the coins of Azes (id. p. 73 ff.) And, before then, it was used by itself, to represent the
Greek basileus, at a time when apparently the fuller title of basileus basileon had not been introduced;
e.g. on the coins of Hermaeus (id. p. 62 ff.)—But, in the Early Gupta and subsequent periods,
Mahārāja was habitually used simply as a technical official title, indicative no doubt of considerable
rank and power, but applied only to feudatories, not to paramount sovereigns.—From the way in
which the two titles are applied uniformly to Samudrasêna and his ancestors in the Nirmand grant,
No. 80 below, Plate xliv., the title Mahāsāmanta, lit. ‘great chief of a district,’ appears to have been
exactly co-ordinate with that of Mahārāja.—A third title, Mahāsēnāpati, lit. ‘great lord of the army,’
seems to have denoted equal rank with these two; since it is coupled with Mahārāja in the frag-
mentary Bijayagadh inscription of the Yaudhêyas, No. 58 below, Plate xxxviB., and also in the Walā
clay seal of Pushyêṇa (Ind. Ant. Vol. XII. p. 274 f.)—And three other offices, viz. those of
Mahāpratīhāra, Mahādaṇḍanāyaka, and Mahākārtākṛitika, would seem to have been sometimes held
by Mahārājas and Mahāsāmantas; since we find all five titles applied to Dhruvasêna I. of Valabhî.
in line 13 f. of the Walā grant of Gupta-Saṁvat 216 (Ind. Ant. Vol. IV. p. 105).
⁵ As regards this name, see page 8 above, note 3.