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

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; INTRODUCTION. 13
impossible that this inscription may be shewn hereafter to be a record of the younger
brother of Mihirakula, who, when Mihirakula was defeated by Bâlâditya of Magadha,
usurped his throne in the Pañjâb, and whose own name is not mentioned by Hiuen
Tsiang.
As has been indicated above, the Mandasôr duplicate pillar inscriptions, No. 33,
page 142, and No. 34, page 149, which are brand-new discoveries, introduce us to a
powerful king of Northern India, named Yasôdharman, who is of extreme interest from
being mentioned in them as the conqueror of Mihirakula. And the remaining Mandasôr
inscription, No. 35, page 150,—again a brand-new discovery,—is another record of this
same Yasôdharman, coupled in this case with a king named Vishṇuvardhana ; and it
is of extreme value from the fact that, by supplying for Yasôdharman a specific date, A.D.
533-34, it has completed the clue to the whole history of the period. Who Vishṇuvar-
dhana was, cannot at present be determined ; but he is at any rate not the feudatory
Vishṇuvardhana, the Varika, who is mentioned in No. 59, page 252.
Next in chronological sequence, but slightly overlapping some of the preceding
records, come the inscriptions of the Kings of Valabhî, ranging, so far as absolutely
definite dates are concerned, from A.D. 426 to A.D. 766. Of the numerous copper-plate
inscriptions of this family that have been discovered, I have given two, as specimens ;
No. 38, page 164, and No. 39, page 171. Apart from the full genealogical tree which
they give, including twelve generations, they are of interest chiefly because they make
known the historical fact that the Sênâpati Bhaṭârka, the founder of the family, success-
fully waged war against, and overthrew, a dynasty, tribe, or clan, called Maitrakas,
which has already been the subject of comment ; and because they shew that the Gupta
era continued in use, in Kâthiâwâḍ and some neighbouring parts of Gujarât, at least as
late as A.D. 766, and thus explain, through its special connection with their own family,
how it came to have, in later times, the name, in the same part of the country, of the
Valabhî era. Otherwise, the inscriptions of this family contain but little of historical
importance ; though a full examination of them would throw much light on the ancient
geography of the localities from which they come. It is a curious fact that no stone-
inscriptions of this family,—at least, none that can be definitely attributed to them,—have
as yet been discovered. Last year, it is true, Colonel J. W. Watson obtained at Walâ,
which is the modern representative of the ancient Valabhî, part of a stone-inscription, now
in the Library of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, the characters of
which shewed me that it belonged to the earlier part of the Valabhî period. But it is the
merest fragment ; with no historical clue in it. It is, however, of interest, in shewing that
the excavations at Walâ are now reaching the level of stone-remains. When that level
can be properly explored, discoveries of importance ought to follow ; since, for some
reason or other, inscriptions on stone nearly always contain much more historical informa-
tion than copper-plate grants do.