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

28 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
who was equal to (the gods) [Dhanada and Varuṇa and Indra and Antaka]; who was
[the very axe] of (the god) Kṛitānta;¹ who was the giver of [many] millions of [lawfully
acquired cows] and gold; [who was the restorer of the aśvamêdha-sacrifice,² that had
been long in abeyance];—
(L. 5.)—Who³ was the son of the son’s son of the Mahārāja, the illustrious
Gupta; the son’s son of [the Mahārāja, the illustrious] Ghaṭôtkacha; (and) the son
of the Mahārājādhirāja [the glorious Chandragupta (I.)], (and) the daughter’s son of
Lichchhavi, begotten on the Mahādêvî Kumāradêvî;—
(L. 11.)—[By him,⁴ the most devout worshipper of the Divine One,⁵ the
Mahārājādhirāja, the glorious Chandragupta (II.)], . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(The rest of the inscription is entirely
broken away and lost.)

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¹ Kṛitānta-paraśu.—This is another of the formal epithets which are always applied to
Samudragupta, and to him only. In the nominative case, Kṛitānta-paraśuḥ, it occurs on the reverse
of some of his gold coins; see, for instance, Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. III. Part I. p. 177 f., and Pl.
ii. No. 11.
² A ceremony which centred in a horse, and was concluded after the selected steed had been
turned loose for a year to roam about at will, guarded by armed men. The ceremony appears
to have ended sometimes in the actual immolation of the horse, but sometimes only in keeping it
bound during the celebration of the final rites. The successful celebration of a hundred aśvamêdhas
was supposed to raise the sacrificer to a level with the god Indra.—The present epithet, aśvamêdh-
âhartṛi, is another of those which are always applied to Samudragupta, and to him only. With it we
have to compare the legend aśvamêdha-parākramaḥ, “he who has displayed prowess by a horse-
sacrifice,” on some of the gold coins which are attributed to Samudragupta; see, for instance,
Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. LIII. Part I. p. 175 ff., and Pl. ii. No. 9; and Archæol. Surv. West. Ind.
Vol. II. p. 37 f., and Pl. vii. No. 4.
³ i.e. Samudragupta.
⁴ See page 27 above, note 1.
⁵ paramabhāgavata; lit. ‘a most devout worshipper of (the god) Bhagavat.’—This epithet is
supplied from the subsequent inscriptions, and the coins of Chandragupta II. himself.—It is a technical
sectarian title, analogous to paramamāhêśvara (e.g. No. 38 below, line 2), paramasaugata (e.g.
No. 52 below, line 8), paramavaishṇava (e.g. lines a and 1 of the Dighwā-Dubaulî grant of the
Mahārāja Mahêndrapāla; Ind. Ant. Vol. XV. p. 112), paramapāśupata (e.g. line 8 of the Verâwal
inscription of Arjunadêva; id. Vol. XI. p. 242), and paramadaivata (e.g. line 1 of the Nêpâl inscrip-
tion of Vasantasêna; id. Vol. IX. p. 167, No. 3). Other similar epithets, but not formed in quite
the same way, are paramabrahmaṇya (e.g. line 39 of the grant of Amma II.; id. Vol. VII. p. 16);
paramâdityabhakta (e.g. No. 38 below, line 10); and paramabhagavatîbhakta (e.g. lines e, i, k, 3, 6,
and 7 of the Dighwā-Dubaulî grant referred to above); also atyantamāhêśvara and atyantasvāmi-
mahābhairavabhakta, e.g. No. 55 below, lines 9 and 4; and atyantabhagavadbhakta, in No. 19 below,
line 6, and No. 36, line 4. — Bhagavat, ‘venerable, revered, sacred, divine, holy,’ was used as a title
of priests, e.g. lines 5 and 6 of a Paṭṭadakal inscription of Vijayâditya and Vikramâditya II., where
it is applied to two Āchāryas (Ind. Ant. Vol. X. p. 165, No. 101); and also of any saintly personage,
e.g. line 12 of No. 23 below, where it is applied to Vyāsa, the arranger of the Vêdas. And it was
also used as an epithet of any god or object of worship; thus, it is applied to Buddha, in line 6 of
No. 62 below; to Vishṇu, in line 6 of No. 32 below; to Śambhu (Śiva) in line 5 of No. 7 below; to
Svāmi-Mahāsêna (Kārttikêya), in line 7 of No. 10 below; to Varuṇavāsin (the Sun), in line 13 of No.
46 below; and to Jinêndra, in line 1 of the Aihoḷe Mêguṭi inscription of Pulikêśin II. (Ind. Ant. Vol.
VIII. p. 241). But it seems to belong most particularly to the god Vishṇu (see, for instance, the
Vishṇu-Purāṇa, vi. 5; Hall’s edition of H. H. Wilson’s Translation, Vol. V. p. 211 ff.), and to
denote him whenever there is nothing in the context to give it any other application; and, as well-
known instances of its use in this way, we may quote Bhagavadgîtā, the name of an episode of
the Mahābhārata devoted entirely to the subject of devotion to Vishṇu as Kṛishṇa; Bhāgavata-