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

16 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL III.
the Vâkâṭaka Mahârâjas to a period later by fully two centuries than has hitherto been
allotted to them ; but there is nothing in the palæography of their grants to oppose this
result, even if it does not actually prove it. A clear instance of the comparatively long
preservation of antique characters for official purposes, is furnished by the Râjim grant of
the Râja Tîvaradêva, No. 81, page 291, which is undoubtedly almost, if not quite, the
latest record in this volume, though at first sight its characters would seem to refer it to a
much earlier period.
In No. 57, page 249, to No. 81, page 291, I have given a variety of Miscellaneous
Inscriptions, which, either from their not mentioning the name of any particular king,
or for other reasons, it was not convenient to introduce in other places in accordance
with the chronological order that has been the chief basis of the arrangement of the
volume. Of these, the most interesting are No. 60, page 254, which is a spurious grant
purporting to have been issued by the Early Gupta king Samudragupta ; No. 61, page 258,
which, apart from its recorded date, expressly refers itself to the Early Gupta period, and
which also, like No. 15, page 65, furnishes interesting proof of the existence of the Jain
sect in the fourth century, A.D. ; and No. 71, page 274, the Bôdh-Gayâ inscription of
Mahânâman, dated in A.D. 588. This is another brand-new discovery, made by General
Cunningham. And its extreme interest lies in the fact that, as the Mahânâman, whose
record it is, can hardly be any other than the well-known person of that name who wrote
the more ancient part of the Pâli Mahâvaṁsa or History of Ceylon, its date shews either
that the details of the Ceylonese chronology, as hitherto accepted, are not as reliable as
they have been supposed to be, or else that a wrong starting-point has been selected in
working out those details ; and it furnishes a definite point from which the chronology
may now be adjusted backwards.
THE GUPTA ERA.
We come now to the question which, for the last forty years, has been at issue among
all scholars who have been interested in the ancient history of India, and which, from the
impossibility, until the discovery of the Mandasôr inscription of Kumâragupta and
Bandhuvarman, of arriving at any sound and final settlement of it, has created the almost
inextricable confusion that now prevails in every line of research connected with the Early
Gupta period : viz. the determination of the exact chronological point to which we must
refer the commencement of the era that was used, for the purpose of dating their records
and coins, by the Early Gupta kings and some of their successors.
For reference in the following discussion, I give, in Table I. page 17 below, a genea-
logy of the dynasty, with the official titles and recorded dates of the members of it.
And, below the unbroken succession, I insert the names of Budhagupta and Bhânugupta ;