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

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; INTRODUCTION. 19
Mahêndragupta, however, as pointed out by me on page 56, note 2, is due to nothing but
Dr. Mill's original mislection of the Bhitarî inscription, coupled with the real name of
Mahêndrâditya on Kumâragupta's coins. And the existence of the independent princess
‘Sanhârikâ,’ with her unnamed daughter, and of Mahâdaitya, and his daughter Dêvî, is
equally imaginary; being due, as indicated on page 1, only to early mislections of the
Allahâbâd pillar inscription. In his first list, Mr. Thomas entered the Mahârâja Gupta,
and his descendants, as belonging to the Solar lineage; and this mistake, though not
repeated in his second and third lists, has not even yet been completely eradicated; but,
as shewn on page 1, the statement rests on nothing but Dr. Mill's mislection of a passage
in the Allahâbâd inscription.
The Nomenclature of the Era.
Before proceeding further, however, it is desirable now to draw attention pointedly to
the fact that, though it is convenient to speak of the era in question as the Gupta era,
yet we have no ancient authority whatever for connecting the name of the
Guptas with it, as the establishers of it, and much less for accepting the early
existence of any such technical appellation for it, as Gupta-kâla.
It is true that this term is used by Albêrûnî, who speaks of the Gûbt-kâl or Gûbita-
kâl, i.e. Gupta-kâla. But, in just the same manner, he uses also the expression Śaka-
kâla for the Śaka era. In each instance, his use of the word kâla is in perfect consonance
with its meaning, ‘time, or a space of time,’ and with the application of it in the sense of
‘an era.’ And the Hindus who furnished him with the information that he recorded, but
who can have known nothing certain about the origin of the era, save only that it had
come down to them through the Gupta kings, would naturally speak of it as the Gupta-
kâla. But Albêrûnî's statements belong to the eleventh century A.D.; and furnish no
real authority, on such a point as this, for early times.
It is true, also, that the words Guptasya kâlâd, "from the era of Gupta," were supposed
by Dr. Bhau Daji¹ to exist in line 15 of the Junâgaḍh rock inscription of Skandagupta.
But the real reading there, as is quite clear even in the lithograph from which Dr. Bhau
Daji worked, is not Guptasya kâlâ[d]-gaṇanâṁ vidhâya, "counting from the era of Gupta,"
but Gupta-prakâlê gaṇanâṁ vidhâya, "making the calculation in the reckoning of the
Guptas." And there can be little doubt that Dr. Bhau Daji's reading, and his translation,
which was more or less unavoidable after the adoption of the reading, were suggested by
M. Reinaud's previously published translation of the extract from Albêrûnî, in which,
though translating Śaka-kâla by "the era of Śaka," he transliterated the original Arabic
by Gupta-kâla, with the words "era of the Guptas" added in brackets.² Dr. Bhau Daji's
¹ Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. VI. p. 207; Vol. VII. pp. 114, 123.
² Fragments Arabes et Persans, p. 143.