1875.] Rajendralala Mifcra— Copper-plate Inscription found at Inclor. 45 

 1. On a Copper-plate Inscription of the time of STcanda Cupta. By 



BA'Btr Ba'jENDRALA'i,A MlTRA. 



The plate has been found at Indor, a small village near Anopshahar 

 on the Ganges. It records an order of one Devavishnu, a petty zemindar 

 of the place, directing the guild of oil-sellers of Indrapur to supply daily a 

 sufficient quantity of oil for the use of the temple of the sun at that place, 

 the supply being increased by two ounces and three drachms on every new- 

 moon day. The order was issued in the month of Phalguna of the year 

 146, during the reign of Skancla Gupta. This date is at variance with the 

 generally received interpretation of the Kuhaon pillar inscription, accord- 

 ing to which Skanda Gupta had died before 141 year of the same era ; but 

 the author of the paper contends that that interpretation is wrong, and 

 shows at length that the word which implies " extinction" in that record, 

 does not apply to the kingdom, or to the king, but to the year on the expiry 

 of which the occurrence mentioned took place. He is of opinion also that 

 the era used in the several Gupta inscriptions which have come to light is 

 the Saka, and not the Samvat nor the Ballabhi era. 



Mr. Bayley observed that the Society were indebted to the learned 

 Babu for his lucid explanation of the phrase containing the date of this 

 inscription, which he believed was in accordance with a tentative reading al- 

 ready made by General Cunningham and which had been assented to by several 

 pandits. It was to say the least on the face of it a more probable rendering 

 of the phrase than that which had hitherto been commonly accepted. For 

 himself* also he perfectly agreed in the attribution of the Gupta dates to the 

 Saka era. This suggestion too had been anticipated by General Cunning- 

 ham* in his remark at the 4th page the 3rd of Vol. of the Archaeological 

 report, and if this was so, he thought it was quite possible to give a complete 

 interpretation to the account of the Arabic historian quoted by the Babu. 

 According to that passage while the Gupta era dated from the era of their 

 destruction it was shown also to be exactly the same as the Balabhi era, 

 dating from the establishment of the Balabhi dynasty, it seemed probable 

 that Gupta and Balabhi were really merely two differing names for the same 

 era given according as it was viewed as dating from one event or the other, 

 which were in fact concurrents. The fall of the Guptas being produced 

 by the success of the Balabhi kings. It was not a wholly unprecedented 

 fact that an era should be dated from the destruction of a dynasty, for we 

 know that the Saka era took its date from the victory in which a Saka 

 invader was slain, and the successes of his followers were checked finally, or 

 at any rate for a long series of years. 



* And it may be fair to say that this ova was suggested as possibly identical with 

 the Gupta era by Mr. Thomas in Prinsep's Essays, Vol. I, p. 276. s 



