1866.] Notes on Gupta Inscriptions from Aphsar and Behar, 269 



VI: Mahdsena G-upta, son of V. 

 VII. Madhava Gupta, son of VI. 

 * * * * /y\ 



VIII. Hashka G-upta, II. son of — ? 

 IX. Aditya Sena, son of VIII. 



In the entire absence of data, it is impossible at present to deter- 

 mine the era of these princes, or the position they occupied in 

 the history of ancient Magadha. There is nothing but the identity 

 of the family name to justify the supposition that they were 

 connected with the Guptas of the Bhitari Lat, but it is worthy 

 of note that the latter, whose names are made familiar to us 

 by coins and inscriptions found in Ghazipur, Allahabad and 

 Sanchi, did at one time extend their sway to Behar. The docu- 

 ments which enable me to make this assertion, are remarkable ; they 

 were found inscribed on a sandstone pillar lying in the Behar fort, 

 and first brought to notice by Mr. E. L. Bavenshaw, in 1839. Mr. 

 H. Torrens, then editor of this Journal, in publishing a translation of 

 one of them, said, " I have now the pleasure of laying before the readers 

 of the Journal a rendering of one of these (Behar) inscriptions as de- 

 cyphered by Pundit Kamala Kanta Vidyalankara, and Babu Heram- 

 banath. They succeeded in giving this interpretation after a great 

 expense of time and labour. The characters are of a class not 

 hitherto met with, and I confess I cannot submit this first attempt to 

 interpret them, without considerable diffidence. The inscription is un- 

 fortunately destitute of both name and date, and does not, moreover, 

 afford any clue by which the period of its record can be traced." 

 According to the rendering published, the document contained a number 

 of moral maxims, beginning with, "Be patient when angry. Perform 

 religious sacrifices as prescribed. Be liberal in religious performances," 

 &c, &c. The whole of this reading was, however, throughout imaginary, 

 and the deductions made from it are, consecpiently, utterly worthless. 

 Major C. Hollings noticed the inscriptions in 1860, and got a Pandit at 

 Patna to decypher them for him. But his endeavours proved even less 

 useful than the first. The worthy Pandit, in an elaborate translation, 

 made out that the documents recorded the .spot where king Jarasandha 

 buried some fabulous amount of treasure which would be guarded by a 

 dragon, until a European would come to bring it to light, The attempt 



