JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



No. V.— 1855. 



On the Epoch of the Gtjpta Dynasty. — By E. Thomas, 

 Bsg. } JB. C. S a 



In the year 1848, I submitted to the Boyal Asiatic Society of 

 London, a Memoir on the Dynasty of the Sah kings of Saurashtra. 

 The object I therein proposed to myself, was to test — through the 

 medium of coins, inscriptions and written history — the definite 

 epoch at which the rule of these Princes might most fitly be fixed. 

 In approaching the more specific aim of my enquiry, I had neces- 

 sarily to examine the dates seemingly most appropriate to certain 

 other races of kings, whose history bore directly or indirectly on 

 the subject under review. 



Prominent among these was the family of the Guptas, whose 

 monumental records are extant from the Northward of the Ganges 

 to Guzrat, and whose coins alike indicate a well sustained supre- 

 macy, spreading from the Himalayas to the Western coast. 



Of the various works put under contribution to elucidate my 

 theme, the most valuable, perhaps, was the " Pragmens Arabes 

 et Persans relatifs a l'lnde" then but newly published by M. 

 Eeinaud. 



This volume supplied me with several interesting extracts from 

 the original Arabic MS. of Abu liihan Al Biruni, an author, who 

 had visited India during the reign of Mahmud of Ghazni. One of the 

 deductions I arrived at on the testimony of the Arabic text was, 

 that the rule of the Guptas, preceded that of the Valabhis — the era 

 of the latter dating from 319 A. D. 



No. LXXVI.— New Series. Vol. XXIV. 3 c 



