516 On the Coins of the Gupta Dynasty. [No 6. 



dlia Gupta in Surdshtra, comprehending the country between * * 

 the Kalindi* or Jumna and the Narmada, or Nerbudda."t 



Prinsep was clearly disposed to infer that the temple was built 

 prior to the erection of the pillar, and in this supposition I myself 

 was formerly inclined to concur \% but the degradation of the type 



* I had previously expressed distrust iu the accuracy of the transcription of this 

 name by Jas. Prinsep (J. R. A. S. XII. 71,) I did so on the very justifiable 

 ground that his own accompanying facsimile did not warrant such a rendering. 

 Major Cunningham has since examined the original inscription and has satisfied 

 himself that the word is Kalindi (Bhilsa Topes 163.) 



+ J. A. S. B. VII. 632. 



% I insert the entire passage. *'* Budha Gupta the very name that is found on 

 the inscription on Bhim Sen's Pillar at Erun, near Sagor. Assuming this designa- 

 tion to be correctly read, the collateral evidence derived from the inscription 

 coincides sufficiently with the indications offered by the coins themselves. From 

 the former we gather that Budha Gupta held the country lying between the Ner- 

 budda and a river it has been proposed to identify as the Jumna ; no information 

 is however afforded as to the whereabouts of his seat of government, nor can the 

 geographical boundaries, thus defined, be said to convey any very definite know- 

 ledge of the real extent of the dominions adverted to. Prinsep considered that 

 Surashtra should be held to have constituted a portion of this king's possessions, 

 but the expressions in bis own translation of the inscription — even admitting 

 it to be an accurate rendering — are far from implying any such condition ; the 

 occupation of land touching these two rivers, taking Sagor as anything like its 

 centre, would encircle comparatively narrow limits, and would not by any means 

 of necessity embrace the whole land to the western coast. 



If Budha Gupta is to be looked upon as a scion of the ancient family of the 

 Guptas, whose might is chronicled on the Lats of Allahabad and Bhitari, and on 

 the Rock of Junagarh, it is clear by his subjects' own showing, that he possessed a 

 sovereignty much reduced in extent from the empire originally ruled over by his 

 predecessors in the palmy days of the race. 



In addition to the Pillar record, there is also an inscription on the temple at 

 Eran, near which the Pillar itself was erected. From the incidental notices to be 

 found in these monumental writings, it would appear that their execution must 

 have been very nearly contemporaneous ; the one work having been undertaken 

 " by," the other at the " cost of," a certain Dhanya Vishnu. In the temple 

 inscription, which is probably the earliest of the two, it is stated that the edifice 

 itself was built in the first year of the reign of Tarapani, the suzerain then acknow- 

 ledged in this part of the country. The writing on the pillar, on the other hand 

 informs us, as has been already stated, that at the time of its endorsement, Budha 

 Gupta was the lord paramount." J. R. A. S. XII. 71. 



