564 Ancient Indian Numerals. [No. 7. 



tiny, as well as in the Gupta coins now under review, whose register 

 chiefly refers to the early half of their current centennial epoch. 



This wo may fairly infer from the distinct date of 165, given in 

 Buddha G-upta's Eran pillar inscription ; it* is of no consequence, 



* I have but lately observed, that I consider, that it imports but little, as to 

 what particular cycle the Gupta dates should be referred, so that they each and 

 all are made to precede the fixed epoch of the commencement of the Valabh 1 

 Samvat in 318-19 A. D. I have no especial desire to retain them under the 

 Saka Kal, but am fully prepared to subject them to the test of any other suitable 

 scheme of computation. Albiruni's expressions in regard to the Gupta era, in no 

 wise necessitate a notion that the 241 years intervening between the conquest of 

 Saka by the second Vikramaditya in A. D. 78, and the extermination of the Guptas 

 in A. D. 318-19, were exclusively filled in by the domination of the latter. 



Any such supposition would involve an obligation to identify some one of the 

 early members of the Gupta family with the original Vikramaditya Sakari himself 

 — which, though not altogether beyond the bounds of possibility, is still an impro- 

 bable association ; but taking a reasonable interval to have elapsed after the success 

 of Vikramaditya, and assuming the rise of the Guptas to have been, as it clearly 

 was — gradual, Chandra Gupta the second will not be badly placed by the dates on 

 the Udayagiri and Sanchi inscriptions, when applied to the Saka kal, which will give 

 a return of S. S. 82 = A. D. 160, and S. S. 93 == A. D. 173. 



To test the Gupta epoch by another method, which the tenor of the Buddha 

 Gupta inscription at Sanchi recommends to our notice, in the use of the words 

 ''in the aforesaid year of his dynasty" (J. A. S. B. VII. 634) — let us assume this 

 165th year to be the period that had elapsed from the assumption of Suzeranj 

 honors by Chandra Gupta the first, and further concluding as we have fair reason 

 to do — that the decline of the Gupta power under Buddha did not long avoid 

 complete fulfilment, we may place approximately the period of the sway of the 

 race at about 180 years. Now, by arranging this total anteriorly to the fixed limit 

 of the fall of the Guptas, 318-19 A. D. we obtain the date of 138-39 for the rise 

 of the family. Under this new view then, the Gupta dynasty may be held to have 

 arrived at prominent power during the early half of the second century A. D. 

 instead of during the second half of the first century A. D. as I had previously 

 conjectured ; thus, Major Cunningham and myself still differ on this head to the 

 extent of nearly two centuries. 



To complete the review of this section of the subject it may be as well to 

 examine how the remaining series of figured dates, appertaining to other dynasties, 

 will arrange themselves when tested by cycles at all suitable to their requirements. 



The Sah epoch, which the extant dates on the coins indicate to extend from, say 

 310 to 400, when tested by the popular Buddhist era of 477 B. C. (J. A. S. B. 



