S8 



V. A. Smith— Inscribed Seal of Kumara Gupta II. [No. 2, 



as a bird, standing to the front, with outstretched wings ; and, below 

 this, a legend in five lines, which, being also in relief, is so worn that 

 nothing of it can be read except a few disconnected letters here and 

 there, and Samfri]drag[u]p[tah], very faintly, at the end of line 5. 

 It must have contained a succinct recital of the genealogy, after the 

 fashion of the Asirgadh seal of S'arvavarmau, No. 47 above, page 219, 



and the Sonpat seal of Harsbavardhana, No. 52 above, page 231 



The legend on the seal of this grant is in characters which present a 

 very different appearance to those of the body of the inscription ; as also 

 does the copper of the seal, as compared with the substance of the plate ; 

 and the seal is in all probability a genuine one of Samudragupta, detached 

 from some other plate."* 



The copper seal of Harsbavardhana, above referred to, is even larger 

 than tbe one now under examination, measuring 5|" by 6|. It weighs 

 three pounds six ounces. " All round it there runs a rim, about \" 

 broad ; and inside this thore are, in rather shallow relief on a slightly 

 countersimk surface, — at the top, a bull, recumbent to the proper right ; 

 and below this the inscription, "f in tbirteen lines. 



The Garuda device recurs on the seal of the copper plate inscription 

 of Raja Tivara Deva {circa A. D. 800), found at Rajirn in the Central 

 Provinces. " The top of the seal is circular, about 3^" in diameter. It 

 has, in relief on a rather deep countersunk surface, across the centre, 



a legend, in two lines ; in tbe upper part a figure of Garuda, facing 



full front, depicted with tbe head of a man, and the body of a bird, with 

 his wings expanded, witb, apparently, human arms hanging down between 

 the wings and tbe feet, aud with a serpent with expanded hood, standing 

 up in front of aud over each shoulder ; on the proper right of this, a 

 chalcra or discus, the emblem of Vishnu ; and on the proper left a 

 ianlcha or conch shell ; in the lower part, a floral device."! 



The device on the upper portion of a royal seal was invariably the 

 emblem used by the dynasty concerned as its special cognizance. The 

 seal under discussion and the Gaya one of Samudra Gupta settle definitely 

 that the imago of Garuda was the family cognizance of the Early Guptas, 

 and so explain the phrase Garumad-anlta in the posthumous inscription of 

 Samudra Gupta at Allahabad, the bird-headed standard of the Gupta 

 gold coins, aud the reverse device of tbe copper coins. No doubt can 

 now be felt that in all these cases the mythological significance of the 

 bird-like figure is the monster Garuda, the vehicle of Vishnu. The 



* Fleet, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. Ill, p. 255. 

 t Fleet, ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 231. 

 j Fleet, ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 292. 



