1889.] V. A. Smiih— Inscribed Seal of Eumdra Gupta II. 



S7 



form of the Garuda-headed standard on the gold coins was, I am con- 

 fident, borrowed from the Roman eagle, aud the form of the device of the 

 copper coins may have been imitated from a Greek original, that is to 

 say, from the owl of Athene, especially as represented on coins of 

 Porgamon.* 



Sometimes Garuda is represented with human arms, as on the 

 Rajim seal, and sometimes without them, as on the seal of Kumara- 

 gupta. The same variation of detail is observable in the case of the 

 copper coins. f 



The inscription on Kumaragupta's seals, is, as usual with seal le- 

 gends, purely genealogical ; and the greater part of the record gives the 

 particulars of the Gupta genealogy in the standard form of words em- 

 ployed in the Bhitari pillar inscription and other Gupta inscriptions. J 



In the beginning the seal omits, between the words apratirathasya 

 and mahdn'ija-s'ri-Oupta, a string of epithets given in the pillar inscrip- 

 tion, but, from the words mahdrdja-s'n-Qupta down to the name of 

 Kumaragupta in the fifth line, the record is identical (except by omit- 

 ting Kumdra's title of paramabhdgavato), word for word, with that in- 

 cised on the Bhitari pillar. The rest of the newly discovered inscrip- 

 tion does not seem to be quite identical with the wording of any known 

 record. A son of Kumaragupta is certainly mentioned, and the name 

 of Kumara's queen, Anattadevi (?), is stated, but I am doubtful whethor 

 the name Skanda occurs or not. I can read only partially the 6th and 

 7th lines. The first four characters of the concluding 8th line are in- 

 distinct, but the remainder is easily legible, and shows that the seal be- 

 longs to tho reign of Kumaragupta, circa A. D. 414— 452.§ 



The antiquities at Bhitari, near Sayyidpur at the eastern extremity 

 of the Gliazipur District in the North-Western Provinces, about half 

 way between Benares and Ghazipur, have long been known to arcliEeolo- 

 gists. The site was carefully explored more than fifty years ago by Sir 

 Alexander Cunningham and his friend Mr. Vincent Tregear. The latter 

 became the possessor of a valuable collections of coins, many of which are 

 now in the Bodleian cabinet. 



The most notable relic is the monolith pillar bearing an inscription 

 of the reign of Skandagupta. A translation of this record, made from 

 Sir A. Cunningham's copy, was published by Dr. Mill in the Journal of this 

 Society in 1837. Certain minor corrections in this translation were 



* Smith, Coinage of the Early Qupta Dynasty in the Journal of tho Royal Asiatic 

 Society, for Jan. 1889, p. 24; see also Fleet, ihid., Vol. Ill, p. 14, note 3. 

 + Smith, ibid., Plate IV, figures 8—15. 

 % Fleet, ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 53, etc. 

 § Smith, ibid., p. G. 



