1889.] A. F. R. Hoernle— Inscribed Seal of Kumdra Gupta II. 91 



calities may bo briefly noted. Firstly, the uniform use of the upadhmdmya, 

 in 1. ], rdjochchhettuh prithwyam ; I 3, apratirathah parama 0 ; 1 8 ui 

 pannah parama 0 ; and secondly, of the doubling of t and dh when follow- 

 ed by r and y respectively, as in 1. 1, prapauttrasya and pauttrassya ■ 

 1. 2, puttrasya and dauhittrasya ; 1. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, pi( fl fas; 1. 4, 5, 6 

 7, pdddnuddhydto ; thirdly, the assimilation of tho visarga to 'a 'fol- 

 lowing s, in 1. 3, utpannas-svayam ; fourthly, the reading svayam 

 eh apratirathah in 1. 3. The same phrase is read by Mr. Fleet* in the 

 Bhitari stone inscription (1. 4) svayam, apratirathasya. The phrase also 

 occurs in Kumaragupta I.'s Bilsad stone inscription and in Skanda- 

 gupta's Bihar stone inscription* but in the former it is illegible and 

 in the latter it is cut away and lost. There are, therefore, only' two 

 records (the seal and the stone of Bhitari) to establish the readino- , 

 and the exact point is whether the akshara that follows svaya should be 

 read ma or cha. Now in the Bhitari stone inscription (at least as 

 shown in Mr. Fleet's plate) the akshara is too indistinct to be definitely 

 identified ; while on the Bhitari seal it is quite distinctly cha. Moreover 

 the seal has a distinct annswdra over the ya of svaya, which anuswdra is 

 apparently also present on the Bhitari stone ; and the anuswdra only 

 agrees with the reading cha or rather chd. The vowel mark over cha is 

 hardly distinguishable in the present state of the seal ■ and the reading 

 cha pratirathah would also give sense, but a sense not quite so suitable to 

 the context (see the translation, above). It is preferable, therefore to 

 read svayam ch' apratirathah. 



The record gives the names of nine kings, viz., 1, Gupta, 2, Ghatot- 

 kacha, 3, Ohandragupta I., 4, Samudragupta, 5, Chandragupta II ' 6 

 Kumaragupta I., 7, Puragupta, 8, Narasimhagupta, and 9, Kumdra' 

 gupta II. ; and it states distinctly that each of these kings stood in the 

 relation of son to the preceding one. It further gives the names of six 

 queens, viz., 1, Kumaradevi, the wife of Chandragupta I. and mother of 

 Samudragupta ; 2, Dattadevi, the wife of Samudragupta and mother of 

 Chandragupta II. ; 3, Dhruvadevi, the wife of Chandragupta II. and 

 mother of Kumaragupta I. ; 4, Anantadevi,. the wife of Kumaragupta I 

 and mother of Puragupta ; 5, SWvatsadevi, the wife of Pura-u P ta and 

 mother of Narasimhagupta ; and 6, S'rimatidevi, the wife of Narasimha- 

 gupta and mother of Kumaragupta II. 



The two longest genealogies of the Early Guptas, hitherto known, 

 are those on two stone pillar inscriptions, both of Skandagupta,f one at 

 Bhitari, tho other at Bihar. That at Bihar is greatly mutilated and 



* Corpus Tnscriptionvm Indicia-),,),, Vol. Ill, p. 53 ; also pp. 43, 50. 

 + They arc given by Fleet in Corpus Inscriptionum Indicamm, Vol III dd 4,1 

 and 52. ' 



