1889.] A. F. R. Hoornle— Inscribed Seal of Kvmnra Gupta II. 93 



father Kuinaragupta, but, also the same mother Anantadevi. It may bo 

 further noted, that while the seal names S'rivatsadevi as the queen of Pu- 

 ragupta, the queen of Skandagupta is nowhere either named or even 

 mentioned. So far as his records are concerned, he might not have 

 been married at all. 



The question still remains, are Skandagupta and Puragupta tho 

 same persons, or are they brothers ? It seems hardly probable that ia 

 HttCi genealogies the same person would be called by different names. 

 Tho probability, as I shall show further on, would seem to be, that 

 Puragupta is a (younger) brother of Skandagupta, and succeeded tho 

 latter, who died without issue. There would still be a difficulty in the 

 fact, that Skandagupta is entirely omitted from the list on the seal. 

 But such omissions are not without precedent in lists which are rather 

 intended to record the line of descent than the line of succession.* The 

 term jn'nhuunUn/a/a, however, no doubt, properly indicates Puragupta as 

 having been the immediate successor of his father rather than a remoter 

 successor of him after his brother Skandagupta. 



The discovery of this seal solves another mystery. Among the gold 

 coinage of the Early Guptas, certain coins have been found, bearing the 

 name 6f Nora (or Naragupta) and the title Baldditya.f That they 

 belong to the proper Gupta class of coins, has never been seriously 

 doabteel ; their resemblance to them is too thorough. But the difficulty 

 was, where to place them; as no member of the Gupta family, called 

 JTara, was known to have existed. It can hardly be doubtful now, to 

 whom these Nara-coins belong. They are clearly issues of the Nara- 

 sirnhagupta of the new seal. 



This, however, suggests a further consequence. Mr. Smith, in his 

 Coinage of the Early Gupta Dynasty, has shown (pp. 40) that certain 

 specimens of the Gupta coinage show an exceptionally heavy weight. 

 Some of these coins belong to Nara (siinhagupta) ; others to a king of 

 an unknown name who has the title of Frakd&aditija ; others again to a 

 certain Ivumaragupta. The obverse of the PrakakiiUtya coins would 

 (as usual) give tho proper name of the king ; but unfortunately in all 

 the specimens hitherto found the name is lost. It may now be suggested 



* A very carious, though not qnito analogous, caso of a similar omission 

 occurs in ono of the Valabhi grants (No. IX, in Indian. Antiquary, Vol. VJI, p. Gil), 



where GahaBena's father Dharapatta is omitted, and ho is placed immediately after 

 his uncle Dhruvasena I. It is not impossible, that Dharapatta never reigned; if so, 

 tho record is ono of tho line of succession rather than of the line of descent. 



t Mr. Smith douies tho occurrence of Gtu&ta,} see his Coj&age of 1 lie Early Gupta 

 Dynasty, p. 118. But see fig. 22, on PI. XVII 1 of tho Ariana. Antigua. The fact, how- 

 over, whether tho coins do or do not bear the word Gupta, does not affect the argument. 



