MO 
Note on Budhagupta. 
[No. 2, 
now style. ToramSna must have flourished shortly after him ; with 
something of likelihood, indeed, as his next successor. To Budha- 
gupta’s registration, relatively to the other Guptas, we have not the 
smallest trustworthy clue.”* When pronouncing thus confidently, I 
was quite aware that wholly different conclusions had been come to, 
by Professor Lassen, as to every item of what has just been quoted. 
The grounds on which that learned orientalist has built those con- 
clusions will now be examined. 
On the first occasion where he treats of the Gupta monarchs, in 
1852, he expresses himself to the following effect : 
“ A safer basis for fixing the time of the Guptas is furnished by 
their own inscriptions. In that of Budhagupta — on a pillar at Eran, 
near Saugor, in Malava — mention is made of the one hundred and 
sixty-fifth year of an unspecified era. * * * Judged by the style of 
the writing, that inscription is of a period, in his dynasty, more mo- 
dern than that of Samudragupta and Skandagupta. Scarcely can the 
era in question be any other than that spoken of, by Albiruni, as 
having begun in the year three hundred and nineteen after Christ ;t 
* Vide supra, p. 15, foot note. 
f And so concludes Col. Cunningham, says the Professor, in a foot-note. 
The passsage which he has in view is as follows, from this Journal, for 1848, 
pp. 487, 488 : 
“ In his mention of Ma-Jciei-tho or Magadha, Hwang Thsang gives the names 
pf five kings who reigned there previous to his visit. Their names are : 
“ Of the second, fourth, and fifth of those princes there are coins still exist- 
ing to testify to the truth of the pilgrim’s nari-ation. But we have yet more 
explicit evidence of his accuracy in the date of Budliagupta’s inscription 
on the Ei-an pillar. This date is 165 of the Gupta era, which, as we learn from 
Abu Rilian, commenced in A. D. 319. The date on the pillar is, therefore, equi- 
valent to A. D. 484. Supposing that Budhagupta reigned until A. D. 500, and 
that the three following princes occupied the throne dux'irig the 6th century, we 
have the date of A. D. 600 as the earliest limit of the period of Hwang Thsang’s 
visit.” 
Some of the Sanskrit names here proposed as answering to those in the 
Chinese, show themselves in an altered shape in Col. Cunningham’s Bhilsa Topes. 
The changes will be seen in a coming note. 
So-Tcia-lo-a-yi-to 
Fo-tho-kiu-to 
Tha-lca-ta-lciu-to 
Pho-lo-a-ye-to 
Fa-che-lo 
or S' anlcaraditya. 
Budhagupta. 
TaJcatagupta. 
Baladitya. 
Vajra. 
