116 
[No. 2, 
Note on Budhagupta. 
alleges, in A. D. 319. The Professor does not venture to deny, 
though he might do so safely, that Albiruni had heard of his 1 later 
Guptas hut he charges the Arabian, implicitly, with having fused 
the two dynasties into one. On this view, we have presented to us the 
curious phenomenon of one dynasty dating its edicts from the over- 
throw of another, out of which it had arisen, and which bore the 
same name with itself.* A far more probable opinion, as for Albiruni, 
is, that he was totally unacquainted with the ‘ later Guptas and 
it is not surprising that it was so. If they lived on the hither side 
of the ‘ elder Guptas,’ what has become of all their specie ? Put it 
is needless to dilate. Incredible as it may sound, if Professor Lassen 
had read, in Hiouen-Thsang, less than two pages after that in which 
* Of liis 1 later Guptas’ Professor Lassen writes : ‘ l’lio founder of their power 
must have appertained to the family of which the last representative known to 
us is Mahendragupta. He reigned till about A. D. 280.’ Indische Alterthums- 
Jcunde, Vol. III., p. 652. 
Mahendragupta, as differing from Kumaragupta, is still to be proved not a 
nonentity. Is not the word mdhendra , found on some of Kumsiragupta’s coins, a 
substitute for maharaja ? 
It will prove useful here to tabulate the Gupta kings, consonantly to the views 
of two writers who have made them a subject of special study. 
Col. Cunningham. Professor Lassen. 
Continuous series . A. I). c j Elder Guptas.* Cir. A. H. 
I. — Gupta. . . •• 319 I. — Gupta. .. . . 160 
II. . — Ghatotkaclia. .. .. 340 II. — Ghatotkaclia. .. .. 168 
III. — Chandragupta I. .. 360 III. — Cliandragupta I. .. 195 
IV. — Samudragupta, PardJcrarna. 380 IV. — Samudragupta. . . 230 
V. — Chandragupta II., Vikra- V. — Chandragupta II. . . 240 
maditya. .. 400 YI. — Skaudagupta or Kumara- 
VI. — Kumaragupta, Mahendra. 430 gupta. .. 270 
VII. — Skandagupta, KramAditi/a. 440 VII. — Mahendragupta and Nara- 
VIII. Lagraditya yanagupta. . . . . 280 
or Lolcaditya. .. .. 452 ‘ Later Guptas.* 
IX. — Buddhagupta. .. 480 I.— Devagupta. .. .. 400 
X. — Taktagupta. .. .. 510 II. — Chandrapriya... .. 435 
XL — Naragupta, Bdlddilya. .. 540 III. — S'akraditya. .. .. 460 
XII. — Vajra. .. .. 570 IV. — Buddhagupta. .. 490 
V. — Tathagatagupta. . . 505 
VI. — Baladitya. .. ..530 
VII. — Vajra. .. ... 540 
See the Bldlsa Topes , p. 141 ; and the Indisclve Alterthmskunde, Vol. I., 
Appendix, p. xxx., and Vol. II., pp. 1161, 1162. 
Mr. Thomas gives the Guptas thus : I. Gupta. II. Ghatotkaclia. III. 
Chandragupta I. IV. Samudragupta. V. Chandragupta II. VI. Kumara- 
gupta. VII. Skandagupta. VIII. Budhagupta. He appends no dates. See 
his edition of Mr. J. Prinsep’s Essays on Indian Antiquities, Vol. I., p. 276. 
