186 J .] Identity of the Toramanas of Hr an and Kashmir. 273 
Harsha Vikramaditya, the Pravara of Kashmir would be synchronous 
with Kumaragupata, several generations before Budhagupta assum- 
ed the royal sceptre, while the prince of the Gwalior inscription, 
believing him to be identical with the sovereign of the Eran temple, 
would be a generation after that event. This difficulty, however, is 
more apparent than real. The title of Vikramaditya has been assumed 
by so many princes at such different times, and Hindu writers have 
used it with such utter indifference to precision, that it is quite 
unsafe as a historical guide, and not at all deserving of the regard 
which allusions of such contemporaneity usually claim. Where every 
prince above mediocrity, proclaimed himself a Vikrama, it is futile 
to expect that the occurrence of the title alone in any ancient docu- 
ment should help us to its date. But were it otherwise, there would 
still be no difficulty in finding a Vikrama, to whose son our Pravara 
might have been a benefactor. Skandagupta, the immediate prede- 
cessor of Budhagupta, in one of his coins* calls himself a great 
Bhagavat and Vikramaditya, and if we could, relying on Mr. Hall’s 
assumption of Budlia having been “ the first sovereign of an indepen- 
dant branch which ended with himself,” suppose that he had deposed 
the rightful heir Pratapasila alias S'iladitya, Skanda would be the 
sovereign of whom mention is made in the Raja Tarangini under the 
title of Vikrama. He was succeeded by an usurper in the person 
of Budhagupta, who, in his turn yielded the empire to another. 
It is not at all unlikely that an adventurous and ambitious prince 
like Toramana should, with the resources of his brother at command, 
issue forth from the “ hill-enclosed valley” to found a kingdom of his 
own in the fertile land of central India, the seat of a once flourish- 
ing empire, but then distracted by the rule of an usurper, and have 
himself recognised as the paramount sovereign. Without some such 
success, it is difficult to suppose, that a prince would venture to 
assume the high prerogative of issuing money in his own name and 
suppressing the old currency of the country. Thus he was an 
usurper in central India and a rebel in his own countrv. Mr. 
Hall admits the first, and we have the authority of the Raja Taran- 
gini for the second position. A prince so situated, however success- 
ful for a time, could never reign in safety. His brother and liege 
* Parama bhagavata Sri Vikramaditya Skandagnpta. Tulsi device coins. 
Journal HI. As. Soc. XII. pi. I. p. 51. 
