3GG 
Rajendralala Mitra— On a STcanda Gupta Inscription. [No. 4, 
the Eran monuments of Budha Gupta,* and in the Udayagiri and Sanchi 
records of Chandra Gupta.f The argument on which I base my inference 
is very much the same which Mr. Fitz-Edward Hall once used in sup¬ 
port of a similar conclusion with reference to Skanda Gupta as noticed in 
the Kuhaon pillar. Adverting to Prinsep’s translation of that monu¬ 
ment he said: “ There is then nothing here recorded concerning the death 
of Skanda Gupta, as Prinsep supposes. Being neither the first ruler of 
the Gupta dynasty, nor the last, nor of special note, it would be extraordi¬ 
nary indeed if time had been computed from his decease. Moreover, 
if he and his kingdom had so long passed away, it seems preposterous 
that they should he mentioned, and in so eulogistic a strain, especially 
as there is not, on this hypothesis, even a subordinate allusion to the 
reigning monarch. Indubitably Skanda was on the throne when this 
memorial was written. The term which is applied to his govern¬ 
ment, has, with other meanings, those of ‘ serene,’ ‘ tranquil,’ ‘ unperturbed,’ 
‘ flourishing.’ In bearing these significations in addition to that of 
‘ discontinued’ or ‘ extinguished,’ it may be compared with fM^. 
Whatever be the era here followed, it appears to have been too well under¬ 
stood at the time to call for explicit specification.” J Two years subsequent¬ 
ly in another essay on the subject the writer had, however, occasion to 
recant this opinion, and to adopt a new one, which he thus developed: 
“ Now, the use, in close juxtaposition to the mention of the Gupta king¬ 
dom, of so equivocal a term as in one inscription, and of in 
another, the later of Hastin’s, was enough, as soon as observed, to arrest 
attention. The former word, to be sure, bears the import of ‘ quiescent,’ 
£ serene,’ 1 tranquil,’ ‘ unperturbed,’ ‘ flourishing,’ no less than of ‘ discon¬ 
tinued,’ £ extinguished,’ but the latter, if unqualified by a temporal particle, 
denotes possession, or fruition, only as a thing of the past. Ordinary mean¬ 
ings which it has—all of them metaphorical of ‘ eating’—are £ used,’ ‘ worn,’ 
£ consumed,’ 1 disbursed,’ ‘ expended.’ In the older of Hastin’s grants the 
phrase is which, like *JT?T, may signify, ‘tenure,’ ‘incumbency;’ other 
customary senses of it being, at the same time, ‘ dissipation,’ ‘ waste,’ ‘ de¬ 
struction.’ In order to substantiate the counter-position to that which I 
take touching the acceptation of Tif^i and as chronologically bear¬ 
ing, in the phraseology of inscriptions, on the state of an empire, it must be 
made out that, in other writings of the same nature, these words imply 
duration to the period particularized. 
“ The partiality of the Hindus to euphemism is notorious ; and it is 
therefore not surprising that where, as in the Kahaun inscription, reference 
* Ibid, p. 18. 
f Ante V., p. X. 
X Journal, American Oriental Society, VI., p. 530. 
