1884.] Y. A. Smith —Gold Coins of the Imperial Gupta Dynasty. 161 
passage appears to me to be strong evidence that the Gupta dynasty took 
its rise in Magadha, and that its capital 'svas, consequently, in all pro¬ 
bability, Pataliputra, the leading city of Magadha. 
The well-known passages in the Puranas, which mention the Gupta 
dynasty, also point to the fact that the centre of gravity of their empire 
lay east of Kanauj. The Vishnu Purana states that the Guptas of Maga- 
dha reigned along the Ganges to Prayaga ” (Allahabad), and the Vayu 
Purana (which is supposed to be more ancient) adds that, besides the 
regions so specified, Saketa was included in their dominions."^ The ex¬ 
pression “ along the Ganges to Prayaga ” evidently refers to the course 
of the river from Magadha {i. e., the country around Pataliputra) on the 
east, to Prayaga on the west. 
I was at one time inclined to suppose that the Pauranic texts referred 
to the later Guptas of Magadha mentioned in the Aphsar inscription,f 
but I now prefer to accept the general opinion which interprets the texts 
as referring to the imperial dynasty. Mr. A. Grant’s gold Gupta coins 
were all (except one) obtained in Oudh, and mostly in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Saketa ( = Ayodhya, near Faizabad), and Mr. Hooper’s were 
likewise found in Eastern Oudh, which facts are some confirmation of the 
statement in the Vayu Purana, if referred to the earlier dynasty. There 
is, moreover, no proof that the small territory of the later Guptas 
extended so far west as Saketa, which may have declined before their 
time, as in A. D. 400 the famous neighbouring city of STavasti had 
descended to the rank of a petty village, and in A. D. 632 was com¬ 
pletely deserted. J 
The distribution of the architectural and sculptural remains of the 
Gupta dynasty supplies another argument to prove that the capital of 
the dominions of the dynasty in Northern India lay further east than is 
commonly supposed. 
If the remains in Central India and Guzerat be excluded, which 
mark the extent of the western conquests of the later members of the 
family, § I think that the only records in stone of the Guptas yet dis¬ 
covered west of Allahabad are the broken inscription at Mathura, which 
gives the genealogy of Samudra Gupta, |j and the dedicatory inscrip- 
* Wilson’s Vishnn Pnrana (quarto edition), p. 479. 
t C un ningham, Arch. Rep. Ill, 136, and XVI, p. 79. A dynasty, with the family 
name of Gupta, reigned in Orissa probably as late as the tenth century A. D. {Ind. 
Antiquary, Vol. V, pp. 55 seqq.) 
J Cunningham, Arch. Rep. I, 333, referring to Fa-Hian and Hwen Thsang. 
§ I concur with Prof. Oldenberg in regarding as a forgery the so-called Junagarh 
tradition published by Major Watson (Ind. Ant. II, 312). 
II Cunn. Arch. Rep. I, 237 and III, 36. 
