Attribution of the nameless coins of the archer type

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IN00041 Sarnath Buddha Image Inscription 1 of the Time of Budhagupta

Bhandarkar, Devadatta Ramakrishna, Bahadur Chand Chhabra, and Govind Swamirao Gai, Inscriptions of the Early Gupta Kings (New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1981): 334

The identity of Prakāśāditya

This presentation summarized recent research that has solved a long-standing puzzle in ancient Indian history: the identity of the king who identifies himself on the reverse of his gold coins with the epithet prakāśāditya. Most authors have assumed Prakāśāditya to be a Gupta king. In contrast, Göbl 1990 suggested on stylistic grounds that Prakāśāditya was not a Gupta at all, but a Hun. However, for reasons that are not at all clear, most authors have continued to treat Prakāśāditya as a Gupta king. In any case, Göbl was unable to establish Prakāśāditya’s identity more specifically, speculating without any real evidence that he might have been the Hun king Toramāṇa. Thus the issue of his identity was still an open question. Part of the reason for the uncertainty around the identity of Prakāśāditya is that the obverse legend on his coins had not yet been read. Gupta coins generally carry an epithet or biruda of the king on the reverse, but his name is typically revealed in the obverse legend. The parts of the legend so far read on the obverse of Prakāśāditya’s coins had not contained any parts of his real name. In Tandon 2015, in presenting the first near-complete reading of the obverse legend of the coin, I established that Prakāśāditya was in fact Toramāṇa, as Göbl had speculated

IN00045 Eran Pillar Inscription of the Time of Budhagupta

Fleet, John F., Inscriptions of the Early Guptas (Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. 3) (Calcutta: Government of India, Central Publications Branch, 1888): 90

The identity of Prakāśāditya

One of the enduring open questions in ancient Indian history is the identity of the king who identifies himself on the reverse of his gold coins as prakāśāditya. Most authors have assumed that he was a Gupta king. This paper reviews the various proposals on the identity of Prakāśāditya, arguing why we can be quite sure, as suggested by Robert Göbl, that he was in fact a Hun king and not a Gupta. Then, by presenting a near-complete reading of the obverse legend, it is shown that it is virtually certain that he was in fact the Hun king Toramāṇa, as Göbl had speculated. Implications of this finding are then considered.Accepted manuscrip

Early Buddhist architecture of Bengal: morphological study on the vihāra of c. 3rd to 8th centuries

This dissertation examines the evolution of early Buddhist architectural forms of Bengal, specifically its vihāra and shrine structures. In general, this research explores Gupta and post-Gupta (c. third to eighth centuries AD) vihāra architecture of Bengal, where the primary focus is on the Buddhist shrine architecture constructed during this period. There is a preconception amongst historians that the period between the Gupta and the Pāla periods was characterized by disorder and chaos, commonly known as the period of Matsyanyayam. This is the reason why discussions on the architectural history of Bengal have generally commenced from the Pāla period (c. 750 AD onwards). Analyzing extant and new evidences this study argues that the Buddhist architecture of Bengal thrived during the intervening period, albeit under the patronage of local kings and rulers. In the field of art and sculpture it is accepted that Buddhist Pāla art was a continuation of previous Gupta art forms, where post-Gupta period acted as the transition or a bridge. Following this general pattern, as this thesis argues, the rectangular Gupta shrine plan takes a mature cruciform shape during the Pāla period through a complex morphological development. The nature of Buddhist shrine architecture in Bengal during the early Gupta, later Gupta, and post-Gupta periods is described in the light of analyzed archaeological findings and architectural trends

New Insights on the Corrosion Resistant Delhi Iron Pillar

The 1600-year old Delhi iron pillar (DIP) has attracted the attention of metallurgists and corrosion scientists for its excellent corrosion resistance.The present paper provides new insights on the Delhi iron pillar 'based on the researches of the author. The paper has first addr-essed the identity of Chandra and the. original location of the pillar, Vishnupadagiri.Analysis of the archer-type gold coins of the Imperial Guptas provided that Chandra should be identified with Chandragupta II Vikramaditya. The original location of the pillar has been identified as Udayagiri in Central India based on archaeological eviden-ces. The engineering details of the pillar have been des-cribed, including the. decorative bell capital. The manu-facturing method of the pillar by side way forge-welding small lumps of iron with the pillar resting in the hori-zontal position has been described. Finally, the corros-ion resistance of the pillar has been addressed in detail. The earlier theories of corrosion resistance have been briefly reviewed. The microstructure of DIP iron has been explained. The role of slag particles in the matrix of the DIP iron in enhancing the passive film formation has been briefly discussed. Characterization of the DIP's rust by modern techniques has clearly established that the major constituents of the scale were crystalline iron hydrogen phosphate hydrate (FePO4.H3P0,,. 41-120), a-, y-, 8-Fe00H and magnetite. The iron oxide/oxyhydroxides were present in the amorphous form. The process of protectiye rust formation on DIP iron has been outlined based on the rust analysis. Initially, the corrosion rate of iron is high due -to the presence of the slag particles. This results in enhancement of surface P content. In the presence of P, the formation of a protective amorphous compact layer of 5-Fe0OH, next to the metal surface, is catalyzed and this confers the initial corrosion resistance. The critical factor aiding the superior corrosion resistance of the Delhi iron pillar, however, is the formation of iron hydrogen phosphate hydrate, as a thin layer next to the metalmetaloxide'interface. The formation of the crystall-ine modification of this phosphate from the amorphous form is aided by alternate wetting and drying cycles the envir-onmental factor). The rate of corrosion is further lower- ed due to the low porosity content of the crystalline phosphate phase. The passive film formation on the Delhi iron pillar has been contrasted with rusting bf normal and weathering steels

The Pala Kingdom: Rethinking Lordship in Early Medieval North Eastern India.

Often historians, conceiving the early 'state' as distinct from its 'society', project onto pre-modern social formations concepts meaningful only to the present, capitalist context. Categories such as society, economy and religion are anachronistically 'discovered' in die evidence and construed as separate entities. The debates then turn to die degree of political and administrative 'centralisation' of those early political formations. By examining available evidence, this dissertation seeks to reconceptualise the early medieval North Indian kingdom as a system of dynamic and interactive social relations. Combining both the Marxist concept of Mode of Production and a phenomenological approach the dissertation identifies the notion of lordship as the key category underpinning the polities of early medieval India. The early medieval Indian state was the total system of social relations constructed on and organised by agrarian relations of production. The dissertation develops this argument in specific reference to the Pala kingdom, while also analysing and comparing it with the Gupta 'empire'. In the early medieval period the latter in fact sets the pattern of social organisation. A system of multiple ownership of land shaped the agrarian structure of both the Pala and Gupta polities. A different entitlement to ownership rights distinguished landlords, landowners and cultivators and constituted them in a hierarchy of agrarian, political and ideological ranks. Ownership rights were themselves 'apportioned' on the basis of a cosmo-moral order known as dharma. Varnadhanna, the order of social 'classes', functioned as the ideological template for social relations. It was this ideological construct which empowered the king as both the supreme proprietor of all land and the supreme protector of dharma/var?adharma. In fact, neither the varna template nor the agrarian relations which it sustained could possibly exist outside a kingdom. The king's double relation of dependence on and 'supremacy' over dharma fashioned lordship in early medieval India. The dissertation argues that the early medieval Indian state was a hierarchical chain of encompassing and encompassed lordships. By implication it makes little sense to speak of 'centralisation', 'decentralisation', 'bureaucratisation' and 'administration'. Lordship, at once an ideological, economic and political category, structured the totality of social relations. In the polity which emerged the reaches of the political and its contexts were far deeper and extended than in modern, capitalist social formations

The evidence of gold content for the attribution of the coins in the name of Candragupta

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