Who are the Successors Of Skandagupta?

1. Purugupta

The glory of the Gupta empire moved towards its end after the death of Skandagupta in 467 A.D. Purugupta succeeded (in 467 A.D.) the throne He must have been of an advanced age when he came to the throne.

The span of his reign was only six years. During his reign several Gupta Kings reigned simultaneously and some of the names are known to us-Kumaragupta-O (474 A.D.) who, according to Dr. R.C. Majumdar must have been son of Skandagupta. Purugupta was succeeded by his two sons-Budhagupta and Narasimhagupta.

It is difficult to know the immediate successors of Purugupta. We find divergent names in the inscriptions of the Guptas. The “Bitari Seal” and the “Nalanda Seal Inscription” mentioned the name of Narasimha Gupta as the successor of Purugupta.

The “Nalanda Seal Inscription” mentions the name of Budhagupta as the successor where as in the “Sarnath Stone Inscription”, Kumaragupta-H is indicated as the king in 474 A.D. In this way, the difference in these inscriptions are due to the fact that they only mention the successors but not the immediate successor of the previous rulers.

Kumaragupta-II was the son of Skandagupta and a rival of Purugupta. Purugupta was succeeded by Budhagupta.

2. Budhagupta

Budhagupta succeeded in 477 A.D. and reigned for eighteen years (477-495 A.D.). His inscriptions have been found in Damodarpur in North-Bengal, Sanath and Eran. He succeeded in suppressing internal revolts.

He brought back the political solidarity of the empire. But he could not revive the lost glory of the Guptas. Many provinces disregards his authority totally.

The Maitraka family in Kathiwar became hereditary governors with their capital at Vallabhi. Third King of this dynasty Dronasimha assumed the title of “Maharaja” and his semi-independent status was acknowledged by Budhagupta.

Bundelkhand became independent and this is borne out by the land grants issued by “Parivrajaka Maharaja Hastin ” in his own name without any reference to the Gupta master.

The same happened to the King Jayanath of Uchchakalpa. In the North and East of Bundelkhand the Kings of Panduvamsa assumed the title of “Maharaja”,( “Maharaja”) Lakshmana of Jaipur and “Maharaja” Subandu in the Narmada Valley snapped their alliance to the Guptas.

The governors of North Bengal were called “Uparikas ” now they assumed the title of “Uparika” (“Maharaja”). All these were the sign of disintegration of the Gupta Empire.

Besides this integrating forces, the Vakatakas and Hunas invasions were the twin foreign aggression that hold heavily on the Gupta empire.

The Vakatakas under the leadership of Narendra sena invaded Malava, Mekala, and Kosala by which they weakened the Gupta authority in Bundelkhand. The Hunas came again during the reign of Budhagupta but there is no detail of this Hunas campaign.

In this way, we must admit that as long as Budhagupta was on the throne, the structure of Gupta empire was intact. Theoratically, the Guptas were still paramount authority in India.

3. Narasimhagupta

After the death of Budhagupta, his brother Narasimhagupta succeeded the throne in 495 A.D. At the same time, we find two other Kings- Vainayagupta ruling over Bengal and Bhanugupta ruling over Malwa, with the “Gupta” surname.

They belonged to the Imperial Gupta line and were rival claimants to the throne of Magadha. Perhaps Bengal and Malwa were outside the authority of Narasimhagupta.

The Hunas under the leadership of Toraman conquered the Punjab, part of Uttar-Pradesh, Saurashtra and Malwa. Probably, Bhanu gupta of Malwa succeeded in checking the oncoming Hunas in the battle of Eran.

But Hunas under a new leader, Mihirkula, captured a large part of North India. The Malwa King Yasodharman hurled an effective blow on the Hunas and in token of his victory over Hunas, he erected pillars of Victory in his own name.

Despite such reverses the Hunas succeeded in snapping the foundation of the gupta authority in Magadha.

The conquest of Yasodharman over the Hunas shattered the prestige of the Gupta empire. The other feudatories following the example of Yasodharman, withdrew their alliance to the Guptas.

4. Kumaragupta-ii & Vishnugupta

After the death of Narasimhagupta his son Kumaragupta-m succeeded the throne and he was succeeded by his son Vishnugupta. Their reigns may be assigned to the period 535-570 A.D. Magadha, North Bengal and Kalinga were their dominions.

Kumaragupta assumed the title of “Vikramaditya”, Vishnugupta assumed the title of “Chandraditya”. Although, there are the names of Damodargupta, Mahasenagupta, Devagupta-II, Madhava Gupta, Adityasena, Devagupta-III, Vishnugupta-Il, Jivitagupta-II.

All these Kings took up imperial tides. Probably, the Guptas empire was finally destroyed by the Gaudas. In the time of Yashovarman of Kanauj, the throne of Magadha was occupied by a Gauda King.