The Original Home of the Imperial Guptas
Summary
D. C. Ganguly reconsiders the debated question of where the Gupta dynasty originated. Earlier scholars located the early Gupta kingdom in Bengal’s Murshidabad district based on I‑tsing’s reference to a temple built by Maharaja Śrī‑Gupta. Ganguly surveys Puranic passages, epigraphs and Chinese travelogues to reassess this hypothesis. He argues that the Chinese transcription Mi‑li‑kia‑si‑kia‑po‑no more plausibly refers to Mrgastāpana in Varendra (North Bengal) or to a site near modern Sarnath rather than Murshidabad. The article points out that early Puranas differ on the extent of the Gupta realm and that later inscriptions associate Samudragupta with Magadha and Prayaga. Ganguly highlights inconsistencies in earlier translations of I‑tsing and notes that Foucher and Majumdar themselves revised their views. He concludes that the imperial Guptas likely hailed from eastern Uttar Pradesh or southern Bihar, expanding into Varendra only later. Thus the dynasty’s origin lies closer to the middle Ganges than to Bengal.
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Conclusion
By reinterpreting Chinese and Indian sources, Ganguly challenges the notion that the Guptas were Bengalis. He locates their homeland near Magadha and argues that Varendra became associated with the dynasty only after its rise to power.