The Early Home of the Imperial Guptas
Summary
Examining Chinese pilgrim I‑Tsing’s travel record and early inscriptions, D.C. Ganguly reassesses where the Gupta dynasty originated. The pilgrim reports that a king named Sri‑Gupta built a temple for Chinese monks roughly forty stages east of Nalanda near the Mrgāśīkhāvana monastery. Ganguly correlates this description with the Murshidabad district in Bengal and argues that Sri‑Gupta’s domain lay along the middle Ganges. He notes that I‑Tsing states the temple land later reverted to the king of Eastern India, named Devavarman, whom later scholars identify with the Khadga rulers of eastern Bengalimage/. By analysing I‑Tsing’s enumeration of Tamralipti and Harikela as the southern and eastern limits of Eastern India, Ganguly concludes that Sri‑Gupta’s kingdom lay in Bengal, not Magadha. He adduces coins bearing the legend Candra (Gupta I) and points out that the marriage of Candragupta I to the Licchavi princess Kumāradevi suggests that the Gupta family originally lived near Vaiśālī before acquiring Pataliputra. The article argues that the title Mahārāja used for Sri‑Gupta implies a petty regional ruler and that it is unlikely he controlled Magadha at that timeimage/. Ganguly concludes that the imperial Guptas were originally a minor dynasty from Murshidabad in Bengal who rose to power through strategic marriage and conquest.
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Conclusion
By correlating I‑Tsing’s account with numismatic and epigraphic evidence, Ganguly locates the early home of the Guptas in the Murshidabad district of Bengal rather than Magadha. He notes that Sri‑Gupta’s grant to Chinese monks and the subsequent reversion of the land to an eastern king point to a base near Tamralipti and Harikela. The use of the title Mahārāja for Sri‑Gupta and the marriage alliance with the Licchavis further indicate that the dynasty began as a minor regional power. The imperial Guptas later moved their capital to Magadha, but their roots lie in Bengal.