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KUMARAGUPTA I 273 distribution of the numerous contemporary inscriptions and coins permits of no doubt that, during the greater part of his unusually prolonged rule, the empire suffered no diminution. On the contrary, it probably gained certain additions, for Kumara, like his grandfather, celebrated the horse-sacrifice as an assertion of his paramount sovereignty, and it is not likely that he SCENE NEAR BODH GATA. From a photograph. would have indulged in this vaunt, unless to some ex- tent justified by successful warfare. The extant records furnish the information that at the close of his reign, in the middle of the fifth cen- tury, Kumara 's dominions suffered severely from the irruption of the Hun hordes, who had burst through the northwestern passes, and spread in a destructive flood all over Northern India. Before entering upon