Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/325

THE LATER GUPTAS 283 and the only event which can be assigned to it is a bold attempt to restore the purity of the coinage. The rare gold coins, bearing on the reverse the title Prakasa- ditya, which are generally ascribed to Puragupta, al- though retaining the gross weight of the heavy suvarna, each contain 121 grains of pure gold, and are thus equal in value to the aurei of Augustus, and superior in intrinsic value to the best Kushan or early Gupta coins. Puragupta was succeeded by his son Narasimha- gupta Baladitya, who was followed by his son, Kumara- gupta II. Although these kings continued to assume the high-sounding titles borne by their imperial ances- tors, their power was very circumscribed, and confined to the eastern portions of what had been the Gupta empire. The imperial line passes by an obscure transition into a dynasty comprising eleven princes, who appear to have been for the most part merely local rulers of Magadha. The last of them, Jivitagupta n, was in power at the beginning of the eighth century. The most considerable member of this local dynasty was Adityasena in the seventh century, who asserted a claim to paramount rank, and even ventured to celebrate the horse-sacrifice. In the western province of Malwa we find the names of rajas named Budhagupta and Bhanugupta, who cover the period from 484 to 510, and were evidently the heirs of Skandagupta in that region. But the latter of these two princes, at all events, occupied a dependent posi-