Place · inscribed pillar · India
Bhitarī pillar
Also known as Bhitari, Bhitari pillar inscription, Bhitri
A red sandstone pillar in a village in Ghazipur district carrying Skandagupta's genealogy and his account of restoring the family's fortunes after a defeat, together with a passage on the Hunas that is one of the few Indian statements about them from the Gupta side.
- Function
- Text & inscription
- Confidence
- Mixed / layered — The pillar and inscription are established; the worn passage about the Hunas has a disputed reading.
- Location
- 25.600, 83.420 (approximate)
Worth knowing
The inscription's line about the emperor spending a night on the bare ground before the battle is the closest thing in Gupta epigraphy to a personal detail. The reading of the Huna passage has been disputed for a century, because the stone is worn exactly where it matters.
Connections (1)
- Imperial inscription atSkandagupta
The Bhitari pillar is Skandagupta's own account of his accession and of restoring a family whose fortunes had been upset, and it names the Hunas and the Pushyamitras as the enemies he met. It is the single most important document for the Gupta collapse, and it is a dynastic claim rather than a chronicle: the defeat it implies is only visible in the wording and in the coins.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Bhitari”. The Bhitari pillar inscription of Skandagupta, in J.F. Fleet, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum vol. III (1888), no. 13.
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