| Metadata | |
|---|---|
| Inscription ID | IN00038 |
| Title | Nalanda Seal Legend of Vainyagupta |
| Alternative titles | |
| Parent Object | OB00034 |
| Related Inscriptions | |
| Responsibility | |
| Author | Dániel Balogh |
| Print edition recorded by | Dániel Balogh |
| Source encoded | |
| Digitally edited by | |
| Edition improved by | Dániel Balogh |
| Authority for | Own research. |
| Metadata recorded by | Dániel Balogh |
| Authority for metadata | |
| Metadata improved by | |
| Authoriy for improved | |
| Language | संस्कृतम् |
| Reigning monarch | Vainyagupta |
| Commissioner | |
| Topic | |
| Date: | |
| Min | 500 |
| Max | 520 |
| Comment | Basis of dating: approximate reign of Vainyagupta. |
| Hand | |
| Letter size | |
| Description | northern class, mixing features of eastern (ma, la) and western (sa, ha) Gupta alphabet |
| Layout | |
| Campus: | |
| Width | 5.4 |
| Height | 5.7 |
| Description | Contains five lines; the first with just one extant character, while the last seems complete. Any number of lines above the present first line may have been lost, as well as a device above the inscription. Given its similarity to other Gupta seals from Nālandā, the original may have held 8 lines. The text is in relief. |
| Decoration | None. |
| Bibliography | |
| References | Briefly noticed in Sastri 1931-32: 77 (postscript). Edited in Sastri 1942: 67. Discussed in Sircar 1943b: 275-277 and Majumdar 1948. |
| Add to bibliography | Nisar Ahmad in Journal of the Numismatic Society of India 29/1 p44 and 33/2 49-55; Thaplyal in Journal of the Numismatic Society of India 33/1 54-55. |
| Misc notes | Bhandarkar 1981: 355-356 describes how the Nalanda seals were originally raw clay (one is pierced, with traces of string running through it), and were probably baked accidentally in a monastery fire. |