Note 91 — Chapter VII · THE GUPTAS (G. 90–149; a.d. 410–470.)

Priaulx’s Indian Travels, 222. Compare Yule’s Cathay, I. clxx.; Mignes’ Patr. Gr. 88 page 450. For the use of Kula for Mihirakula, the second half for the whole, compare Fleet’s Corp. Ins. Ind. III. 8 note. As regards the change from Kula to Gollas it is to be noted that certain of Mihirakula’s own coins (Ind. Ant. XV 249) have the form Gula not Kula, and that this agrees with the suggestion (page 75 note 6) that the true form of the name is the Persian Mihiragula Rose of the Sun. Of this Gollas, who, like Mihirakula, was the type of conqueror round whom legends gather, Cosmas says (Priaulx, 223): Besides a great force of cavalry Gollas could bring into the field 2000 elephants. So large were his armies that once when besieging an inland town defended by a water-fosse his men horses and elephants drank the water and marched in dry-shod. ↑