Bhitari Pillar Inscription

Bhitari, Uttar Pradesh · reign of Skandagupta, c. 455 CE · Sanskrit

The Bhitari Pillar Inscription of Skandagupta, dated to about 455 CE, is the earliest secure Indian inscription naming the Hunas as antagonists. The pillar stands at Bhitari in modern Uttar Pradesh, and the Sanskrit verses claim that Skandagupta defeated the Hunas, “by whose two arms the Earth was made to tremble”.

Which Hunas

The Hunas of Bhitari are most likely the Kidarite successors, not the later Alkhans. By 455 CE the Alkhan dynasty had not yet crossed the Hindu Kush in force; Kidara‘s heirs in Gandhara were the immediate threat to the Gupta frontier. The Bhitari victory bought a generation of relative peace before Khingila and the Alkhans appear in the late fifth century. See the Kidara post and Migration West.

Sources

• Bhitari Pillar Inscription of Skandagupta, c. 455 CE
• Fleet, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. III
• Bakker, The Alkhan (2020)
• Thakur & Sircar, The Hunas in India (1967)