Gwalior Inscription

Gwalior · reign of Mihirakula · Sanskrit

The Gwalior Inscription is one of the few preserved direct documents of Mihirakula‘s patronage. The Sanskrit inscription records a sun-temple dedication and gives Mihirakula a string of royal titles, including the formula Jayatu Tarani (“victorious is the sun”). The pillar is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that Mihirakula was a patron of Saivite-Solar cult — not, as Marshall claimed, a Buddhist destroyer.

Why it matters

The Gwalior text places Mihirakula in central India as a builder of religious infrastructure, in continuity with his father Toramana‘s donations recorded on the Sanjeli plates. The cult of the sun (Sanskrit Surya; Iranian Mihr; Greek Mithra) is one of the strongest theological continuities running from the Iranian Hephthalite court into the Indian Alkhan kingdom — Mihirakula’s name itself (“given by Mihr”) encodes the same continuity.

Sources

• Gwalior Inscription of Mihirakula
• Bhandarkar, Epigraphia Indica
• Bakker, The Alkhan (2020)
• Humbach, “Mithra in India and the Hinduized Magi” (1978)