The Location of the Tchina Temple and the Original Home of the Imperial Guptas

Summary

In 'The Location of the Tchina Temple and the Original Home of the Imperial Guptas', Jagan Nath examines an enigmatic reference in the travel accounts of Chinese pilgrims. The seventh‑century traveller I‑tsing (Yijing) recorded that a Chinese temple (Tchina vihara) built by a king named Srigupta stood some 300 li to the south‑east of Nalanda. A later pilgrim, Hwui‑Lun, noted that the temple lay in a city situated on the banks of the Ganges and contained a statue of the goddess Tara. Scholars have debated whether the temple stood at Sarnath, Varanasi or elsewhere, and who Srigupta might have been. Jagan Nath reviews the textual evidence and proposes that the temple was located near Pataliputra (modern Patna) where archaeological remains of a Gupta‑period monastery and temple complex have been found. He notes that 300 li in the Tang Chinese itinerary corresponds roughly to 60 miles, which would place the temple near modern Bihar Sharif rather than Sarnath. The article then tackles the identity of Srigupta. Some have suggested he was Ghatotkacha, father of Chandragupta I, while others identify him with a local king of Magadha predating the imperial Guptas. Jagan Nath examines genealogical data from inscriptions and the Puranas, noting that the name Srigupta does not appear in the imperial lineage but may refer to an ancestor who established the family’s initial base near present‑day Bihar. The article also considers the possibility that the temple was built by the Gupta family to curry favour with Chinese monks and to attract pilgrims to their homeland. By triangulating distances given by pilgrims with the distribution of Gupta inscriptions, the author suggests that the imperial Guptas originated not in Prayag or the middle Ganges valley but in northern Magadha. He emphasises that this hypothesis aligns with the presence of early Gupta coins and copper‑plate grants in the region. The article concludes by urging archaeologists to conduct systematic excavations at the proposed site to confirm the location of the Tchina temple and to illuminate the early history of the Gupta dynasty.