The Prayag Prashasti, the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta, was composed by

The correct answer is A, Harisena. Harisena was Samudragupta's court poet and a high officer, and he composed the long eulogy engraved on an older Ashokan pillar now at Allahabad. The inscription lists the kings of Aryavarta uprooted, the rulers of Dakshinapatha captured and released, the frontier states that submitted, and the foreign powers that sought friendship, and it is the main source for the reign.

Option B, Kalidasa, was the great Sanskrit poet associated with the Gupta court and with Chandragupta II, but he wrote plays and poems, not this inscription. Option C, Vasubandhu, was a Buddhist philosopher of the Yogachara school, patronised by a Gupta ruler but not a writer of prashastis. Option D, Amarasimha, compiled the Sanskrit lexicon Amarakosha and is counted among the navaratna of Chandragupta II. Only Harisena is named in the record itself.