THE GUPTA EMPIRE

• Sri Gupta – First Gupta King

Chandragupta I (A.D.320-335)

• First important Gupta King. Married lichhavi princes.
• Started the Gupta era in A.D.319-20. Marking the date of his accession.

Samudragupta (A.D.335-380)

•  Samudragupta also known as Kaviraja
• Allahabad inscription written by Harishena, his court poet a lengthy euology to him inscribed on an Ashokan pillar, which provides the basic information about his empire.
• According to the Allahabad inscription, he never knew any defeat and hence is called the “Napolean of India”.
• He defeated Sakas so, he was known as ‘Sakari’

Chandragupta II (A.D.380-42)

• Chandragupta II married his daughter Prabhavati with a Vakataka prince; after the death of the prince he ruled by proxy over the Vakataka Kingdom through Prabhavati.
• Ujjain seems to have been made the second capital by him.
• Adopted the title of Vikramaditya (first used by an Ujjain ruler in 58 B.C. to mark his victory over the Sakas
• Kalidas and Amarasimha were in his court.
• Fahien (399-414), a Chinese pilgrim, visited India.
• An Iron Pillar of Chandra Gupta near Qutub Minar in Delhi.

Kumara Gupta (A.D.415-454)

• He founded Nalanda University

Skanda Gupta (A.D.455-67)

• He was last Gupta King

1. Fall of the Gupta Empire: Though their rule lingered till the middle of the sixth century A.D. the imperial glory had ended a century earlier.
2. The reasons were invasions by the Hunas, from central India, rise of feudalism, weak successors, financial difficulties, declined of foreign trade, and absence of large professional army to maintain vast empire.

Other Development

• Castes proliferated into sub-castes; position of Sudras and women improved; untouchables and women improved.
• Brahmanism came to the forefront.
• Guptas followed a policy of tolerance towards different religious sects.
• Guptas issued the largest number of gold coins
• Samudragupta is represented on his coins playing lute (Vina)
• Chandragupta II maintained nine luminaries or great scholars in his court. Called ‘Navaratnas’.
• Ajanta paintings (1st to 7th century A.D.) most of them belonging to Gupta period.
• Brick temples of Bhitargaon in Kanpur. Bhitari in Ghazipur and Deogarh in Jhansi.
• Nalanda was set up in the 5th century by Kumara Gupta.
• Aryabhatta calculated (pi) to 3.141 and the length of the solar year to 365.3586805 days, and believed that the earth was a sphere and rotated on its axis, and that the shadow of the earth falling on the moon caused eclipses.
• Varahamihira wrote his famous Panchasiddantika
• Shakuntala play and meghaduta(lyrical poems) by Kalidasa.
• Plays continued to be romantic comedies.Mrichchha katika by Shudraka being an exception.
• Hindus were divided into two main sect- Vaishnavas (more prevalent in northern India)and Shaivas(prevalent in south India)
• Mahabharata and Ramayana were finally complied probably in forth century A.D.
• Sanskrit grammar based on panini and patanjali written.
• Sanskrit was the court language of the Guptas.
• Brahmagupta(Mathematician), Dhanvantri(physician-ayurveda)
• Six systems of Hindu philosophy surfaced.
• Puranas in their present from were composed during this time.

HARSHA VARDHANA (A.D.606-647)

1. Harsha, the son of prabakar vardhana of the pushyabhuti family at Thanesvar made kanauji his seat of power.
2. His colorful biography (Harshacharita) by Bana and account of a Chinese visitor( a Buddhist pilgrim ) Human-Tsang gives us information about his rule.
3. In the South he was checked by Pulakesin II,the Chalukya king of Vatapi
4. Buddhist were divided into 18 sects when Human Tsang came to India.
5. The revenues of 200 villages around it maintained a great Buddhist university of Nalanda.
6. I-tsing another Chinese pilgrim visited in 670 A.D.
7. Harsha followed a tolerant religious policy, a Shaiva in the early years, he turned to be great patron of Buddhism.
8. He wrote three Sanskrit plays viz Ratnavali, priya Dharaika, Naganantham.

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