19. The Gupta Empire

Background

• After the break-up of the Maurya empire the Satavahanas and the Kushans emerged as two large political powers.
• The Satavahanas acted as a stabilising factor in the Deccan and the South giving political unity and economic prosperity on the strength of their trade with the Roman empire.
• The Kushans performed the same role in the north. Both these umpires came to an end in the middle of the 3rd century.
• A new empire rose known as the Gupta empire, who may have been of vaisya origin.
• The original kingdom of the Gupta comprised UP and Bihar at the end of 3rd century A.D. However UP was the most important area in respect of the finds of the Gupta antiquities.
• The Guptas were possibly the feudatories of the Kushans in UP, and seem to have succeeded them without any wide time lag.
• Guptas learnt the use of saddle, reins, buttoned coats, trousers and boots from the Kushans.
• In the Kushan scheme of things horse played the main part and that's why Guptas basic strength lay in the use of horses and horsemen are even represented on their coins.
• The Guptas also enjoyed certain material advantages as their centre of operations lay in the fertile land of UP and Bihar and could also exploit the iron ores of central India and south Bihar.
• They also took advantage of their proximity to the areas in north India which carried on Silk trade with the eastern Roman empire, also known as Byzantine empire.
• The Kushan power in north India came to an end around 230 A.D., and then a good part of central India fell under the rule of the Murundas, who were possibly the kinsmen of the Kushans.
• The Murundas continued to rule till 250 A.D., and in 275 A.D., the dynasty of Gupta came to power.
• The first important king of the Gupta dynasty was Chandragupta I who married a Lichchhavi princess from Nepal and started the Gupta era in 319-20 A.D.
• The Guptas were possibly vaisyas, and hence marriage in a kshatriya family gave them prestige.

 

Samudragupta (335-380 A.D.)

• The Gupta kingdom was enlarged enormously by Chandragupta I's son and successor Samudragupta (335-380 A.D.) who followed the policy of violence and conquest.
• His court poet Harishena wrote about the places and countries conquered by him, which can be divided into 5 groups.
• Group one includes princes of the Ganga-Yamuna doab, group two, the rulers of eastern Himalayan states such as Nepal, Assam, Bengal etc.
• Group three includes the forest kingdoms situated in the Vindhya region and known as atavika rajyas, group four includes 12 rulers of eastern Deccan and south India and group 5 includes the Sakas and the Kushans some of them ruling in Afghanistan.
• According to the eulogistic inscription from Allahabad, it would appear that Samudragupta never knew any defeat and is known as Napoleon of India.

 

Chandragupta II (A.D. 380-412)

• The reign of Chandragupta II saw the watermark of the Gupta empire who extended his empire by marriage alliance and conquests.
• His daughter Prabhavati ruled over Vakataka empire as the king died early and managed the affairs of the kingdom with the help of an official sent by her father Chandragupta.
• Passing through Vakataka he conquered western Malwa and Gujarat then under the control of the Sakas which contributed to the prosperity of this region and thus Ujjain was named his second capital.
• He adopted the title of Vikramaditya and his court was adorned with numerous scholars like Kalidasa and Amarasimha.
• And it was in his time that Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hsien (399-414) visited India and wrote an elaborate account of his life.

Fall of the Empire

• The successors of Chandragupta II had to face an invasion by the Hunas from Central Asia in second half of the 5th century A.D.
• Though Skandagupta tried effectively to stem the march of the Hunas but his successors failed, as Hunas excelled in horsemanship and possibly used stirrups made of metal and were excellent archers.
• By 485 Hunas occupied eastern Malwa, intermediate regions of Punjab and Rajasthan and good portion of central India.
• Although Huna power was soon overthrown by Yasodharman of Malwa, who also challenged the authority of Guptas and set up in 532, pillars commemorating his conquest of almost whole of northern India.
• The Gupta empire was further undermined by the rise of the feudatories in northern and south-east Bengal whose governor became independent.
• By 550 Bihar and UP had passed out of the hands of Guptas. After the reign of Skandagupta i.e. 467 hardly any Gupta coin or inscription has been found in western Malwa and Saurashtra.
• The loss of western India must have deprived the Guptas of the rich revenue from trade and commerce and crippled them economically.
• The princes of Thaneswar established their power in Haryana and then gradually moved on to Kanauj.
• The Guptas may have found it difficult to maintain a large professional army on account of growing practice of land grants for religious and other purposes which was bound to reduce their revenues.
• The advantages from Gujarat trade gradually disappeared and after the middle of 5th century the Gupta kings made desperate attempts to maintain their gold currency by reducing the content of pure gold in it but to no avail.