New Empires and Kingdom

*    Gupta empire
    The Guptas rose to power and acquired political control in the region of Magadha in the 2nd decade of the 4th century CE. The first known king was Sri Gupta who founded the empire in 240 CE. He ruled till 280 CE.
    
    He is best known as the father  of Chandragupta I. Portion of northern or central Bengal might have been the home of the Gupta then.

    Chandragupta I (c. 320-335 CE)
    Chandragupta I was the first important king. He was referred to as Maharajadhiraja meaning 'great king of king'. His accession to the throne in 319 CE marks the beginning of the Gupta era.

    His empire included Magadha and parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

*   Samudragupta (c. 335-375 CE)
    Chandragupta I was succeeded by his son Samudragupta in 335 CE.  Information regarding Samudragupta is based on his inscriptions and coins. One of the most important sources of information is the Allahabad Pillar inscription or Allahabad Prashasti.        It was  engraved on the  Ashokan Pillar in Kausambi near  Allahabad. Harishena, who composed the Allahabad Prashasti, was the court poet and minister of Samudragupta. Though partially damaged, it gives  a vivid description of the reign and conquest        of Samudragupta.

*    An Estimate of Samudragupta
    Samudragupta was a great conqueror and he rightly deserves to be called the Indian Napoleon. He was also a great patron and lover of art and literature as well. He himself was a great musician and an expert Veena player. Many of his coins show him          playing the Veena. He was an accomplished scholar and a poet of high order.

*    Chandragupta II (330 – 414 A.D.)
     Chandragupta II, son and Chandragupta II, son and successor of Samudragupta, was another powerful ruler of the Gupta dynasty. He is popularly known as Vikramaditya (or Sun of Power) and is often identified with Vikramaditya of Ujjain who patronised       the famous Navaratnas.
     Like his father, Chandragupta II was also a great conqueror. His greatest achievement was to destroy the power of the Sakas of Malva, Gujarat and Saurashtra. He assumed the title of Shakari or the conqueror of the Sakas. His empire now touched the         Arabian Sea and included the important ports of Broach, Cambay and Sopara. In this way, Chandragupta II laid the foundation of a vast empire which extended from the Brahmaputra river in the east to the Chenab river and the Arabian Sea in the west.          His empire touched the  Himalayas in the north and the Narmada river in the south.
 

*   Life in the Gupta Period
    Chinese traveller Fa-Hein visted India during the reign of Chandragupta II. He was written that the people did not lock their hourses in the Gupta rule as there was no fear of thieves. From the accounts of Fa-Hein, it appears that the people were happy, safe        and held high moral values under the Gupta rule.

    Administration
    The Gupta ruler enjoyed limitless powers as was evident from their titles such as  Maharajadhiraja and Chakravarti.  The ministers, general and other official helped the kings in the administration. The empire was divided into provinces called Bhuktis. The            provinces were controlled by governors. They were helped by officials known as kumaramatya. Generally, the princes were appointed as governors. The provinces were further divided into districts or vishayas.  The vishyapati looked after a district.

    The village was the smallest unit of administration. It was looked after by a local chief or headman.

    Army
    The Gupta rulers maintained a strong standing army. Cavalry, war elephants and horse archery were important part of their army. They also maintained a navy to guard their regional waters. However, unlike the Mauryan rulers, they did not have a spy                  network.

    Religion
    The Gupta rulers were aredent followers of Hinduism. They worshipped Lord Vishnu as their main deity, so they were called Vaishnavas. Despite being followers of Hinduism, the Gupta rulers funded the institutions of Buddhist and Jain faiths. It was during          their reign that the Buddhist University of Nalanda (located in modern Bihar) became a world-famous centre of learning.

    Economy
    The prosperity of the Gupta Empire is indicated by the discovery of gold and silver coins issued by the Gupta rulers. Under the Gupta rulers, people enjoyed a high standard of living. Their  main occupations were agriculture, trade and industry. Both               domestic and foreign trade generated income for the rulers as well as  the masses. Items like pearls, ivory, textile and spices were exported to present-day West Asia, South-east Asia and some regions in the Mediterranean. Trade was carried on through       land and river transport.

   Agriculture thrived in the Gupta Empire. The main crops were rice, wheat, fruits and sugarcane. Agriculture was the main source for revenue.

*  Art and Science
    The Guptas were patrons of art and learning. Writers and poets were highly respect. Chandragupta II was a great patron of art and culture. Both Chandragupta and Samudragupta were accomplished musicians themselves. Hindu art, literature, culture            and science reached new milestones during his reign. He had in his court the Navaratnas (Nine Jewels) – nine persons who excelled in the field of literature, music, science etc. Amongst these men was the literary genius Kalidasa, who considered the            greatest sanskrit poet and dramatist.

    Great advances were made in science, astronomy and mathematics. Among notable scientific  accomplishments of the Gupta period was the work of Aryabhatta, a great astronomer and mathematician. Aryabhatta proved that the  earth is not flat but              round, and goes around the Sun. This period is known as the Golden Age in the history of Ancient India because it was marked by great advancement in science, glorious achievements in art and architecture, and peace and prosperity.

*    Causes of Decline
    The following causes contributed to the decline of the Gupta Empire 
    1.    The inability of the Gupta rulers to repulse the hum attacks undermined their power. Many native rulers challenged their authority and some even succeeded in annexing their territories.

    2.    Due to the revolt of the governors appointed by the Gupta kings, Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh no longer remained under the Gupta rule. Western India also broke away from the Gupta Empire.

    3.    The loss of western India dealt an economic blow to the Guptas as it deprived them of rich revenues from trade and commerce.

    4.     After the death of Kumaragupta and Skandagupta, the Gupta clan witnessed wars of succession to the throne. Sometime these wars led to two Gupta kings simultaneously ruling different areas.

*   Harshavardhana
    After the decline of the Gupta Empire, several small kingdoms came up in the north. The only empire that became powerful in the north was set up by Harshavardhan.

*    Harsha's Accession 
     Harsha ascended the throne in 606 A.D. when he was hardly sixteen year of age. It was the time when the rulers of  Gaur (or Bengal) and Vallabh. (or Gujrat) had treacherously murdered first his brother-in-law, Grihavarman, the ruler of Kannauj, and then          his elder brother, Rajyavardhana. So, when Harsha ascended the throne, his kingdom  was being threatened by his ancestral  enemies, the ruler of Gujarat and Bengal.

    The first task that Harsha  accomplished after his accession to the throne of Thanesar was to march towards Kannauj, where first of all he saved his sister Rajyashri and then  united the two kingdom of Thanesar and Kannauj.

*    Harsha's Conquests 
     After strengthening his  position, Harsha's first task was to defeat Shashank, the king of Bengal, and to take revenge for the deaths of his brother and brother-in-law.
     According to Hieun Tsang, a Chinese piligrim, Harsha spent six year of his reign (606 A.D. to 612 A.D.) in conquering the five Indies, i.e.,  Eastern Punjab, Kannauj, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and many other states

     After  consolidating his empire in the north, he turned towards the Deccan but his advance was checked by Pulakesin II of the Chalukya dynasty. He was the king of Badami or vatapi.

     Thus, Narmada became the southern limit of his empire which included Eastern Punjab, the whole of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, Orissa and parts of Sindh and Kashmir.

*    Harsha and Patron of Buddhism 
     Like Ashoka and Kanishka, Harsha was a great patron of Buddhism. He took several steps to popularise Buddhism. He took several steps to popularise Buddhism. He built new monasteries and repaired the old ones. He was  a follower of the mahayana        creed. He called a conference of the Buddhist scholar at Kannauj, as Ashoka and Kanishka had done in the past. He gave special grants of land and money to the Buddhist monks. Every year, Harsha would call a meeting of the Buddhist Sangha in                Prayag to encourage the propagation of Buddhism.

*    Harsha, a Great scholar and patron of learning
     Harsha was also a scholar himself and wrote three plays in Sanskrit, namely Ratnavali. Priyadarshika and the Nagananda. Banabhatta, the biographer of Harsha, wrote Harsha Charita. 

*    Harsha's Administration 
     Hieun Tsang praises Harsha's administration as organised and generous. Taxes were reasonable. Harsha's penal code was more severe than that of the Guptas. For some crimes, death sentence was also awarded. Harsha kept a powerful army.

*    Society and Life of People 
     The people wore untailored garments and walked bare-foot. The food was simple and pure. The rich lived in big houses made of bricks while the poor lived in thatched houses made of mud. There was a high sense of cleanliness and the people were             honest and fair. The caste-system had become quite rigid. The custom of Sati was practised but there was no purdah system. Trade and commerce prospered both inside the country and with foreign lands.

*    About Harsha's Assemblies 
    Hieun Tsang has given a vivid description of Harsha's assemblies. He had called a special assembly of the Buddhist monks and scholar to honour Hieun Tsang and to give publicity to the doctrines of the Mahayana faith. He also held an assembly or a           religious festival  after every five years at Prayag. One such assembly was held in 643 A.D. and was attended by Hieun Tsang.
    Harsha died in 647 A.D. and with his death the glory of ancient India was set forever.

*    Nalanda University
    Nalanda University, in Bihar, was the most renowned university during Harsha's reign. Though this university was established in the Gupta period, it was under Harsha that it became all international university and student from various parts of the world         came to study here. About 10,000 students received higher education here and 1510 professors imparted education. It had a six-storeyed building. It had several colleges and  three great libraries. The conditions for admission were very hard. No fees             were  charged from the students. They were also given free boarding and lodging. Besides the Brahmanical and Buddhist literatures, grammar, logic philosophy, medicine, astronomy, metaphysics, etc.  were the main subjects of study. Sanskrit was the     medium of instruction. Famous Shilbhadra was the head  of the university. He was a Buddhist scholar of rare ability. 

*   King of the South
    The Chalukyas
    A number of small kingdoms came to power in the South but the most powerful were the Chalukyas. They ruled  over an area  between the River Krishna and the Vindhyan mountains between the 6th and 12th century CE. Their  territories spread  across            Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Their  reign is known as the Golden Age of Karnataka.

    Inscriptions are the main source of information about the Chalukya history.
    The Chalukya Empire was established by Pulakeshin I in 543 CE. He made Vatapi his capital and performed the Ashwamedha sacrifice. Pulakeshin I was  succeeded by his son Kirtivarman who further expanded  the kingdom.

    Pulakeshin II was the most outstanding of the Chalukya rulers. He was the son of Kirtivarman. Pulakeshin means great lion'. He ruled from 608-642 CE. He waged many successful wars and expanded his empire. He annexed Varanasi and parts of the               Pallava territories. His most notable success was against king Harshavardhana whom he defeated on the banks of the Narmada. According to Hieun Tsang, the Chinese traveller, who visited the Chalukya kingdom, Pulakeshin II was an excellent                           administrator.   He ruled over almost 99,000 villages. He had a very strong and well organised army. It consisted of an infantry, a cavalry, an elephant corps and a powerful navy. This was perhaps the reason for his successful conquests. He also performed          the Ashwamedha sacrifice. However, Pulakeshin was defeated and killed by the Pallava king Narasimhavarman in 642 CE.
    Pulakeshin II was succeeded by his son Vikramaditya I. He defeated the Pallavas and re-established the Chalukya rule.  He assumed the title rajmalla and ruled for nearly 37 years.

*   The Pallavas
    The Pallavas were based at Tondaimandalam. Their capital city was Pallavpuram. Later, they moved south and  established their kingdom that extended from Northern Orissa to Tanjore and Trichi in the far south. Their  capital  was now Kanchipuram.             Inscriptions refer to the  founder of the Pallava Dyanasty as Shivaskandavrman  who ruled around the 4th century CE. But the king who rose to power was Simhavishnu. He conquered the land upto the Kaveri River.
    His successor was Mahendravarman (590-630) CE. He was  a patron of arts and learning. He began the construction of the temple at Mahabalipuram. The conflict with the Chalukyas began during his reign and continued for many decades.
    Narasimhavarman succeeded the throne in 630 CE. He defeated the famous Chalukya emperor Pulakesin II. He gave him If the title Mamalla. 
    Finally, the Pallava Dynasty was defeated by the Cholas. The administration was very efficient. The kings were vested with supreme power and were considered a representatives of god. He was assisted by a council of ministers called amatyas. An officer      called Kumaranpandaram managed the royal palace. The king was the highest judicial authority. The Pallavas maintained a huge army with infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots.
    Hieun Tsang visited the capital of the Pallavas. According to him, agriculture was flourishing and the people were happy.

*   Key Words
    Maharajadhiraja           :    The king of kings.
    Sculptor                       :    An engraver on stone.
    Pilgrim                         :    One who makes a journey to religious places.
    Barbaric                       :    Savage or cruel
    Nomadic                      :    Wanderer
    Chandals                     :    Untouchables
    Mythology                    :    Religious traditions
    Ancestral enemies       :    Old enemies from one generation to the other.
    Suzerainty                   :    Overlordship    
    Mahayana                   :    The reformed Buddhist faith in which Buddha began to be worshipped  as a God.
    Hinayana                     :    The old Buddhist faith where Buddha was regarded as a great soul.
    Biographer                  :    Writer of a biography or life-story of a man.
    Si-yu-ki                       :    Chinese expression which means 'Records of the Western World.
    Chunam                     :    Lime
    Endowments              :    Presents or gifts.
    Bhakti                         :    Personal devotion to God.
    Vassals                      :    Subordinates
    Rock-cut temples      :    Temple chiselled out of rocks.
    Shikhara                   :    Tall and storeyed tower over the deity-room.