Gupta Empire

Gupta Empire
c. 240–c. 579[1]
Approximate extent of the
Gupta territories (pink) in 375 CE
StatusEmpire
Capital
Common languagesSanskrit (literary and academic)
Prakrit (vernacular)
Religion
Demonym(s)Indian
GovernmentMonarchy
Maharajadhiraja[a] 
• c. 240 – c. 280
Gupta (first)
• c. 540 – c. 550
Vishnugupta (last)
Historical eraClassical India
• Established
c. 240
• Coronation of Chandragupta I
26 February 320[7]
• Gupta-Saka Wars
c. 375–385 [1]
• Gupta-Kidarite Conflicts
c. 390–450[8]
• Gupta-Hunnic Wars
c. 460–500[9][10]
• Disestablished
c. 579[1]
Area
400 est.[11][12]
(high-end estimate of peak area)		3,500,000 km2 (1,400,000 sq mi)
440 est.[13]
(low-end estimate of peak area)		1,700,000 km2 (660,000 sq mi)
Population
• 5th century
75,000,000[14]
CurrencyDinara (gold coins)
Rupaka (silver coins)
Karshapana (copper coins)
Cowries
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Western Satraps
Nagas of Padmavati
Pañcāla
Arjunayanas
Yaudheya
Mahameghavahana dynasty
Murunda dynasty
Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom
Later Guptas
Kingdom of Valabhi
Kingdom of Thanesar
Gurjara kingdoms
Aulikaras
Maukhari Dynasty

The Gupta Empire was an Indian empire during the classical period of the Indian subcontinent which existed from the mid 3rd century to mid 6th century CE. At its zenith, the dynasty ruled over an empire that spanned much of the northern Indian subcontinent.[15] This period has been considered as the Golden Age of India by some historians,[16] although this characterisation has been disputed by others.[note 1][18][19] The ruling dynasty of the empire was founded by Gupta.[20]

The high points of this period are the great cultural developments which took place primarily during the reigns of Samudragupta, Chandragupta II and Kumaragupta I. Many Hindu epics and literary sources, such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana, were canonised during this period.[21] The Gupta period produced scholars such as Kalidasa,[22] Aryabhata, Varahamihira and Vatsyayana, who made significant advancements in many academic fields.[23][24][25] Science and political administration reached new heights during the Gupta era.[24] The period, sometimes described as Pax Gupta, gave rise to achievements in architecture, sculpture, and painting that "set standards of form and taste [that] determined the whole subsequent course of art, not only in India but far beyond her borders".[26] Strong trade ties also made the region an important cultural centre and established the region as a base that would influence nearby kingdoms and regions in India and Southeast Asia. The Puranas, earlier long poems on a variety of subjects, are also thought to have been committed to written texts around this period.[26][27] Hinduism was followed by the rulers and the Brahmins flourished in the Gupta empire but the Guptas were tolerant towards people of other faiths as well.[28]

The empire eventually died out because of factors such as substantial loss of territory and imperial authority caused by their own erstwhile feudatories, as well as the invasion by the Huna peoples (Kidarites and Alchon Huns) from Central Asia.[29][30] After the collapse of the Gupta Empire in the 6th century, India was again ruled by numerous regional kingdoms.

  1. ^ a b Goyal, SR (1967). History of the Imperial Guptas. p. 367.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chakrabarty was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference AyodhyaKasi was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference MookerjiAyodhKasi was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference BakkerAyodhya was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b c Gupta's patronized sects
    • Hinduism [Vaishnavism] :
      • Sharma, Tej Ram (1978). Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions. Delhi: Concept. p. 112. An indication of the leaning of the Gupta kings towards Vaisnavism is clear from the Garuda emblem of the Guptas. The Gupta monarchs also used the title 'Paramabhāgavata' i.e.; the devout devotee of Visnu, in their imperial records.
      • Bakker, Hans T. (12 March 2020). The Alkhan: A Hunnic People in South Asia. Barkhuis. p. 73. ISBN 978-94-93194-00-7. On the south banks of the Bina, the building of a religious complex dedicated to Vishnu, the Empire's tutelary deity, had expanded under Budhagupta.
    • Buddhism [Mahayana] :
      • Ganeri, Anita (2007). Buddhism. Franklin Watts. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-7496-6979-9. Gupta Empire at its height (5th-6th centuries) connected with the development of Mahayana Buddhism with the development of Tantric Buddhism.
      • Singh, Upinder (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education India. p. 521. ISBN 978-81-317-1677-9. While the Gupta kings are generally linked with the promotion of Brahmanical cults, some of them extended patronage to Buddhism as well. Paramartha, a Buddhist scholar of the period, states that king Vikramaditya sent his queen and prince Baladitya to study under the tutelage of the famous Buddhist monk and scholar Vasubandhu.[...] Narasimhagupta became a Buddhist monk and gave up his life through dhyana (meditation). Kumaragupta I and Budhagupta may have built monasteries at Nalanda.
    • Jainism
  7. ^ Smith, Vincent A. "Chapter 11 – The Gupta Empire and the Western Satraps: Chandragupta I to Kumaragupta I". The Public's Library and Digital Archive. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
  8. ^ Dani, Ahmad Hasan; Litvinsky, BA (1996). History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The Crossroads of Civilizations, A.D. 250 to 750. UNESCO. pp. 151–152.
  9. ^ Majumdar, R.C. (1981). A Comprehensive History of India: Pt. 1. A.D. 300–985. Indian History Congress/People's Publishing House. p. 64.
  10. ^ Dani, Ahmad Hasan (1999). History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 221.
  11. ^ Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D (December 2006). "East-West Orientation of Historical Empires". Journal of World-Systems Research. 12 (2): 223. doi:10.5195/JWSR.2006.369. ISSN 1076-156X.
  12. ^ Bang, Peter Fibiger; Bayly, C. A.; Scheidel, Walter (2020). The Oxford World History of Empire: Volume One: The Imperial Experience. Oxford University Press. pp. 92–94. ISBN 978-0-19-977311-4.
  13. ^ Taagepera, Rein (1979). "Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D". Social Science History. 3 (3/4): 121. doi:10.2307/1170959. JSTOR 1170959.
  14. ^ Angus Maddison (2001). "Growth of World Population, GDP and GDP Per Capita before 1820". p. 238.
  15. ^ "Gupta Dynasty". 29 October 2009. Archived from the original on 29 October 2009. Retrieved 30 November 2024. The dynasty controlled an empire stretching across north India at its peak in the 5th century.
  16. ^ N. Jayapalan, History of India, Vol. I, (Atlantic Publishers, 2001), 130.
  17. ^ Jha, D.N. (2002). Ancient India in Historical Outline. Delhi: Manohar Publishers and Distributors. pp. 149–73. ISBN 978-81-7304-285-0.
  18. ^ Pletcher 2011, p. 90: "Historians once regarded the Gupta period (c.320–540) as the classical age of India [...] It was also thought to have been an age of material prosperity, particularly among the urban elite [...] Some of these assumptions have been questioned by more-extensive studies of the post-Mauryan, pre-Gupta period. Archaeological evidence from the earlier Kushan levels suggests greater material prosperity, to such a degree that some historians argue for an urban decline in the Gupta period."
  19. ^ Stein 2010, p. 86-87.
  20. ^ V.D, Mahajan. Ancient India. S. Chand Publishing. ISBN 978-93-5253-132-5.
  21. ^ Gupta dynasty (Indian dynasty) Archived 30 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  22. ^ Keay, John (2000). India: A history. Atlantic Monthly Press. pp. 151–52. ISBN 978-0-87113-800-2. Kalidasa wrote ... with excellence which, by unanimous consent, justifies the inevitable comparisons with Shakespeare ... When and where Kalidasa lived remains a mystery. He acknowledges no links with the Guptas; he may not even have coincided with them ... but the poet's vivid awareness of the terrain of the entire subcontinent argues strongly for a Guptan provenance.
  23. ^ Vidya Dhar Mahajan 1990, p. 540.
  24. ^ a b Keay 2000, p. 132: "The great era of all that is deemed classical in Indian literature, art and science was now dawning. It was this crescendo of creativity and scholarship, as much as ... political achievements of the Guptas, which would make their age so golden."
  25. ^ Gupta dynasty: empire in 4th century Archived 30 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  26. ^ a b J.C. Harle 1994, p. 87.
  27. ^ Dikshitar, V. R. Ramachandra (1993). The Gupta Polity. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 978-81-208-1024-2. Archived from the original on 2 August 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  28. ^ Sen, Sailendra Nath (1999) [First published 1988]. Ancient Indian History and Civilization (2nd ed.). New Age International. p. 227. ISBN 978-81-224-1198-0. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
  29. ^ Ashvini Agrawal 1989, pp. 264–69.
  30. ^ Grousset, Rene (1970). The Empire of the Steppes. Rutgers University Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-8135-1304-1.


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