Prepared under the directions of
DR. K. M. MUNSH1, President, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
\ " - 3
THE HISTORY AND CULTURE
OF THE
INDIAN PEOPLE
early chapters of this Volume the authors 1 n as their focal, point in the political history
, ihe rise, decline and fall of the Gupta Empire ,ave brought the history of the subsequent period xuto perspective.
The legend of Harshavardhana as the last empire- builder has been successfully demolished and his history reconstructed after a true sifting of all avail able evidence including that of Vakpati and Kalhana The entire historical outlook on the post-Harsha period has been changed in the light of these new conclusions.
his
ul¬
na.
Special emphasis has been laid on the work of the Chalukyas and the Pallavas in the South who took up the thread left by the Guptas in the North and achieved political i’*iity in the Deccan and South India, thereby r ^mg the political ideal of a federation of il-w tnree regional units. The cultural movements which accompanied these events have also been traced.
Chapters XV to XXII reveal fully for us that ‘Golden Age’, the period when India reached the high watermark of intellectual development in the most widely varied fields of art, science and literature. This was the age of Kalidasa, Dandin, Subandhu and Banabhatfa. It was then that the six systems of philosophy took real shape; Vasubandhu, Amara, Aryabhafa, Varahamihira and Brahmagupta stood out in bold relief; and Nalanda University attracted world-wide attention. In the realm of art we read of Sarnath and Ajanta whose excellence are appre¬ ciated throughout the world. During this period there were established those rock-like foundations which were to culminate in the highest peak of Hindu¬ ism; of these we may cite the Ramayana and Mahd- bharata among the epics, the vast Puranic lore, and Vaishnavism and Saivism in the field of religion. Then, Sanskrit as the lingua franca of educated India cut across all disunity; but more than this, we find the cultural hands of India stretching across her natural boundaries even as far as Central and Eastern Asia, thus establishing “Greater India.*’
The contributors to this Volume include— Dr. R. C. Majumdar, M.A., Ph.D. F.A.S.; Dr. D.C. Sircar, M.A., Ph.D.; Prof. K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, M.A.; Prof. R. Sathianathaier, M.A.; Dr. G.V. Devasthali, M.A., B.T., Ph.D.; Dr. M.A. Mehendale, M.A., Ph.D.; Prof. H.D. Velankar, M.A.; Dr. K.R. Srinivasa Iyen¬ gar, M.A., D.Litt.; Dr. U.N. Ghoshal, M.A., Ph.D.; Dr. Nalinaksha Dutt, M.A., B.L., P.R.S., Ph.D., D.Litt.; Dr. J.N. Banerjea, M.A., Ph.D.; Dr. A.D. Pusalkar, M. A., LL.B., Ph.D.; Dr. A.M. Ghatage, M.A., Ph.D.; Dr. T.M.P. Mahadevan, M.A., Ph.D.; Prof. H.D. Bhattacharya, M.A.; Prof. U.C. Bhattacharjee, M.A.; Prof. S.K. Saraswati, M.A.; Dr. Nihar Ranjan Ray, M.A., D.Lett. and Phil. (Leiden).
43 plates adequately illustrate the best specimens of the unique artistic achievements of this period.
Foreword by Dr. K. M. Munshi.
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BHARATIYA VIb
HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE _
VOLUME III
THE CLASSICAL AGE
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Public.Resource.Org
https://archive.org/details/classicalage03bhar
THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE
THE
CLASSICAL
AGE
FOREWORD BY
K. M. MUNSHI
B.A., LL.B., D.LITT., LL.D President , Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
GENERAL EDITOR
R. C. MAJUMDAR
M.A., PH.D., F.A.S., F.B.B.R.A.S.
Principal , College of Indology Banaras Hindu University
Ex Vice-Chancellor and Professor of History Dacca University
Hon. Head of the Department of History Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
ASSISTANT EDITORS
A. D. PUSALKER
M.A., LL.B., PH.D.
Assistant Director and Head of the Department of Sanskrit Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
AND
A. K. MAJUMDAR
M. A., D. PHIL
Director , Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan ,
Delhi Kendra
BOMBAY
BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN
© BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN 1954
FIRST EDITION 1954 SECOND EDITION 1962 THIRD EDITION 1970
PRINTED IN INDIA BY P. A. RAMAN AT INLAND PRINTERS 55 GAMDEVI ROAD, BOMBAY 7
AND
PUBLISHED BY
S. RAMAKRISHNAN, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN CHOWPATTY, BOMBAY 7
CONTRIBUTORS
R. C. MAJUMDAR
M.A., PH.D., F.A.S., F.B.B.R.A.S.
Director, Board of Editors, History of the Freedom Movement, Government of India, New Delhi
D. C. SIRCAR
M.A., PHD.
Superintendent for Epigraphy, Government of India, Ootacamund; formerly Lecturer in Ancient Indian History and Culture in the
University of Calcutta
K. A. NILAKANTA SASTRI
M.A.
Professor of Indology in the University of Mysore; formerly Professor of History in the University of Madras
R. SATHIANATHAIER
M.A.
Professor of History and Politics in the Annamalai University
G. V. DEVASTHALI
M.A., B.T., PH.D.
Professor of Sankrit in the H. P. T. College, Nasik
M. A. MEHENDALE
M.A., PHD.
Reader in Sanskrit, Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Poona
H. D. VELANKAR
M.A.
Joint Director, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan; formerly Professor of Sanskrit ,
Wilson College, Bombay
K. R. SRINIVASA IYENGAR
M.A., D.LITT.
Professor and Head of the Department of English in Andhra University, Waltair
U. N. GHOSHAL
M.A., PHD.
Formerly Professor of History in the Presidency College, Calcutta
NALINAKSHA DUTT
M.A., B.L., P.R.S., PH.D., D.LITT. (London)
Professor of Pali in the University of Calcutta
J. N. BANERIEA
M.A., PHD.
Carmichael Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture in the
University of Calcutta
A. D. PUSALKER
M.A., LL.B., PH.D.
Assistant Director and Head of the Department of Ancient Indian Culture,
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
A. M. GHATAGE
M.A., PHD.
Professor of Ardhamagadhi in the Karnatak College, Dharwar
T. M. P. MAHADEVAN
M.A., PH.D.
Head of the Department of Philosophy in the University of Madras
H. D. BHATTACHARYYA
M.A.
Formerly Head of the Department of Philosophy, Dacca University, and Honorary University Professor of Indian Philosophy and Religion,
Banaras Hindu University
U. C. BHATTACHARJEE
M.A.
Formerly Professor of Philosophy in the Presidency College, Calcutta
S. K. S AR AS W ATI
M.A.
Librarian, Asiatic Society, Calcutta; formerly Lecturer in History in the
University of Calcutta
NIHAR RANJAN RAY
M.A., D.LETT., & PHIL, (leiden)
Bagisvari Professor of Indian Art and Culture in the University of Calcutta
FOREWORD
By Dr. K. M. Munshi
There has been some delay in publishing this volume because of the heavy demand for Volume II, the second edition of which had to be published soon after the first. It is now planned to publish Volumes IV and V simultaneously, and the Bhavan hopes to put them on the market by June 1954.
This Volume covers the period of Indian History from A.D. 320, when the Gupta Empire was founded, to about A.D. 740, when Yasovarman of Kanauj died. The period can suitably be divided into two; one, from A.D. 320 to c. A.D. 467 when Emperor Skanda- gupta died, and the other, from A.D, 467 to c.A.D. 740.
I
Rightly called the ‘Classical Age* of India, this period saw a springtime efflorescence in all spheres of life. The creative urge of the time has contributed both character and richness to the evolution of the national mind in every succeeding century. With the rise of the Imperial Pratlharas in the West, the Palas in the East and the Rashtrakutas in the South about the middle of the eighth century, there began the next distinctive period dealt with in the next volume*
Empires rise, decline and fall; communities and nations inte¬ grate or disintegrate; the latter either develop a collective mind, outlook and will, or lose one or the other only to lose them all even¬ tually. In the one case they evolve an articulate personality; in the
other they cast it off and disappear.
The integration and disintegration of human aggregates form the basic patterns of history as viewed through continuous time. To study them, however, they must be viewed in sections, as in this volume. If such a study is to have any meaning, the volume and direction of the flowing stream must be constantly borne in mind.
As I stated in my Foreword to the First Volume, “It is not enough to conserve, record and understand what has happened: it is necessary also to assess the nature and direction of the momentous forces working through the life of India in order to appreciate the fulfilment which they seek,”
Throughout the history of India, the process of integration com¬ prises two simultaneous movements: one owes its origin to Aryan Culture and operates by virtue of the momentum which the values of that culture possess; the other works itself upward
THE CLASSICAL AGE
from the way of life of the Early Dra vidian and other non- Aryan cultures in the country into the framework of the Aryan Culture modifying its form and content, though not the fundamentals, weav¬ ing a harmonious pattern continuously. The first movement pro¬ vides vitality and synthesis; the second contributes vigour and variety. But it is the harmonious adjustment of both that gives to India, age after age, her strength, tenacity and sense of mission.
The adjustment made against the background of racial fusion is symbolised by the sacredness accorded both to the Nigama, the Vedic tradition, and the Agama, the Dra vidian tradition; by the equal ritualistic importance of the Vedic homa and the Dravidian puj®,* to the inseverable Godhood of the Aryan Vishnu and the non- Aryan Siva. It must never be forgotten that Vyasa, the founder and prophet of Arya-dharma , and 6rl Krishna, the World Teacher, whose message is its fundamental scripture, are both sons by high-browed Aryans of non-Aryan mothers.
Vedic culture, the culture of the Vedic Aryans, brought an in¬ creasing number of people within its fold as it spread through the country. Sweeping changes were made in the religious, social and cultural outlook and institutions of each successive age. But the vitality of the central ideas and fundamental values was never so lost as to bring about complete disintegration. In some periods, however, the two movements produced adjustments at many, if not all. levels; the vitality was converted into irresistible vigour; full nourishment was drawn from the soil of race memory and tradition. At such times a great Age, like the Age of the Guptas, would dawn in India. On the other hand, when the twTo movements failed either by external or internal maladjustments to support each other, conflict between the two became inevitable; growth ceased to be vigorous; disintegration began as in the beginning of the eleventh century, when the raids of Mahmud of Ghazni overwhelmed parts of north India, the Age of Expansion ended, the Age of Resistance began.
II
The evolution of India, during the period of the Magadhan supremacy, dealt writh in the Second Volume of this series, began with the dawn of history in India in the seventh century before Christ. But long before this, Indians, who had adopted the Aryan way of life, had developed a common way of life; and their sense of unity preserved by tradition and activated by race-memory, recaptured in each generation, was expressed through common action. By vitalising the fundamental values of their culture, they had create ed vigorous adjustments necessitated by the conditions of each age During this process, the best elements in the society had, from the
• t «
yin
FOREWORD
earliest times, developed a ruling purpose— the fulfilment of Rita or Dharma — which gave them the capacity to will themselves into a well-defined and vigorous social organism.
The Magadhan Period closed with the invasion of the Yueh-chis. Disintegration followed in northern and western India and was accentuated by the break up of the Kushana Empire which they had founded. The process of integration was also hindered by Buddhism which was not organically rooted in race memory and race tradi¬ tion, and stood, in many respects, in antagonism to them. But it was an expansive movement and naturally attracted foreigners; in India, it stimulated the national mind and culture by impact rather than by inspiration. The Sungas and the Satavahana con¬ querors however drew strength from its roots.
The third century after Christ is still shrouded in obscurity. But, according to the Bhagavata^purdna, northern India was under¬ going a period of disintegration. Nagas ruled in Champavatl and Mathura; Abhiras ruled in Saurashtra and AvantI; in the region of Abu and Malava the rulers were devoid of culture ‘like unto the mlechchha’. In Sindh, on the banks of the Chandrabhaga, in the land of Kunti in Kashmir, the Sudras, Vratyas and the mlechchhas ruled. These rulers, the author says, lacked the power of the Spirit, disregarded Dhairma and Truth, and were ‘contemptible and irascible’ — phalguddh tlvramanyavah. His only hope lay in the new rulers, Visvasphani in Magadha and Vindhyasakti, a Brahmana, ruling on the banks of the Narmada.
But there is little doubt, that by the beginning of the fourth century, the forces of disintegration had lost their momentum. In Southern India the old forces were being given new forms and directions.
In spite of unsettled conditions, India was free from foreign attentions. The race memory looked back with pride on those times when chakravarti-samrdp, or universal emperors like Mandhata and Bharata held sway over the whole world. The notion of a universal emperor, supported by a universal church, so popular in mediaeval Europe, was basically different from this concept. The chakravarti was the political and military counterpart of Dharma ; like Mahavaraha — the great Boar — he was the saviour of Dharma , and the supporter of the fundamental law of the Dharma-sdstra; like Parasurama, he was the repressor of the lawlessness of kings, rajyochchhettd. He was able to conquer the world but only as the chakravarti of Aryavarta.
The popular conception was expressed by Vayu-purdna thus:
IX
THE CLASSICAL AGE
“The chakrwvartls are born in each age as the essence of Vishnu. They have lived in ages past and will come again in the future. In all the three ages — past, present and future— even in the Treta age other chakravartts have been and will be born.
“Strength, Dharma, happiness and wealth, these wondrous bless¬ ings shall characterise these rulers. They will enjoy wealth, plenty, Dharma , ambition, fame and victory in undisturbed harmony.
“They will excel the Rishis in their power to achieve results, by their lordliness, by providing plenty and by discipline. And they will excel the gods, demons and men by their strength and self- discipline. ”
The conception of Aryavarta, the sacred land of the Aryas, was a living one; for it was impregnated with an abiding veneration for the fathers who had lived and died so that it might live, great and eternal.
The V ishnu-purana expressed the eternal hope of the Indian heart: “Even the gods sing thus: ‘Blessed are the men who live in the land of Bharata, which is like unto the high road to Heaven and to Liberation; for they are higher than gods themselves.’ ”
In India the concept of Dharma was primarily related to Arya¬ varta. Bharatavarsha, Karmabhumi, was the land of Dharma, and it stretched from the oceans to the Himalayas. In the popular mind, however, the boundaries of Aryavarta extended far beyond those defined by the early Dharma-sastras . Aryavarta was the region where Aryas flourished and where the mlechchhas, if they overran it, could not abide for long. It was Aryavarta, without any frontier, geographical or political. Medhatithi, a great commentator on Manu, was to give expression to this idea some centuries later: “A king of meritorious conduct could conquer even the land of the mlechchhas, establish chdturvarnya there, assign to the mlechchhas a position occupied by the chanddlas in Aryavarta and render that land as fit for sacrifice as Aryavarta itself.”
Ill
In the beginning of the fourth century, the powerful Pallava king ^ivaskanda-varman in southern India celebrated the asvamedha. About A.D. 320, Chandra-gupta I, the founder of the Gupta Empire, revived the chakravdrtl ideal in northern India. His marriage with KumaradevS, the Lichchhavi princess, probably resulted in the union of her principality with Magadha and launched him on a career of wide conquests. Fortunately for him, there was no other
x
FOREWORD
rival for imperial supremacy in northern India at the time and no foreign invader threatened the country from the north-west.
Placed between A.D. 335-380, Samudra-gupta, the next emperor, laid the foundation of an irresistible military machine which probably included a navy. With his large standing army, he wiped out the feeble kings and effete republics of the Gangetic basin. The territory from Hard war to the borders of Assam was consolidated into a compact homeland which he directly administer¬ ed under a system which, with suitable modifications, was soon adopt¬ ed in many parts of the country and persisted in some form even up to the British period. Samudra-gupta’s sacred horse, followed by his army, extracted tribute from the kings ruling in most parts of the country and served to bring about friendly relations with the Shahanushahi kings of the north-west. He reached the zenith of his power when he performed the asvamedha sacrifice and gave muni¬ ficent donations.
Politically, this was the age of integration in India. After more than three hundred years of fragmentation and foreign domination, northern India was again united under the vigorous rule of a power¬ ful monarch of versatile talents. A brilliant general, a farsighted statesman, a man of culture and a patron of the arts and letters, he became the symbol and architect of a mighty creative urge among the people which, while drawing vitality from tradition and race- memory, took on a new shape and power.
Samudra-gupta was succeeded by his no less brilliant son, Chandra-Gupta II, known as Vikramaditya, acclaimed as the greatest of the Gupta Emperors. In his reign, which is placed between A.D. 376 and 414, the last vestige of foreign rule disappeared from the land and the direct sway of Pafaliputra extended from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. The country to the south of the Narmada was dominated by two friendly powers — the Vakatakas and the Pal- lavas — who shared the Gupta emperors’ enthusiasm for strengthening Dhtfrma. The dominions of the descendants of Vakafaka Vindhya- sakti extended from Bundelkhand to Hyderabad. A daughter of Chandra-gupta II was married to one of them, and she ruled as regent for thirteen years; and till the dynasty disappeared, the Vakafakas continued in subordinate alliance with the Guptas. The Pallavas, who held unquestioned sway in the south, maintained friendly rela tions with the Guptas, even when they were not subject to their hege¬ mony.
Under the leadership of Chandra-gupta II, the Gupta eagles flew over parts of IJalkh across the Hindukush. Peace, plenty and power,
XI
THE CI&SSB2&KAGE
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wio Hunas. Both bf them
stabilised what their predecessors had acquired and dohsolidated/ These onie hundiddfandxtifty y^eam bf Qupta rule can rightly: Bf^^lled
th^iCbidenhFkgteadf IlndiaorjstnsmgBii: r ..ud osiiij rrarlt
^^^W'Oupta' efS^erprs tipheli} : tiHdrma in all its aspectsKahdpffl conseduehpe, its ebhfehf ivas ehriched and its scope enlarged?1 Ah overarching la" w;pf life, though it existed from Vedic times, eM uhde^ thern ffie &rm^\yhich in 1 the main it still s They &ew ffiefr inspiration "from it, and in so doing* cliKtSf fhS people with them. Historical chhtihtSity1 and conscious iinity^LS^Sre preserved by a faith in the ^dashas3!the ^qrca^ofj ^Uj^jig^^dge and inspimti@ja.b.:Within the- i r^ae-wqrk fgf fjrafji}
tions and /rithal^ language and literature, tj^-^pgs ideals and $nedesc^>f? life, became integrating /agen|ciqs| Throiigh the PurdTias, ^hi#i sang of sacred legends, of riypr%3jqf^i%t#n^i#ifei.f^j[ of royal hotisls, and c^i^emi-diyjne heroes and sages^ 4h%paatn^ mained a 'rglpiieUi/jteritag^itaah^pire the future with fre^fyigpqjgw
? ^integrating fdrhe il#asr ’^Hie ^ x >. — - T isls of Aryan society Mhd the
mode of social" adj liferent; prescribed laws of inheritance and of civil and" criminni^jtt^ficS^fincj0^^^ &owh rules to govern all ffiaj or *SkL death. Of them all, Manu-smfiii Wh^iiild
hrbughout tlie country, not only in the Hbrth
^ .-1 i_- - 111 its authority;
clear iihpress
of its great influence.
Theoretically, nebotmiig “to the Dharrna-Mstras, the social struc¬ ture Wvi^gedM1 social groups, chdturvarnya;
Dharma
situations
,8*t
in the highest san
Sl3Z VWiV
FOREWORD
in fact, it was a hierarchy of such groups ranged according to the standard of culture attained by each, with intervening groups to accommodate products of racial fusion. The Brahmanas stood at its head as devoted to learning, culture and self-discipline. The hie¬ rarchy was cultural, not a racial one. Outsiders were allowed to enter and benefit by it, but not so fast as to destroy the social equi¬ librium. Opportunity was thus given to those who were aliens to Indian culture to rise in the scale of life, but never so rapidly as to endanger the stability of the existing social order.
The bed-rock of social organisation inherited from the Vedic Aryans was the patriarchal family. The father was its head; the mother, its mistress; all members of the family including the help¬ less had a secure asylum in it. As a corollary, the devotion of wife to her husband and to the family was imperative. Her position has never been more beautifully described than in Kanva’s advice to Sakuntala in Kalidasa’s play: —
“Wait on thy betters; act the part of darling friend unto ev’ry fellow bride
Tho’ by thy husband treated ill, in wrathfulness do not rend awry thy face;
Be vastly courteous unto them that on thee wait, in thy fortunes take no pride
thus turn to housewives, women young, while those
perverse
are the bane of all the race.”
(AbhijUdnaSakuntalam iv, 8)
Castes mixed in marriage with comparative freedom; anuloma marriages were very common; the pratiloma marriages were by no means rare.
The Dharma-sdstras were not enforced at the point of the sword. Even the backward and the immigrant classes dropped their group- customs and usages, and cheerfully adopted the social system pre¬ scribed by them. Thus, Aryanisation of India was not achieved by the fiats of rulers or mass coercion by superior classes, but by the willing acceptance by all those who realised that the dynamics of the Dharma-sdstra provided, for the age, the best conditions for social, spiritual and cultural uplift.
Sanskrit, a living language, elastic in structure and rich in expression, possessing a rich, varied and beautiful literary achieve¬ ment, was the living embodiment of the Dharma and a powerful integrating force. Inscriptions began to be written in Sanskrit, even in the far South. A new thought or a new literary master¬ piece in the language attracted the attention of all the intellectual
Xlll
THE CLASSICAL AGE
centres. For instance the works of Kalidasa, a contemporary of Chandra-gupta II Vikramaditya, became the models of literary beauty throughout the country within a few years of his death.
Under the Gupta emperors, the Mahdbharata acquired a unique position as an integrating psychological force. It immortalized the proud and joyous manhood of Bhdratavarsha , and provided a com¬ mon source of inspiration in courts, schools and in society as a whole.
The cultural uprising was based upon the central idea under¬ lying Dharma from early time. It predicated an unalterable faith in human endeavour, self-restraint ( samyama ) and self-discipline (tapas). Emphasis was laid on individual experience and becoming rather than on belief and the scriptural word; it was reached only when a man could shed his limitations and become divine in this life. Running through a diversity of religious beliefs and social outlook, it also laid an emphasis on the observance of the great vows — mahavratas— of non-violence, truth, non-stealing, continence and non-possession as essential steps in progress. All conduct, in order to be -worthy of respect, had to be harmonised and regulated by ethical and spiritual values calculated to help the fulfilment of this ideal.
The four Gupta emperors, —omitting, of course, the ignoble Rama-gupta, — in maintaining the ideals of a chakravartx, made the state at one and the same time, powerful, stable, dynamic and happy. The age saw the speculative thought among others of Vasubandhu and the Nayanmars; the perfect lyric and drama of Kalidasa; the astronomical discoveries of Varahamihira; the iron pillar of Delhi; the beginnings of the structural temples; the beauty of the early Ajanta frescoes; the rise of Vaishnavism and Sai vism ; the completion of the Mahdbharata and the composition of Vayu- and the Matsya-Purdnas. The empire was not merely based on conquests or administrative efficiency; its greatness lay in its inte¬ gral outlook. Its strength was based as much on military strength as on internal order and economic plenty; the sap of its vitality was drawn from the roots of ancient tradition and race memory which they maintained, re-interpreted and replenished. The up¬ surge of the Kshatriya hierarchs of Madhyadesa and Magadha, loyally pledged to stability, constituted the steel-frame of the impe¬ rial structure. Nor was the splendour of the empire an isolated phenomenon surrounding the individuality of the rulers. The peo¬ ple, having discovered in their traditional way of life something noble arid splendid, only saw it reflected in the greatness of their rulers* The Vakatakas and the Pallavas of the far south, the two
xiv
FOREWORD
other dominant powers in the country closely allied with the Guptas, joined in availing themselves of the agency of the Brahmanas, the missionaries and instruments of Dharma , by lavish generosity.
The Gupta emperors became the symbols of a tremendous national upsurge. Life was never happier, our culture never more creative than during the Golden Prime of India.
V
In the middle of the fourth century of the Christian era, some¬ thing resembling a volcanic eruption took place in the history of the human race. The Hunas, like a veritable stream of lava, issued from their homeland on the northern shores of the Caspian Sea and spread over Europe and Asia. Homeless and lawless, they rode their horses awake and asleep. Their fierce yells spread terror wherever they were heard. They engaged all the civilized peoples of the world in fearful cataclysmic wars; and, wherever they could, they killed, destroyed, burnt and devastated with demoniac ruthless¬ ness. In Europe, Attila the Hun brought about the downfall of even the powerful Roman Empire.
About A.D. 455, the Hunas began to enter India. Emperor Skanda-gupta drove them back by a supreme effort. Twelve years later, he died. The outposts of the empire, already weak, could offer no further resistance. The barbarian hordes, after passing through Persia and destroying the Kushana rulers of the north-west, began to pour into India.
A war of succession appears to have followed the death of Skanda-gupta, weakening the empire in the hour of its danger. Next in order of succession, five emperors including Narasimha-gupta Baladitya, between A.D. 500 and 570, held precarious swTay over parts of the empire, which in spite of its decadence was still a name to conjure with. Many parts of the empire outside the bounds of the compact core of the empire became independent. In Saurashtra, a province of the empire, the Maitraka general practically threw off his allegiance on the death of Skanda-gupta.
By A.D. 512, the Hunas under Toramana, overran north India up to Eran in the Saugar district of Madhya Pradesh. Toramana’s son, Mihirakula, a veritable terror, spread fire and carnage from the Punjab to Gwalior and by A.D. 525 became the master of a vast territory.
Northern Indian soon recovered from the shock of the barbarian impact and resisted Mihirakula. The records which have survived are much too vague and fragmentary to indicate the nature and
xv
THE CLASSICAL AGE
extent of this war of liberation. But the names of two great libera¬ tors have come down to us.
Yaiodharman Vishnu vardhana, who was possibly an ex-feuda¬ tory of the Empire, fought the Hu^as grimly. His swift victories arrested the progress of Mihirakula, and enforced allegiance. Malwa, which included central parts of what is modem Gujarat, once a pro¬ vince of the Empire, when liberated, formed part of the domains of Ya^odharman, and his conquests are described as having covered the territory from the Himalayas to the Ganj5m district.
Mihirakula met with no less heavy reverses in his eastern campaigns. The challenge was taken up by liana-varman Maukhari, a quasi-independent feudatory ruling over Madhyadesa represented by modern Uttar Pradesh. He barred the progress of the Hu^as to the east and in the course of several encounters inflicted a shatter¬ ing defeat upon them.
Emperor Narasiihha-gupta B&laditya, the ruler of the Eastern Empire, dealt a final blow to the Huna and sent him reeling back to his dominions on the North-West Frontier only to finA, according to Hiuen Tsang, that his brother had seized his throne. Mihirakula then fell back on Kashmir which he captured, and died soon after.
Ya£odharman Vishnu vardhana blazed a meteoric brilliance and vanished into darkness. In A.D. 533, Malwa was being ruled by the governor of Isana-varman, the Maukhari conqueror. Two years later, Kumara-gupta III, son of Narasimha-gunta Baladitya, re-estab¬ lished the imperial sway in Malwa and declared himself ‘Lord of the three seas’. But the empire decayed rapidly, and though Gupta sovereignty was recognised by the Maitrakas till about A.D. 550, and acknowledged in Kalinga even as late as A.D. 569, it is clear that the emperor had become a 'roi faineant
Isana-varman, the great liberator, possibly overthrew the des¬ cendants of Yasodharman, conquered the Sulikas of Andhra, and on the death of Kumara-gupta III emerged as the unchallenged master of Madhyadesa and Malwa. He kept the Gau<Jas at bay and estab¬ lished himself at Kanauj which, thereafter, was the imperial capital of north India for close upon five centuries. Sarva-varman (A.D. 576-580), the successor of Isana-varman, maintained the supremacy of his dynasty.
The Hunas disappeared as they came. The Gupta Empire, grown very weak, was dissolved; the virile Maukharis emerged victorious. But with their rise began a new phase in Indian History. Kanauj emerged as the symbol of a new order.
xvi
FOREWORD
The Golden Prime of India became a thing of the past; the military superiority of Magadha disappeared. Out of the welter emerged a set of new dynasties: the Maukharis of Kanauj , the Pushpabhutis of Thaneswar, the Maitrakas of Valabhl and the Chalukyas of Badami. The Pallavas of Kanchl alone among the old dynasties continued to flourish. In the west, the warrior clans of what is now Rajasthan, living in the region of Mount Abu and descended from Brahmana ancestors, emerged from obscurity as a closely knit hierarchy with the Pratiharas at their head.
VI
Due to the exaggerated eulogies of his biographer, Ba^a, and the enthusiastic Hiuen Tsang,'£r! Harsha has been given more than his share of importance. No doubt he preserved the unity of Madhya- desa, but he suffered a serious defeat at the hands of Pulakesin II of Badami and had to make terms with the Maitrakas of ValabhI. The territories he conquered were neither as extensive as the empire of the Guptas who preceded him, nor that of the Pratiharas who followed him; nor did he leave behind an empire.
We learn from the Chinese pilgrim that &rl Harsha not only followed Buddhism but also had a marked antipathy to the Brahmanical religion. But the seals, which refer to his elder brother as Buddhist, describe him as a devoted Saiva.
Sri Harsha, unlike the Guptas, was not able to release a new integrating impulse. The Emperor, with a large army, had conquered far and wide, staged spectacular festivals, made gener¬ ous gifts; his character stood high. But he left no hierarchs and no successors; on his death the fabric he had erected, fell to pieces. The causes which led to this sudden collapse of Kanauj may be found not only in the circumstances that brought him to supremacy, but also in his personal character. The old Kshatriya houses in Madhyade^a, who had supported the Gupta Empire, were exhausted or hostile; Sri Harsha could infuse no new hope or strength in them. Kanauj and Thaneswar, though friendly states, were rivals. When Kanauj was faced with extinction at the hands of £a£ahka, Sri Harsha was called in as a matter of military urgency to a joint rulership over both states. But his hold over the two states was personal; the hierarchs of both kingdoms possibly hated each other. Sri Harsha failed, where Chandra-gupta I, the founder of the Gupta Empire, had succeeded so well; he was unable to create a common hierarchy which could carry forward his work.
At the height of his career Sri Harsha was an ardent Buddhist. In all probability, he held himself aloof from his ministers, and
xvii
C-A.-B
THE CLASSICAL AGE
the leaders of society, superior and self-righteous. He could not restore the life-blood of the old social organisation, for he could not identify himself with its urges, nor could he revive the chakra- vartl tradition. The secret of establishing a military power founded on traditional strength, was not his; nor did the mass of the people feel that the conquests of Sri Harsha were their own triumph. The internationalism, for which Buddhism stood, negatived the building up of a compact unity rooted in the land. He could con¬ quer; he could not build. The way of the Guptas was, therefore, barred to him.
The empire he had won simply disappeared. After Sri Harsha, his daughter’s son, Dharasena IV, the ruler of the comparatively small kingdom of Valabhl, assumed the pretentious title of an emperor. Within fifty years of Sri Harsha’s death, Yasovarman, a powerful ruler and the patron of Bhavabhuti, restored Kanauj to its glory — but for a while.
But the strength and vigour of India, between A.D. 550 and 750, was found in the South. While the Maukharis were founding an empire which had its seat at Kanauj, Pulakesin I, of the Chalukya family (A.D. 550), had already founded a kingdom in the Bijapur district of Bombay with its capital at Vatapi, modern Badami. About the end of the sixth century, his son, Klrtivarman, embarked on wars against the kings who ruled to the north of the Godavari.
Pulakesin II, who had already subdued the Pallavas of Kanchi, repelled the invasion of Sri Harsha in c. A.D. 620 and adopted the style “Lord of the three Maharashtras containing 999 villages”. He annexed Veiig!, modern Godavari district, and appointed his brother Vishnuvardhana as its governor on the east coast. Four years later, Vishnuvardhana became virtually independent and founded the dynasty of the Eastern Chalukyas. Pulakesin with his warriors and elephants which ‘marched to victory while intoxicated’ founded the empire of Dakshinapatha. After a rule of about two centuries, during which the Chalukyas provided the greatest stabi¬ lising influence in the country, they were replaced by the Rashtrakutas.
The great Pallava king, Mahendra-varman I (A.D. 600-630) at one time defeated even Pulakesin II and captured his capital. Though the Chalukyas avenged this defeat soon after, the Pallavas remained the most powerful kings in the far south.
Phioughout the period of over four hundreds years from A.D. 320 to 750, India was administered by well-organised govern¬ ments. The political interest during this time is primarily confined to the history of northern India. This was due mostly to the power
xviii
FOREWORD
arid extent of the Gupta Empire. But the contribution of the Chalukyas and the Pallava kings in stabilising the country and fostering the integrating forces should not be under-estimated.
VII
Conditions in the north and the west zones of India, from and inclusive of Afghanistan (then a Hindu territory) up to the Nar¬ mada, were thrown into confusion. Within a few years of the death of Mihirakula, however, a new and vigorous impulse is also visible; an impulse to revive Dharma, to relate it to the new life, to fashion values to new conditions, not only in the affected zones, but in other parts of India as well, and particularly in the south. The foundations of life, shaped during the Gupta period, remained unshaken in a large part of the country; its pattern, however, soon underwent a change.
Some aspects of this new impulse, the home of which was in the south, can be easily traced. The Purdnas , some of which were redacted or newly written in the Gupta times, were the popular gospels of the new impulse. They did not serve merely a religious purpose. They revived the glories of the distant past; they invested new places in the country with stimulating sanctity, weaving the unity of Bharatavarsha; they also re-interpreted old values in the light of new conditions, giving them a new vigour.
Saivism, a popular cult long before the rise of the Gupta Empire, became a very vigorous integrating movement. The worship of Siva as Pasupati is as old as Mohenjo-daro. The new cult, which Sahkaracharya called Lakulesa Pasupata had spread over the coun¬ try, and was the most influential protagonist of Dhaima and the formidable opponent of Buddhism and Jainism.
In spite of the Gupta Emperors being devoted to Vishnu, the worship of Siva was more popular. Mihirakula, the Huna king, like some early Kushana kings, was a devotee of Siva; and so were most of the members of Sri Harsha’s family; and so were the Maitrakas of Valabhl and most of the rulers of the South, including the Vaka- takas. Mahendra-varman, the great ruler of the Pallava dynasty, became a convert to Saivism, and built magnificent temples in his kingdom. Kanchi became a great centre of the faith and his successors identified themselves with the renaissance associated with Saivism. Many Saiva Nayanmars who flourished during this period pressed even Vedanta into the service of Saivism. Manikkavachakar’s Tiruvdchakam became the highest Saiva scripture in the Tamil language.
xix
THE CLASSICAL AGE
VIII
The Gupta Emperors were very catholic in their religious out¬ look; Buddhism was not only tolerated, but like other religions, lavishly supported. The lay Buddhists were an integral part of society regulated by the canons of the Dhxvrnuv-sdstras. Therefore, when Saivism and Vaishnavism became powerful integrating forces, Buddhism which at best was a protestant movement, never an inte¬ grating force, began to lose its hold over the masses. Its content progressively approximated to Hinduism. Its spiritual nihilism, when exposed to the Bhakti movements, tried to approximate to the latter at least in its external aspects, and finally came to be absorbed in the wide fold of Hinduism; and later when Buddha was accepted as the avatdra of Vishnu, no trace of its separate existence as a rival was left. As a cult, however, it continued for a few more centuries.
After A.D. 500 the Bhakti cults gave to the religious movements the emotional content, which, for centuries, remained of immense significance in Indian life; it helped to form enduring values which gave strength to the Age of Resistance after the cataclysmic disaster which the Turks brought in their wake. The Alvars of Tamil Nad were simple-hearted hhaktas; they loved and wooed their gods and expressed their feeling with a directness hardly surpassed in emo¬ tional content and ardent faith in the religious literature of the world.
Sanskrit continued to be the language of religion and ritual; of state-craft, learning and science; of the law texts which regulated social conduct; and of literature, thought, poetry and drama. It was the national medium of intercourse. The Sanskrit speaking world was one, all-Indian. It was with its aid that in the next century Sankaracharya, a Brahmana from Malabar, in all too short a life, was to organise religious institutions, dominate the speculative thought of the country, and inaugurate a sweeping religious and intellectual movement throughout the country.
The Mahabhdrata, the Rdmayana and the Puranas continued to be the source of countrywide unity. The Puranic literature remain¬ ed simple and direct; its growth as an influence could be measured by the evolution of the literature from the meagre recitals of Matsya and Vdyu-Pumnas to the richly magnificent Bhdgavata, again a con¬ tribution of the south. The Katha became the most powerful educa¬ tive and integrating force. The Pauranikas were the missionaries of the new age; an agency of social uplift which brought an ever-ex¬ panding circle of adherents into the fold of Aryan culture.
In North India, the dialects, which the higher classes spoke, were not far removed from Sanskrit. But in the south the Dravidian languages continued to develop on their own lines, no doubt in-
xx
FOREWORD
fluenced and enriched by Sanskrit. Elements in the population speaking dialects, not of Indo- Aryan origin, also began to find a place among the higher classes in large numbers. Cultural influences were therefore spread not only through Sanskrit, but percolated to the masses through the medium of the growing dialects which acknow¬ ledged the supremacy of Sanskrit and became subsidiary forces of integration.
Chdturvarnya was called upon to bear a severe strain due to the need of absorbing foreigners and of Aryanising non- Aryans who were given a place in it. A change therefore came over it altering the structure of society. Varmsrama took the shape — though not yet distinct — of an organisation of interdependent castes, not a four¬ fold social order. Society thus lost the freshness of out-look which the dvijas of India, as a class fundamentally one, had imparted to it. The history of the following centuries shows how, as the social structure grew inelastic, the political sanction of a chakravartt was denied to cultural and social solidarity, and the people ceased to have an expansive outlook.
The leading role as a highly trained and purposive agency in integration was played by Brahmanas: men of learning and teachers; literary men and religious preceptors; ‘svamins* who specialised in the sacrificial lore; the Pasupatacharyas who, feared and respected by the people, wielded vast influence over kings and founded temples and monasteries, a^Ll of which became the centres of the new socio¬ religious movement of power. Smdrta Brahmanas were not only interpreters, commentators and lawyers, but also expounders of Dharma. The influence of the Brahmanas was felt throughout the country. They slowly reclaimed and raised millions of backward people. Under their inspiration, communities were uplifted and the cultural and spiritual elevation of the individual secured.
During this period, the system of education did not change ap¬ preciably from what it was in the preceding age. Universities like Nalanda, great centres of learning, came into existence.
IX
i
The Aryavarta consciousness, as stated before, had three aspects; Aryavarta was the land of Dharma in which no mlechchha could abide; chdturvarnya , the social basis, was its eternal law; the chakra - vartl was to maintain both. The sentiment that no mlechchha could abide in India was deep-rooted and active; equally active was the belief that Dharma prevailed in Bharatavarsha. The chakravartl idea, however, clearly lost its meaning; Dhdrma could not, and there¬ fore need not, be linked with the duty of maintaining the whole
XXI
THE CLASSICAL AGE
country within its fold. Wars of conquests lost their spiritual signifi¬ cance; they were not, as in the earlier periods, an expression of a people and a culture on the move; they were undertaken only for dynastic ends or, more often, to curb the aggressive intentions of neighbouring kings. People and culture were one; the Smriti law was the universal Dharma; but chdturvarnya became a social pattern in its own right. Aryavarta consciousness, in consequence, receded into race memory.
The Kshatriya community was no longer a compact military caste of Madhyadesa dominated by a single cultural tradition. It came to be infiltrated by the foreign, aboriginal and other non- Aryan groups, not yet acclimatized to Dharma. Inter-marriages between the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas became rare; the Kshatriyas busied themselves with wars and saw7 no justification for undergoing any rigorous intellectual training.
The segregation of dvija castes into water-tight compartments and difficulty of social fusion, therefore, became disintegrating factors.
An empire could only be built on the shoulders of a hierarchy. Such a wrell-knit hierarchy had helped to found the Gupta Empire in the days of the early emperors; it had been interested in main¬ taining the authority of the emperor, howsoever weak or helpless, against ambitious neighbours or recalcitrant feudatories in the inte¬ rest of a common purpose which they shared with the masses. The change in the social structure created conditions in which such a hierarchy, homogeneous in culture and looking forward with faith to the political unity of Aryavarta, could not be brought into exist¬ ence.
In spite of the conventional encomiums contained in the inscrip¬ tions, conquerors were continuously emerging from obscurity who cared more for dynastic power than for Dharma.
After the Guptas, conquest on a large scale became increasingly difficult. The army, from ancient times, was divided into four sec¬ tions: the elephants, the cavalry, the infantry and the chariots. During the period under review, as attested by Harsha-charita and as recorded by Hiuen Tsang, chariots were sparingly used in warfare. A king rode to w^ar mostly on an elephant; and a king bent on con¬ quest had to maintain a large number of elephants. Cavalry was used largely, but the horses were generally maintained by the feudal chiefs who brought them to the battle-field for use, just as they did their own footmen. Usually, the army consisted of Kshatriya feudal chiefs who had their own estates, their regional attachments and their code of honour prescribed by the sdstras and the traditions. In the hands of powerful leaders, they could be heroes, but not mercenaries.
XX) 1
FOREWORD
They were generally rewarded by grants of land, and their leaders were mostly connected with the ruling dynasty by blood. The petty king, even in war, was no more than “the head of inter-related over¬ lordships.” Unless, therefore, a conqueror had sufficient means to have an effective elephant force and a paid army of his own, he had in practice to depend on his feudal chiefs and could scarcely aspire to be a chakravarti.
According to an old tradition inherited from the era of small kingdoms, it was not open to a conqueror to overthrow the ruling dynasty of another territory and annex it to his own. He had there¬ fore to find a loyal chieftain who could command the loyalty of the important Kshatriya families of the conquered territory. The Kshatriyas slowly became rooted in their own region. The success¬ ful merger of conquered territory necessarily implied the uprooting of the local chiefs and their replacement by the feudal chiefs of the conqueror and1 his dynasty. This involved the re-distribution of fiefs in the conquered territory among the feudal chiefs of the con¬ queror ready to be transplanted to a new and uncongenial soil; and, the capacity in the conqueror to support his newly planted chiefs as his instrument of power without weakening his own military efficiency. These factors appear, during the period under review, to have worked against the political consolidation of states.
Many conquerors tried to disregard these factors; most of them failed. Samudra-gupta succeeded because he ruthlessly extirpated the small states of Northern India and could rely upon the military classed of Madhyade^a. With the fall of the Gupta Empire, North India split into smaller units. With the humane traditions of India, attempts at extirpating a regional hierarchy could scarcely be made except by ruthless conquerors; in consequence, the regional attachment of the Kshatriyas increased; and with their patrons, the Brahmanas who depended on them also developed regional loyalties. The kingdoms became smaller, and small-state-mindedness became a part of the national mind.
The only exception, in the period under review, was the emerg¬ ence of the Pratihara, the Chahamana and the Chalukya clans, closely allied in marriage and tradition; the Paramaras and the other warrior clans of Gurjaradesa were either off-shoots of these three branches or were absorbed in the hierarchy in course of time. That was why the Pratlharas were able to found an empire.
In this climate large scale wars resulting in large scale displace¬ ment of populations were out of the question. Groups tended to be rooted in the region.
xxiii
THE CLASSICAL AGE
X
The third community, that of the Vai£yas — at least in north India — belonged to the same class as Brahmanas and Kshatriyas; Sri Harsha himself was a Vaisya; his daughter, however, married Dhruvasena II, styled Baladitya, the Kshatriya king of ValabhL But they were a dynamic element in the social organisation. Between the members of the community inter se there was more equality of cultural attainments. Foreign trade and the needs of commerce brought them into close contact with common people, both Indian and non-Indian. Naturally, therefore, they were less fastidious in taste and outlook. In many parts of the country, Buddhism and Jainism, with their sympathy for the masses, had a greater appeal for them.
The fourth community, the Madras, were not a race of lower men, but what may be termed ‘the rest*. They were the redeemables of Dharma and formed an essential part of society, not looked down upon but only needing attention. Marriages between Sudras and the members of ‘other classes’ were common. Bana, the Brahmana friend of Emperor 6ri Harsha, had himself a brother bom of a Sudra step-mother.
A vital movement in the social organisation of the country enabled one little connubial group, which did not originally form part of the Aryanised society, while undergoing the necessary cultural discipline, to rise from a lower to a higher status, to the Aryanised class. The movement of groups from one order of castes to another, or from aboriginal or foreign classes to recognised castes was not difficult. Intermarriage led to a free admixture of blood and pre¬ vented an impassable cleavage of cultural ideas. Only when a lower group attained the status of a higher caste, as was common, it became difficult for the group or the family to attain the high standard of culture demanded of a Brahmana or a Kshatriya except after some generations.
The administrative machinery, introduced by the Guptas in consonance with the Dharma-s&stras and adopted in the advanced parts of the whole country, continued to function. During the suc¬ ceeding centuries, the administration did not depart very much from the canons laid down during the Gupta times which, with some changes, and mostly in rural areas, continues in some form even now.
For all practical purposes, administration continued to be in the hands of the same class of people and was regulated by age-old tradi¬ tion and generally accepted canons of social conduct. Its efficiency continued to be enforced, less by official pressure than by the en-
xxiv
FOREWORD
lightened opinion of respectable members of the community, who were guided by the leading Brahmanas and Kshatriyas of the locality.
XI
About the end of the period under review, the Arabs appeared on the Indian scene, but for the first time in their meteoric rise the progress of the ‘world conquerors’ was arrested. The naval raids against Thana, Broach and Debal were repulsed. The attempts to reach India through the Khyber Pass, then guarded by the Hindu states of Kabul and Zabul, failed. Though some sort of Arab suze¬ rainty was established with difficulty for a brief period (A.D. 700- 714), for the next century and a half, Kabul and Zabul maintained their autonomy practically unimpaired.
The Arabs also tried to enter India through the Bolan Pass, but the strong Jats of Kikan or Kikanan, though often defeated, never yielded, and that Pass remained sealed to the invaders.
The Arabs then attempted to advance through the Makran coast. Their army was equipped on a lavish scale; troops were requisitioned even from distant Syria. Sindh had just emerged from civil wars; Dahar, the ruler, had probably gained control over southern Sindh only a few years before the invasion. Very little resistance was offered to the Arab fleet carrying military equipment. Nehrun and Siwistan, the two main strongholds of southern Sindh, opened their gates to the invaders. The unpatriotic character of the Buddhists, the general superstition of a section of the people, and the want of loyalty towards the family of royal usurpers, left the issue in no doubt. Sindh was conquered in A.D. 712.
The conquest of Sindh was not the outcome of the military supe¬ riority of the Arabs; in fact, this was their first and the last achieve¬ ment on Indian soil. After this conquest whenever they came in conflict with powerful Indian States, their spell of victory was broken. About A.D. 725 one Arab army, sent to invade north India, met a disastrous setback at the hands of Nagabhata I of the Imperial Pratlhara line; another, which had entered Lata (South Gujarat), was destroyed by Pulakesin Avanijanasraya in a battle which took place near Navsari. In spite of unremitting pressure, exerted for over two centuries, the Arabs were only left with the two petty states of Mansura and Multan in the ninth and tenth centuries. When compared with their dazzling victories over the contemporary states in the Middle-East, in Europe and over Persia, this insignificant re¬ sult obtained in India was a tribute to the superior military strength and political organisation of the Indians.
xxv
THE CLASSICAL AGE
XII
My thanks are due to Dr. R. C. Majumdar, the General Editor, and Dr. A. D. Pusalker, the Assistant Editor, for their indefatigable and conscientious labours, and to the scholars who have supplied their learned contributions for this volume. My thanks are also due to Prof. S. K. Saraswati, Librarian, Asiatic Society, Calcutta, who has taken immense pains in preparing photographs and arrang¬ ing them properly for publication, as also to the Director-General of Archaeology, New Delhi; Director of Archaeology, Hyderabad; the authorities of the Indian Museum, Calcutta; Mathura Museum, Mathura; Saranath Museum, Sarnath; Provincial Museum, Lucknow; Gwalior Museum, Gwalior; Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay; Varendra Research Museum, Rajshahi (East Pakistan); Karachi Museum, Karachi; Calmann Galleries, London; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Hindu University, Banaras — who have supplied photographs for the different illustrations in this volume. Details of materials lent by them are given in the separate “Acknowledgments” page. I am specially indebted to the Associated Advertisers & Printers Ltd., Bombay, who have, in such a short time, seen the Volume through the press, and to the staff of the Bhavan and the Press who looked after the preparation and printing of this volume with care and zeal. It is difficult to express adequately the deep debt of gratitude to Shri G. D. Birla, the Chairman, and other members of the Board of the Krishnarpan Trust who have so liberally financed the preparation of these volumes.
XXVI
CONTENTS
Page
Foreword by Dr. K. M. Munshi . . . . . . . . vii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . xxxix
Preface by the General Editor . . . . . . . . xli
List of Maps . . . . . . . . li
List of Plates . . . . . . . . liii
Abbreviations . . . . . . . lv
CHAPTER I
THE RISE OF THE GUPTAS
By R. C. Majumdar, m.a., ph.d., f.b.b.r.a.s.,
Director, Board of Editors, History of the Freedom Movement in India, Government of India
1. Origin and Early History . . . . 1
2. Chandra-gupta I . . . . . . . . 3
Gupta Era . . . . . . . . 4
CHAPTER II
THE FOUNDATION OF THE GUPTA EMPIRE
By R. C. Majumdar
1. Accession of Samudra-gupta . . , . 7
2. Samudra-gupta’s conquests . . 8
3. Political Relation with Ceylon 11
4. Samudra-gupta’s Empire . . , . • 12
5. Personality of Samudra-gupta . . . . 13
CHAPTER III
THE EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE EMPIRE
By R. C. Majumdar
1. Rama-gupta . . . . . . . . 17
2. Chndra-gupta II
His conquests . . . . . . . . 18
Vikramaditya tradition . . . . . . 19
His coins . . . . . . . . 21
Fa-hien’s account . . . . . . . . 22
3. Kumara-gupta I . . . . 23
4. Skanda-gupta . . . . . . 25
Huna invasion . . . . . . . . 26
CHAPTER IV
THE IMPERIAL CRISIS By R. C. Majumdar
1. Puru-gupta . . . . . . 29
2. Budha-gupta . . . . . . . . 30
xxvii
THE CLASSICAL AGE
CHAPTER V
THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE EMPIRE
By R. C. Majumdar Page
1. Dissensions in the Imperial Family . . . . 33
2. The Hunas . . . . . . . . . . 34
Toramana and Mihirakula .... 35
3. Yasodharman and other rebellious feudatories 39
CHAPTER VI
THE FALL OF THE GUPTA EMPIRE
By R. C. Majumdar
1 . Narasimha-gupta . . . . . . . . 42
2. The last two Gupta Emperors . . . . 43
CHAPTER Vn
MINOR STATES IN NORTH INDIA DURING THE
GUPTA EMPIRE
By R. C. Majumdar
1. The &akas or Western Satraps
2. The Kushanas
The Later Kushanas The Kidara Kushanas
CHAPTER VIII
46
50
54
56
NORTHERN INDIA AFTER THE BREAK-UP OF THE GUPTA EMPIRE (Sixth Century A.D.)
I.
II.
III.
By R. C. Majumdar
|
1. Valabhi |
60 |
|
|
2. The Gurjaras of Raj pu tana |
63 |
|
|
3. The Gurjaras of Nandlpuri |
0 |
66 |
|
4. The Maukharis |
67 |
|
|
5. The Later Guptas |
72 |
|
|
6. Bengal |
76 |
|
|
7. Nepal |
81 |
|
|
8. Kamarupa |
88 |
|
|
9. Orissa |
92 |
|
|
CHAPTER IX |
||
|
HARSHA-VARDHANA AND HIS |
TIME |
|
|
By R. C. Majumdar |
||
|
Kingdom of Thaneswar |
96 |
|
|
Harsha and Kanauj |
99 |
|
|
Harsha’s Military Campaigns |
102 |
|
|
1. Valabhi |
103 |
|
|
2. War with Pulakesin |
105 |
|
|
3. Sindh |
• • • • |
106 |
|
xxviii |
CONTENTS
Page
4. Eastern Campaign . . . . . . 106
5. Chronology of Harsha’s Campaigns . . . . 108
IV. Extent of Harsha’s Empire . . . . • . 110
V. Estimate of Harsha . . . . . . . . 113
VI. Harsha’s Relation with China . . . . . . 120
Appendix
The Death of Raj y a-vardhana . . . . . . 121
CHAPTER X
NORTHERN INDIA DURING A.D. 650-750
By R. 0. Majumdar
1. The Chinese Raid . . . . . . . . 124
2. The Later Guptas of Magadha . . . . 126
3. Yasovarman of Kanauj . . . . . . 128
4. Kashmir . . . . . . . . . . 131
5. Nepal 136
6. Kamarupa . . , . . . . . . . 139
7. Bengal 142
8. Orissa . . . . . . . . . . 144
9. Valabhi 147
10. Rajputana and Gujarat . . . . . . 153
(i) Gurjara-Pratiharas . . . . . . . . 153
(ii) The Gurjara Kingdom of Nandipuri . . 155
(iii) The Guhilots . . . . . . . . . 157
(iv) The Chapas . . . . . . . . 161
(v) The Maury as . . . . . . . . 161
(vi) The Chahamanas . . . . . . . . 162
(vii) Minor States . . . . . . . . 163
11. Sindh and other States on the Western Frontier 164
12. The Arab Invasion . . . . . . . . 166
(i) Kabul and Zabul . . . . . . . 167
(ii) Sindh . 169
(iii) Western India . . . . . . . . 172
(iv) North-Western India . . . . . . 173
(v) Retrospect . . . . . . . . 174
CHAPTER XI
DECCAN IN THE GUPTA AGE
By D. C. Sircar, m.a., ph.d.,
Superintendent for Epigraphy , Government of India, Ootacamund; formerly Lecturer in Ancient Indian History and Culture in the University of Calcutta
A. Central Deccan
I. The Vakafakas
1. The Main Branch of the Vakafaka Family
2. The Vakatakas of Vatsagulma
II. The Nalas . . . .
177
178 185 188
XXIX
THE CLASSICAL AGE
B. Western Deccan
I. The Bhojas
II. The Traikutakas
III. The Kalachuris
1. Kj-ishnaraja and Sankaragana
2. Buddharaja
3. Nanna and Taralasvamin
IV. The Early Rashtrakutas
1. Origin
2. The Rashtrakutas of Manapura
3. The Rashtrakutas of Berar
C. Eastern Deccan
I. Andhra
1. The Anandas
2 . The &alankayanas
3. The Vishnukundins
II. Kalinga
1. The Pitribhaktas
2. The Matharas
3. The Vasishthas
4. The Rise of New Powers
5. The Eastern Gangas
III. Dakshina Kosala and Mekala
1. The &arabhapuriyas
2. The Panduvamsis of South Kosala
• •
3. The Panduvamsis of Mekala
• •
Page
190
192
194
195
196
197
198
198
199 201
202
202
204
206
211
212
212
213
214
215 217
219
220 222
Appendix
The Genealogy and Chronology of the Vishnukundins 223
By K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, m.a..
Professor of Indology in the University of Mysore; Formerly Professor of History in the University of
Madras.
CHAPTER XII
THE CHALUKYAS
By D. C. Sibcar
I. The Chalukyas of Badami . . 227
1. Origin and Early History . . . . . . 227
2. Pulakesin I and Klrtivarman I . . 231
3. Mangalesa . 233
4. Pulakesin II . . . . . . . . 234
5. Vikramaditya I . . . . . . . . 241
6. Vinayaditya and Vijayaditya .. .. 245
7. Vikramaditya II and Klrtivarman II . . . . 247
8. The end of the Chalukya Kingdom of Badami 248
II. The Eastern Chalukyas . . . . . . . . 250
xxx
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XIII
DYNASTIES OF SOUTH INDIA
By R. Sathianathaier, m.a..
Professor of History and Politics in the Annamalai University.
|
Page |
|||
|
I. |
The Pallavas |
255 |
|
|
1. |
The Origin |
255 |
|
|
2. |
Early History |
257 |
|
|
3. |
Simhavishnu andMahendra-varman I . . |
258 |
|
|
4. |
Narasimha-varman I and Paramesvara-varman I |
260 |
|
|
5. |
Narasimha-varman II and Paramesvara-varman II |
262 |
|
|
6. |
Nandi-varman II Pallavamalla |
262 |
|
|
II. |
The Cholas of Urayur and Renandu |
263 |
|
|
III. |
The Kalabhras |
265 |
|
|
IV. |
The Pandyas |
267 |
|
|
V. |
The |
Western Gangas |
268 |
|
VI. |
The Kadambas |
270 |
|
|
VII. |
The Banas |
273 |
|
|
VIII. |
The Alupas |
274 |
|
|
IX. |
Kongudesa and Kerala |
274 |
|
|
Appendix |
|||
|
Genealogy and Chronology of the Pallavas |
275 |
||
|
By D. C. Sircar |
|||
|
1. |
Rise of the Pallavas |
275 |
|
|
2. |
Pallavas of the Prakrit Records |
276 |
|
|
3. |
Pallavas of Kahchl Known from SansKrit |
||
|
Charters |
277 |
||
|
4. |
A Collateral Line of the Pallavas |
279 |
|
|
5. |
Mahendra-varman and His Successors |
279 |
|
|
6. |
Nandi-varman Pallavamalla |
281 |
CHAPTER XIV
CEYLON
By D. C. Sircar
CHAPTER XV
LITERATURE
I. Sanskrit
By G. V. Devasthali, m.a., b.t., ph.d.,
Professor of Sanskrit in the H. P. T. College , Nasik.
1. The Puranas — by Dr. M. A. Mehendale — last
three paragraphs by R. C. Majumdar . . 291
2. Dharmasastra and Arthasastra . . 299
3. Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . 300
4. Kalidasa (the first paragraph and the last four
paragraphs by R. C. Majumdar) . . 302
XXXI
THE CLASSICAL AGE
Page
5. Drama . . • • . . • • • • 308
(i) Bhavabhuti . . . . . • • . 308
(ii) Sri Harsha . . . . . . . . 309
(iii) Bhatta Narayana and Others . . . • 310
6. Kavya . . . . • • • • • • 311
7 Fables and Romances (first two paragraphs by
R. C. Majumdar) . . . . . . . • 313
8. Poetics and Metrics (last two paragraphs by
Prof. H. D. Velankar) . 317
9. Lexicography . . . . . • • 318
10. Grammar . . . . . . • • 319
11. Medicine (last paragraph by R. C. Majumdar) 320
12. Astronomy (By R. C. Majumdar) . . . . 321
13. Miscellaneous (By R. C. Majumdar) . . . . 324
14. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . 324
II. Prakrit *
By H. D. Velankar, m.a.,
Joint Director , Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan; Formerly Professor of Sanskrit in the Wilson College , Bombay.
(!: The first and the last two paragraphs by Dr. R. C. Majumdar)
III. Tamil
By K. It. Srinivas Iyengar, m.a., d.litt.,
Professor and Head of the Department of English in the
Andhra University, Waltair.
1. The Nayanmars and the Alvars . . . . 327
2. The Saiva Saints . . . . . . . . 328
(i) Appar or Tirunavukkarasu Nayanar . . 329
(ii) Sambandar . . . . . . . . 330
(iii) Manikkavachakar . . . . . . 330
(iv) Sundarar . . . . . . . . 331
(v) Other Saiva Saints . . . . . . 332
3. The Alvars . . . . . . . . 332
(i) The First Four Alvars . . . . . . 334
(ii) Nammalvar _ . . . . . . . . 335
(iii) Periyalvar and Andal . . . . . . 338
(iv) Kulasekhara . . . . . . . . 338
(v) Tiruppan, Tondaradippcwji and
Tirumangai . . . . . . . . 338
(vi) Iraivanar and Others ... .. .. 339
CHAPTER XVI
POLITICAL THEORY AND ADMINISTRATIVE
ORGANIZATION
By U. N. Ghoshal, m.a., ph.d.,
Formerly Professor of History in the Presidency College ,
Calcutta.
I. Political Theory . . . . . 341
II. Administrative Organisation — Northern India . . 348
XXXll
CONTENTS
Page
1. The Imperial Guptas, their Contemporaries and
Successors . . . . . . . . 348
2. Harsha, His Contemporaries and Successors . . 355
III. Administrative Organisation — Southern India . . 358
1. The Dynasties of the Deccan . . . . 358
2. The Dynasties of the Telugu, Tamil and Kannada
Countries . . . . . . . . 360
CHAPTER XVII
LAV/ AND LEGAL INSTITUTIONS
By U. N.Ghoshal
1. Court of Justice . . . . . . . . 362
2. Judicial Procedure . . . . . . . . 363
3. Civil and Criminal Law . . . . . . 365
CHAPTER XVIII
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
A. General Review— -by R. C. Majumdar . . 370
B. Buddhism — by Nalinaksha Dutt, M.A., B.L.,
P.R.S.. Ph.D., D.Litt. (London), Professor of Pali in the University of Calcutta . . 373
I. The Hlnayana . . . . . . . . . . 373
II. The Mahayana . . . . . . . . . . 374
1. Ethics of Mahayana . . . . . . . . 374
2. Monastic Life . . . . . . . . 375
3. Mahayana Doctrines . . . . . . . . 377
4. Conception of Buddha . . . . . . 378
5. Conception of Bodhisattva . . . . . . 379
III. The Forms of Worship . . . . . . . . 380
IV. Geographical Distribution of Hlnayana and Mahayana 381
V. The Four Philosophical Schools ... . . . . 383
1. The Vaibhashikas . . . . . . . . 383
2. The Sautrantikas . . . . . . . . 384
3. The Madhyamikas . . . . . . . . 385
4. The Yogacharins . . . . . . . . 388
VI. Historical Survey . . . . . . . . 393
(Concluding two paragraphs by U. N. Ghoshal).
VII. Iconography — by J. N. Banerjea, M.A., Ph.D., . . 397
Carmichael Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture in the University of Calcutta.
VIII. Nan-canonical Pali Literature — by A. D. Pusalker.
M.A., LL.B., Ph.D. . 398
1. Nidana Katha . . . . . . . . 399
2. Commentaries . . . . . . . . 400
(i) Buddhaghosha . . . . . . 400
(ii) Buddhadatta . . . . . . . . 403
(iii) Ananda . . . . . . . . 404
.vxxm
THE CLASSICAL AGE
(iv) Dhammapala
(v) Upasena
(vi) Kassapa
(vii) Dhammasiri and Mahasami
3. Pali Chronicles
(i) Dlpavaihsa
(ii) Mahavamsa
4. Grammar
5. General Review
Page
404
405
405
406 406
406
407
408 408
C. Jainism
By A. M. Ghatage, m.av ph.d., Professor of Ardhamagadhi Karnatak College , Dharwar.
I. Spread of Jainism . . . . . . . . . . 408
1. North India . . . . . . . . 408
2. Deccan . . . . . . . . . . 411
3. South India . . . . . . . . . . 413
II. Jain Canon . . . . . . . . . . 415
III. Iconography — by J. N. Banerjea . . . . . . 418
D. Vaishnavism By D. C. Sircar
1. The Avataras of Vishnu
2. Sri or Lakshmi, Wife of Vishnu
3. Vishnu mythology in Epigraphic Records
4. Vaishnavism and Other Creeds
5. Vishnu Worship in the Far South
6. Iconography — by J. N. Banerjea
E. Saivism
By T. M. P. Mahadevan, m.a., pii.d.,
Head of the Department of Philosophy in the
University of Madras.
1. North India and the Deccan
2. South India
3. Iconography — by J. N. Banerjea
F. Minor Religious Sects
By EL D. Bhattacharyya, m.a.,
Formerly Head of the Department of Philosophy, Dacca University , and Honorary University Professor of Indian Philosophy and Religion, Banaras Hindu
University.
(Iconographic portions by Dr. J. N. Banerjea)
1. Brahma
2. Surya
3. Sakti
4. Vaishnava Gods
5. Miscellaneous Deities
419
424
425
426
427
428
431
432 438
440
442
444
451
453
XXXIV
CONTENTS
Page
G. New Religious Communities from Western Countries
By R. C. Majumdar
1. Muslims . . . . . . . . 455
2. Christian Settlements . . . . . . . . 462
H. General Development of Philosophy
By U. C. Bhattacharjee, m.a.,
Formerly Professor of Philosophy in the Presidency
College, Calcutta.
I-II. Nyaya-Vaiseshika . . . . . . . . 465
III-IV. Sahkhya-Yoga . 466
V-VI. The two Mlmamsas . . . . . . . . . . 468
CHAPTER XIX
ART
A. Architecture By S. K. Saraswati, m.a.,
Librarian, Asiatic Society, Calcutta; Formerly Lecturer in History in the University of Calcutta .
I. Cave Architecture . . . . . . . . 471
1. Chaitya Hall . 471
2. Sahgharama . . . . . . . . 474
3. Brahman i cal Caves . . . . . . . . 488
4. Jain Caves . . . . . . . . . . 498
II. Structural Buildings . . . . . . . . 499
1. Temples . . . . . . . . . . 499
(i) The First Group . . . . . 503
(ii) The Second Group . . . . . . 506
(iii) The Third Group . . . . . . 513
(iv) The Nagara and Dravida Styles . . . . 519
2. Monasteries and Stupas . . . . . . 519
B. Sculpture
By Nihar Ranjan Ray, m.a., d.lett. & Phil. (Leiden), Bagisvari Professor of Indian Art and Culture in the
University of Calcutta.
I. Essential Characteristics . . . . . . . . 521
II. Evolution of Gupta Sculpture* — Mathura and Sarnath 523 III. Early Schools of Sculpture (Fourth to Seventh Century) 525
1. North India . . . . . . . . 525
2. Eastern India . . . . . . 528
3. The Deccan . . . . . . . . 529
IV. Later Schools of Sculpture (Seventh Century) . . 531
1. Middle and East India . . . . . . 531
2. Malwa and Raj pu tana . . . . . . 533
3. The Deccan . . . . . . 533
4. The South: Mamallapuram and Kanchipuram 537
xxxv
THE CLASSICAL AGE
Page
V. Vegetal and Geometric Decorative Carvings . , 539
VI. General Review . . . . . . . . 540
C. Painting and Other Arts By Nihar Ran jan Ray
I. Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
1. Scope and Nature . . . . . . . . 542
2. Extant Remains . . . . . . . . 545
3. Technique . . . . . . . . . . 545
4. Ajanta: Caves XVI, XVII and XIX; Caves I and II 547
5. Bagh: Caves IV and III . 550
6. Badami: Caves III and II . . . . . . 551
7. Sittanna vasal: Kahchipuram: Tirumalaipuram 552
II. Terracotta . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
III. Pottery . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
IV. Coins and Seals, etc. . . . . . . . . 558
V. Other Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
CHAPTER XX
SOCIAL CONDITION
By LI. N. Giiosh an
I. Introductory . . . . . . . . . . 560
II. Social Divisions . . . . . . . . 560
1. The Four Varnas . . . . . . . . 560
2. Low Castes . . . . . . . . 562
3. Aboriginal Tribes . . . . . . . . 563
4. Slaves . . . . . . . . . . 563
III. Marriage . . . . . . . . . . 564
IV Position of Woman . . . . . . . . 567
1. Female Education . . . . . 567
2. The Ideal Wife . 568
3. Unchaste Wife . . . . . . . . 570
4. The Widow . . . . . . 571
5. The Courtesan ( ganikd ) . . . . . . 573
6. The General Status of Women . . . . 574
V. Life of the People . . . . . . . . 574
L General Character . . . . . . . . 574
2. Standard of Living . . . . . . . . 575
3. Toilette and Personal Hygiene . . . . 577
4. Food and Drink . . . . . . . . 578
5. Popular Superstitions . . . . . . . . 579
6. Town-life . . . . . . 580
CHAPTER XXI
EDUCATION
By U. N. Ghosh al
1. General View . . . . . . 584
2. Teachers and Pupils . . . . . . . , 584
3. Advanced Centres of Learning . . . „ 585
4. Curriculum of Studies . . . . 536
XXXVI
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXII
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
Page
By U. N.Ghoshal
1. Agriculture
2. Industries
3. Inland Trade
4. Foreign Trade
5. Objects of Trade
6. Capital and Labour
(i) Law of Wages
(ii) Law of Mutual Relations of Labour and Capital
7. Unsecured and Secured Loans
(i) Types of Loans
(ii) Law of Interest
(iii) Relations between Creditors and Debtors
8. Guilds and Partnership
(i) Constitution of Guilds
(ii) Conventions or Compacts of Guild
(iii) Rights and Duties of the Individual Members
9. General Economic Condition of the People
590
593
596
598
599 601 601
601
602
602
602
603
603
604
604
605 608
CHAPTER XXIII
INTERCOURSE WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD
By R. C. Majumdar
1. China — Up to the T’ang Period
2. China — T’ang Period
3. Central Asia
4. Afghanistan
5. Tibet
6. Other Countries in the Far East
7. Western Countries
(i) Trade and Political Intercourse (ii) Influence of India on the West
608
617
627
631
633
635
637
637
640
CHAPTER XXIV
COLONIAL AND CULTURAL EXPANSION IN
SOUTH-EAST ASIA
By R. C. Majumdar
%/
I. Sea-voyage to the South-East . . . . . . 642
II. Indo-China . . . . . . . . . . 643
1. Cambodia . . . . . . . . . . 643
2. Champa . . . . . . . . . . 644
3. Burma and Siam . . . . . . . . 647
4. Malay Peninsula . . . . . . . . 648
XXXVll
THE CLASSICAL AGE
|
Page |
|||
|
III. East-Indies |
• • • • • • |
650 |
|
|
1. Sumatra |
• • • • • • |
650 |
|
|
2. Java |
• * • • • • |
651 |
|
|
3. Borneo |
• • • • • • |
652 |
|
|
4. Bali |
* « « • • • |
653 |
|
|
IV. Hindu Civilisation in |
South-East Asia |
654 |
|
|
List of Bibliographies |
• « • • • • |
656 |
|
|
General Bibliography |
• • • • • • |
657 |
|
|
Chronology |
c • • • • ♦ |
707 |
|
|
Genealogy |
« • • « • • |
719 |
|
|
Index |
• • * • • • |
• • |
732 |
|
Maps 1-4 and Plates I-XL1II |
« * • • |
• • |
. . at end |
xxxviii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We are indebted to the following institutions and individual for permission to produce illustration noted against each. While expressing our sincere thanks for such courtesies, we should add that reproduction in each case is prohibited without the permission of the authority concerned, the copyright being reserved.
1. Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi: Nos. 1-34, 43, 47-48, 50, 52, 55-56, 59-60, 62-64, 66, 68-74, 76-85, 87, 89-98; 103-105.
2. Indian Museum, Calcutta: Nos. 35, 53, 86.
3. Mathura Museum, Mathura: No. 36.
4. Sarnath Museum, Sarnath: Nos. 37, 46, 67.
5. Calmann Galleries, London: Nos. 38-39.
6. Provincial Museum, Lucknow: Nos. 40-42.
7. Hindu University, Banaras: No. 44.
8. Gwalior Museum, Gwalior: Nos. 45, 51, 75.
9. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: No. 49.
10. Karachi Museum, Karachi: No. 54.
11 . Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay: Nos. 65, 88.
12. Varendra Research Museum, Rajshahi (East Pakistan): Nos. 57, 61.
13. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham: No. 58.
14. Prof. S. K. Saraswati, Calcutta: Nos. 99-102.
The colour reproductions, Nos. 91 and 92, have been reproduced from Yazdani’s Ajanta, Part I. PL XXV, and Part III, PL LXVIII, by kind permission of the Department of Archaeology, Hyderabad.
Our grateful thanks are also due to Prof. S. K. Saraswati, Calcutta, for helping the publication by supplying photographs (including those of text figures) for all the illustrations, except Nos. 91 and 92.
The text figures in Chapter XIX have been reproduced from the following publications by kind permission, the copyright in each case being reserved by the respective Publishers.
1. Burgess, J., Report on the Buddhist Cave Temples and their Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of Western India, Vol. IV). London, 1883: Nos. 1 and 4.
2. Burgess, J., Report on the Elura Cave Temples and the Brahmanical and Jaina Caves of Western India (Archaeological Survey of Western India, Vol. V). London, 1883: Nos. 9-11.
3. Fergusson, J. and Burgess J., Cave Temples of India. London, 1880: Nos. 14-15, 17-18.
4. Fergusson, J., A History of Indian and Eastern Architecture (2nd ed.). London, 1910: Vol. I: No. 8; Vol. II: No. 13.
5. Parmentier, H., L’Art Architectural Hindoue dans Linde et en Extreme- Orient. Paris, 1948: Nos. 2, 6, 20.
6. Marchal, H., L’Architecture Comparee dans Linde et LExtreme-Orient. Paris, 1944: No. 3.
7. India Society, London: The Bagh Caves in the Gwalior State. London, 1927: Nos. 5-7.
8. Longhurst, A.H., Pallava Architecture; Pt. II (Memoirs of the Archaeo¬ logical Survey of India, No. 33): No. 12.
9. Banerji, R.D., The Siva Temple at Bhumara (Memoirs of the Archaeo¬ logical Survey of India, No. 16): No. 23.
10. Diez, E., Die Kunst Indiens. Potsdam, n.d: No. 19.
11. Marshall, J., and Foucher, A., The Monuments of Sanchi. Calcutta 1939- No. 21.
12. Cunhingham. A., Archaeological Survey Reports, Vol. X: No 25* Vol
XXI: No. 22. ’
13. Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Reports, 1907-08: No 24- 1903-09-
No. 26; 1909-10: No. 27. ’
PREFACE
By Dr. R. C. Majumdar
General Editor
The period of history described in the preceding volume drew to a close amid chaos and confusion. The great empire of the Maury as and the political unity of India which it brought about vanished, and the hordes of foreign invaders who dominated over large parts of India gradually lost their political power. A number of new peo¬ ples and states emerge out of the political chaos, but dislocation rather than settlement seems to be the order of the day. The abund¬ ant records of the Maurya age give place to the scantiest historical materials, so much so that the third century A.D., with which Volume II closes, has been described by some historians as “one of the darkest in the whole range of Indian history.”
With the present volume we enter upon a period which offers a striking contrast to the one immediately preceding in almost all these features. The main theme of its political history is the founda¬ tion of the Gupta Empire which, at full maturity, once more brings unity, peace and prosperity over nearly the whole of Northern India, It was far less extensive than the Maurya Empire, but was more enduring, and we can study its gradual growth in much fuller detail. The historical records grow larger in number and more varied in character. The darkness of the third century passes away and we are brought into a fuller light. What is more, for the first time we get a clear outline of the political history of India in a definite chro¬ nological setting which has continued unbroken to the present day.
The volume starts with the story how the descendants of a petty chieftain named Gupta acquired and maintained and then lost an empire which was bigger than any that flourished since in Ancient India. It covers the first six chapters.
During their rule of more than two centuries the Guptas estab¬ lished their sway over nearly the whole of Northern India and the Imperial writ was obeyed from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. The dynasty produced a succession of able monarchs who were both capable administrators and successful generals. One of them, Samu- dra-gupta, carried his victorious arms as far as Madras in the south, if not further beyond, and has been deservedly styled ‘Indian Napo¬ leon’ by an eminent European historian. His son Chandra-gupta advanced probably beyond the Sindhu river, as far as Balkh, and finally extinguished the last vestige of foreign domination in India
xli
THE CLASSICAL AGE
by defeating the &aka chiefs who had been ruling in Gujarat for more than three hundred years. Skanda-gupta, the grandson of Chandra-gupta, was faced with the terrible ordeal of a Huna inva¬ sion. The Hunas, notorious for their ferocious cruelty, were at that time the most dreaded scourge of humanity. They carried fire and sword over Asia and Europe, and their leader Attila was ‘able to send equal defiance to the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople.'' About the time when the two Roman Empires quailed before them the Hunas appeared at the frontier of India. But the Gupta Emperor inflicted such a crushing defeat upon them that for nearly half a century they dared not cross the Sindhu. When later, they appeared once again, the Gupta Empire was crumbling, but the heroic tradition of old days still inspired the Indians, and no less than three contem¬ porary rulers, including the last great Gupta Emperor, claim to have defeated the Hunas. Whether the three heroes acted singly or in concert we do not know. But it is certain that after a brief spell of success the Hunas ceased to be an important political pow7er in India, far less a threat to its safety and security. Judged in the context of the history of the then world, this definite check to the nomadic bar¬ barian hordes must ever redound to the credit of the Gupta Empire.
The Gupta rulers were versed in arts of war as well as of peace. They established an efficient system of administration which became the model for succeeding ages. They ensured peace and prosperity to the people to which even foreign visitors paid eloquent tribute. During their rule India witnessed a v/onderful outburst of intellec¬ tual activity and a unique efflorescence of culture to which detailed reference will be made later. There are good grounds to believe that the political system set up by the Gupta rulers and the personality of some of them played a large part in bringing about this momentous change. The Gupta Age was mostly a product of the Gupta Empire.
The Gupta Empire perished, but the memory of its greatness continued for centuries. This was echoed in the popular legends, the most famous of which is that of Vikramaditya. Whether there was an historical king Vikramaditya before the Guptas is a matter of dispute. But there is no doubt that the legend owes much of its vitality and inspiration to the lives and achievements of the Gupta Emperors, no less than three of whom actually assumed the title Vikramaditya. Like his great contemporary Salivahana, the legendi- ary hero Vikramaditya is to be regarded as the personification of a group of rulers rather than an individual. The cycle of Vikrama¬ ditya legends, which has been a cherished tradition of India for many centuries, may thus be looked upon as a fitting tribute to the glory of the Gupta Age of which it was a product.
PREFACE
The history of the Imperial Guptas cast into shade that of seve¬ ral contemporary dynasties which enjoyed great local importance. These are dealt with in two separate chapters (VIII, XI). One of them, the Vakatakas, received an undue importance on account of some fanciful conjectures of the late Mr. K. P. Jayaswal, so much so that a recently published volume in a comprehensive history of India, planned in 20 volumes, has been styled the Vakataka-Gupta Age. As a matter of fact, however, the political influence of the Vakatakas hardly ever spread much beyond the Deccan, and for a considerable period their state was an appendage to, if not a vassal of, the Gupta Empire. The same may be said of most other states which enjoyed a nominal independence. Few of them can really be said to have been quite beyond the sphere of influence of the Guptas.
Among the states that succumbed to the Gupta Imperialism spe¬ cial reference must be made to those ruled by republican or oligar¬ chical clans. These formed a distinctive feature of the Indian poli¬ tical system since the days of Buddha, if not much earlier still, and some of them like the Lichchhavis, Sakyas and Malavas played an important role in the political and cultural history of India. The existence of these states with their republican tradition of freedom was always a thorn in the side of Imperialism. The Maurya Empire, true to the imperial policy enunciated by Kautilya, swept them away. But these clans appeared again, and indications are not wanting that many of them took a leading part in the struggle against the foreign hordes who dominated India. But the Gupta Empire made a clean sweep of them all. Some of them submitted to Samudra-gupta and continued for some time as vassal states. But with the growth of the Gupta Empire they gradually fade out of existence never to appear again. We cannot clearly trace the last stages in the dissolu¬ tion of the republican system after more than a thousand years of recorded activity in Indian politics. But it is certain that Gupta Imperialism was the main cause of its final extinction.
The history of the Gupta Empire carries us to the middle of the sixth century A.D., when India is once again divided into a num¬ ber of independent states. Then follows a long succession of indi¬ vidual military geniuses who seek in vain to re-establish the empire that fell from the grasp of the Guptas. Yasodharman, Sasanka and Harsha-vardhana, in the seventh century, and Yasovarman and Lalit- aditya in the eighth, — all achieved conspicuous success in this direc¬ tion and exercised sway over vast areas, but their empires perished with them. In the meanwhile the main interest in political history shifts to the Deccan and South India where the Chalukyas and the Pallavas establish powerful empires of long duration. In the second
xliii
THE CLASSICAL AGE
quarter of the seventh century A.D. the three natural divisions of India, viz. North India, Deccan and South India, developed into three well defined imperial zones respectively under Harsha- vardhana, the Chalukya king Puiakesin and the Pallava rulers Mahendra-varman I and Narasiihha-varman I. The rivalry and the struggle between the first and the second and the second and the third form the main theme of the history of this period. The brilli¬ ant political and military career of Puiakesin must have excited the admiration as well as the envy of his two neighbours. He inflicted a defeat upon Harsha-vardhana which forced the latter to give up for ever all designs of conquest of the region south of the Vindhyas. The success of the Chalukya king against his Pallava rival Mahendra- varman I was even more complete, and, for a time, the Pallava king¬ dom almost collapsed before his mighty army. But the dazzling pro¬ gress of the Chalukya Emperor was cut short by Narasiihha-varman 1, who fully avenged the defeat and disgrace of his father. The tables were completely turned. The Pallava ruler overran the Dec- can; the great king Puiakesin was defeated and slain, and for thirteen years his kingdom lay prostrate before the hated enemy. The struggle continued throughout the next century’ till, exhausted by the strain of long-drawn wars, the Chalukya dynasty went down about the period with which this volume closes. But it had established an off¬ shoot in the eastern coast between the mouths of the Krishna and the Godavari which, under the name of Eastern Chalukyas, continued the name and fame of the house till the Chalukya power was restored by the main line or a collateral branch more than two centuries later. The Pallas ras continued to dominate South India beyond the period covered by this volume and were not finally ousted till the Cholas emerged from obscurity and became a great political power in the tenth century.
To modern students Harsha-vardhana looms large in the post- Gupta period of Indian history. Early European writers, in their ignorance, set the fashion of describing him as the last empire- builder, and this has been blindly followed bj^ many modern writers who had far less excuse for this historical blunder. But the limit has been reached by V. A. Smith, the I.C.S. historian of India. To him the history of India after the death of Harsha-vardhana is merelv “bewildering annals of petty states,” and its only value lies in the notion it gives “of what India always has been when released from the control of a supreme authority, and what she would be again, if the hand of the benevolent despotism which now holds her in its iron grasp should be withdrawn.” The moral that V. A. Smith sought to convey need not be seriously discussed to-day when his
PREFACE
theory has been put to the severe test of actual occurrence. We are more concerned with the justification of the historical observation that Harsha-vardhana’s empire was the last in Hindu India after which her organised political life completely broke down. In the first place, Lalitaditya, and possibly also Yasovarman, ruled over an empire which we have no ground to believe was inferior in any res¬ pect to that of Harsha-vardhana. Further, the empires of the Palas and the Pratlharas, to be described in the next volume, were un¬ doubtedly far greater in extend and far more lasting, and the latter was far more closely knit. Still later flourished heroes like Chan- della Yasovarman and Kalachuri Gahga and Kama whose empires were as ephemeral as that of Harsha, and probably not less extensive. As V. A. Smith includes even the Deccan and South India within the scope of his observation we might refer to the mighty Rashtrakuta empire under Dhruva and Govinda III, the Later Chalukya empire under Vikramaditya VI, and the great Chola Empire of Rajendra Chela extending from the mouth of the Ganga to Cape Comorin and even over territories beyond the Bay of Bengal. With such exam¬ ples before us it is a travesty of history to describe Harsha-vardhana as the last empire-builder of India, — even of North India, — and to credit him with a performance which was beyond the power of those who followed him.
The fact remains that Harsha-vardhana owes his high renown as much to the writings of Hiuen Tsang and Banabhatta as to his intrinsic greatness. The flattering account of his character and achievements by these two over-zealous friends was available to his¬ torians when little else was known of the history of ancient India. They were therefore in no mood to be critical and accepted, at its face value, almost everything that was said about Harsha-vardhana by these two writers. The result was a highly overdrawn picture of his life and achievements which has passed current as history ever since. An attempt has been made in Chapter IX to reconstruct his true history by a critical sifting of all available evidences. The case of Harsha-vardhana teaches us that while normally the heroes make history, sometimes history also makes heroes.
Curiously enough, while the historians have unhesitatingly ac¬ cepted all that has been said of Harsha-vardhana by a court-poet and friendly chronicler, they have been unduly sceptic about the con¬ quests made by Yasovarman and Lalitaditya as recorded respectively by Vakpati, the court-poet of the former, and Kalhana, the great his¬ torian of Kashmir. There is no reason to believe that the accounts of these two are less reliable than those about Harsha, and it is diffi¬ cult to justify the differential treatment accorded to them by some eminent historians. Thus V. A . Smith, who gives a detailed and
xlv
THE CLASSICAL AGE
highly exaggerated account of Harsha’s conquest and empire, which is not always justified even by the biassed sources, does not say a word about the conquests of Yasovarman, and only very briefly refers in vague and general terms to the military expeditions of Lalitaditya, in distant lands. The entire historical outlook of the period after Harsha, as envisaged by V. A. Smith and his followers must be thoroughly changed before we can hope to understand, in their true perspective, the momentous political events of the last half-a-millennium of Hindu rule in Northern India.
So far as this volume is concerned, the chief interest in the political history of India, therefore, centres round the rise, decline, and fall of the Gupta Empire, and the reorientation of the history of the succeeding period. Although the history of India beyond the Vindbyas occupies a place of only secondary interest, it has an im¬ portance of its own that needs special emphasis. The Chalukyas and the Pallavas ably continued the work of the Guptas. They achieved that political unity in the Deccan and South India which was the most valuable gift of the Guptas to Northern India. Hence¬ forth the federation of these three regional units came to be regarded as the political ideal which was never entirely lost sight of in suc¬ ceeding ages. Moreover, under the Chalukyas and the Pallavas, we find the further development of that remarkable renaissance of cul¬ ture which was ushered in by the Guptas and characterised the entire period which is consequently known as the Gupta Age.
The Gupta Age, which forms the subject-matter of this volume, has been described in rapturous terms, as the ‘Golden Age’, the ‘Classical period’ of Indian history, etc. And fully does it deserve these appellations. It was during this period that Indian intellect reached its high watermark in most branches of art, science and literature, and Indian culture and civilization reached a unique stage jof deve¬ lopment which left its deep impress upon succeedings ages. For the detailed justification of this claim the reader is referred to the volume itself, particularly Chapters XV and XIX. It will suffice here to state only a few broad facts. The period witnessed the highest deve¬ lopment of Sanskrit literature, alike in prose, poetry and drama. It was the age of Kalidasa who stands unrivalled, even unapproach¬ ed, as poet and dramatist. It was also the age of Dandin, Subandhu, and Banabhatta, the greatest writers in Sanskrit prose. The six systems of Philosophy, which some regard as the greatest intellectual contribution of India to the stock of human knowledge, took final shape mostly during this period, which also produced great Buddhist philosophers like Vasubandhu. It was also the age of Amara, the greatest lexicographer in Sanskrit. In the field of science, we have
xlvi
PREFACE
the shining figures of Aryabhata, Varahamihira, and Brahmagupta, whose works in Mathematics and Astronomy are still reckoned as the greatest contribution of India to science in the ancient world. It will be enough to recall the fact that Aryabhata was the first to dis¬ cover that the earth rotates on its axis and moves round the sun. Reference should also be made to the epoch-making discovery of the decimal system of notation which has revolutionized the process of arithmetical calculations and is now used all pver the world. As regards technical science, the great iron pillar at Meharauli near Delhi is a triumph of metallurgy.
The Gupta Age made equally splendid contribution in the domain of art. Some of the figures in stone at Sarnath and in colour at Ajanta are justly regarded as masterpieces all* over the world. The art is justly styled classical, for the sculptures and paintings of this period set the standard which was alike the ideal and despair of succeeding ages. They still remain the finest productions of Indian art to which modern world has appropriately paid a high tribute of praise.
Finally this was the age made memorable to three hundred million Hindus by the fact that it witnessed the evolution of that form of Brahmanical religion which they follow today. It saw the final development of the two great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahd- bh&rata, and the phenomenal growth of the two religious cults, Vaishnavism and Saivism, at the cost of heterodox religious creeds like Buddhism and Jainism. The vast Puranic literature which originated, or at least took definite shape, during this period, com¬ pleted the break from the Vedic Age and set on a solid foundation what is now commonly known as Hinduism, the culmination of a religious movement which had behind it the rich heritage of the diverse peoples of India.
The replacement of Prakrit by Sanskrit as the court-language and the high development of Sanskrit literature in all branches gave a position of pre-eminence to Sanskrit language which became the lingua franca of educated Indians. It served as the medium of a cultural unity which has left an indelible mark upon the people of India in spite of diversity in race and language and provincial rival¬ ries ,and struggles in later times. This cultural unity has survived strange political vicissitudes and foreign dominations and constitutes today the one sure basis of the political unity and nationality in the Indian Republic.
During the Gupta Age this cultural unity overspread the natural physical boundaries of India and embraced within its fold a vast region lying beyond the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas, and across
xlvii
THE CLASSICAL AGE
the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. The beginnings of India’s intercourse with the outside world have been described in the pre¬ ceding volume. During the period under review flourishing Hindu states arose in different parts of the mainland of Asia and the East Indies, such as Burma, Siam, the Malaya Peninsula, Annam, Cam¬ bodia, Sumatra, Java, Bali and Borneo. Their rulers regarded them¬ selves as descended from Indian colonists, and the Indian culture made a thorough conquest of the people. Even in Central and Eastern Asia, where we have no definite evidence of political domination by the Indian colonists, the cultural influence of India was very great. The activities of Indian missionaries in China during the Gupta Age may be regarded as almost unique in the annals of cultural rela¬ tions between two independent countries. We have clear and detail¬ ed evidence of the spread of this cultural influence to Tibet, Korea, Japan and even the Philippine islands in the east, and over the vast region in the north that lay along the overland route from China to India through Central Asia. Thus came into being the “Greater India” which sheds lustre on the Gupta Age no less than the cul¬ tural renaissance in India. v
The intellectual greatness which characterised the Gupta Age was typified in the University of Nalanda. The name and fame of this great seat of learning reached the remotest corners of Asia and attracted students from all parts of the vast continent. It was the symbol of the great international culture of which India was the universally acknowledged centre. This culture was promoted by the increased intercourse, during this age, between India and other Asiatic countries, particularly China. The detailed account that we possess of India’s cordial relations with these countries, as given in Chapter XXIII, reveals a cultural internationalism of the Asiatic world such as has rarely been witnessed since.
Ihe facts recounted above will more than justify the appella¬ tion Perlclean Age of India’ which is often applied to the Gupta period. The all-round greatness of Athens in the fifth century B.C., not only in itself but also with reference to its effect on the progress of humanity, may not unreasonably be compared with that of India under the Guptas. As in the case of Perlclean Athens, the new era of culture ushered in by the Guptas long survived their political power. The Gupta Dynasty came to an end in the middle or latter half ox the sixth century A.D., but the Gupa Age may be said to have continued for two centuries more. The spirit and genius of Kalidasa were inherited, to some extent, by Rhavabhuti and Bharavi, while Ranabhatta surpassed Dan<Jin and Subandhu as a master of prose. The rhetorician Bhamaha and philosophers like Kumarila and
xlviii
PREFACE
Prabhakara kept up the highest tradition in these branches of lite¬ rature. The form and ideal of the sculptures at Sarnath and the paintings of Ajanta caves inspired the artists who kept up the tradi¬ tions for one or two centuries. Even the imperial traditions of the Guptas were never entirely lost sight of, and repeated attempts were made to revive the imperial unity, though success was always short¬ lived. Further, as mentioned above, the ideas of political unity were more successfully pursued in Deccan and South India by the Chalukyas and the Pallavas. Moreover the development of the Puranic religion and its predominance over Buddhism and Jainism, as well as the great development in art and literature, were equally characteristic of the Gupta and the Chalukya-Pallava period.
Thus although the Guptas did not rule over the whole of India or for the entire period dealt with in this volume, the name Gupta Age may be fittingly applied to it, for the activities of the Gupta rulers and the cultural renaissance . which followed in their wake mattered most during the whole period and have mattered most to the large majority of Indians ever since.
Little need be added to what has been said in the preceding volumes regarding the policy and principles followed by the Editor and the difficulties confronted by him. It is only necessary to draw special attention to some changes in the spelling of proper names. Since India became independent she has tried to throw off some anglicised spellings of geographical names, such as Muttra for Mathura, Ganges for Gafiga, Jumna for Yamuna and the Indus for Sindhu. Full effect could not be given to this new system as almost all the chapters were written before it came into vogue. But a beginning has been made by the introduction of the new mode of spelling in a few cases. It is inevitable that for some time to come both the old and the new spellings would occur side by side and there would be a lack of uniformity, as in this volume. Save for this minor detail this great political event has not exercised any influence on the preparation of this volume. In particular it is to be under¬ stood that in this volume, as well as in the preceding two, which have already been published, the geographical and political terms, particularly with reference to States, apply to the state of things prevailing in British India;
Chapters XVI, XVII, and XXII have been revised by the author, and the account of Nepal in Chapter VIII, section 7 and Chapter X, section 5, has been considerably modified in the light of newly discovered inscriptions. With the exception of these and slight modifications here and there, the present Volume is a reprint of Vol. Ill published in 1954.
xlix
THE CLASSICAL AGE
In conclusion, I take this opportunity of placing on record my deep obligations to Dr. Pusalker and the contributors of this volume. I also convey, on behalf of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and on my own behalf, our hearty thanks to the Director General of Archaeo- logy, Government of India, for having lent us blocks and photographs for purposes of illustration. The copyright of these belongs to the Department of Archaeology and no one should reproduce any illu¬ stration without its permission.
1
LIST OF MAPS
1. India: Gupta Age.
2. India as described by Hiuen Tsang.
3. South India (A.D. 320-1000).
4. South-east Asia.
li
V-
.
LIST OF PLATES
Plate
I
II
III
IV V
VI
VII
VIII IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
XXI
XXII
XXIII
Fig. Description
1. Ajanta, Cave XIX: Facade.
2. Ajanta, Cave XXVI: Interior.
3. Ellora, Visvakarma cave: Facade.
4. Ellora, Visvakarma cave: Interior.
5. Ajanta, Cave XIX: Detail of Interior.
6. Ajanta, Cave I: Interior.
7. Ajanta, Cave I: Fagade.
8. Ajanta, Cave XXIV: Pillar.
9. Aurangabad, Cave I: Interior.
10. Bagh, Cave IV: Interior.
11. Bagh, Cave V: Interior.
12. Ellora, Cave II: Interior.
13. Ellora, Tin Thai cave: Fagade.
14. Ellora, Indra Sabha cave: Fagade.
15. Badami, Cave III: Verandah.
16. Ellora, Ramesvara Cave: Pillar of Verandah.
17. Ellora, Dhumar Lena Cave: Interior.
18. Elephanta, Cave: Interior.
19. Rajgir, Maniyar Math: A segment of circular shrine.
20. Sanchi, Temple No. XVII: Near view.
21. Tigawa Kahkall Devi temple: Front view.
22. Naehna Kuthara, Parvatl temple: Front view.
23. Naehna Kufhara, Parvatl temple: Doorway.
24. Aihole, Lad Khan temple: View from a side.
25. Mamallapuram, Rock-cut “rathas”: General view.
26. Aihole, Meguti temple: View from a corner.
27. Mamallapuram, Dharmaraja “ratha”: Near view.
28. Deogarh, Dasavatara temple: Front view.
29. Mirpur Khas, Stupa: View from south-west.
30. Bhltargaon, Brick temple: Near view.
31. Bodh-Gaya, Mahabodhi temple: General view.
32. Sirpur, Brick temple of Lakshmana: Near view.
33. Sarnath, Dhamekh Stupa: Near view.
34. Sarnath, Dhamekh Stupa: Details of ornament.
35. Bodh-Gaya: Bodhisattva, dated year 64.
36. Mathura: Buddha.
37. Sarnath: Buddha in “dharmachakrapravartana-mudra”.
38. Mathura: 6iva head.
39. Mathura: &iva head.
40 . Garhwa: Pillars.
41. Garhwa: Pillars.
42. Garhwa: Pillars.
43. Mankuw^ar: Buddha.
44. Banaras, Bharat Kala Bhavan: Karttikeya.
45 . Gwalior: Apsara.
46. Sarnath: &iva head.
47. Mandor: Govardhanadhara Krishna.
48. Khoh: Mukhalihga.
49. Besnagar: Gahga.
50. Deogarh: Anantasayl Vishnu.
51. Pathari: Nativity of Krishna (?)
52. Deogarh, Dasavatara tempie: Basement sculptures. *
53. Kosam: 6iva Parvatl.
54. Mirpur Khas: Brahma.
liii
THE CLASSICAL AGE
Plate
XXIV
XXV
XXVI
XXVII
XXVIII
XXIX
XXX XXXI
XXXII
XXXIII
XXXIV
^XXV
XXXVI
XXXVII
XXXVIII
XXXIX
XL
XLI
XLII
XLIII
' Fig. Description
55. Udayagiri: Varaha.
56. Chandimau: Pillar fragment with “Kiratarjunlya” scene.
57. Biharail: Buddha.
58. Sultanganj: Buddha.
59. Rajgir, Maniyar Math: Naginl.
60. Dah Parvatiya: River goddess.
61. Mahasthan: ManjusrI.
62. Dah Parvatiya: River goddess.
63. Aihole: Ananta-Vishnu relief.
64. Kanheri: Avalokitesvara relief.
65. Parel: Sivaite sculpture.
66. Ajanta: Rock-cut figure of the Buddha.
67. Sarnath: Buddha seated in “pralambapada”.
68. Badami: Frieze of sculptures.
69. Fadami: Frieze of sculptures.
70. Badami: Narasimha.
71. Badami: Mahishamardinl.
72. Paharpur: Radha Krishna (?).
73. Paharpur: Monkey and Rakshasa fighting.
74. Bhagalpur: Lady with bird.
75. Gwalior: Female bust.
"76. Central India: Lower part of a female figure.
77. Sanchl: Avalokitesvara.
78. Fathpur (Kangra): Buddha.
79. Ellora: Kalyanasundara.
80. Ellora: Narasimha.
81. Aurangabad, Cave IX: Dancing scene.
82. Ellora: Ravananugraha.
83. Mamallapuram: Gangavatarana.
84. Mamallapuram: Mahishamardinl.
85 . Elephanta, Maheshamurti.
86. Bhltargaon: Terracotta plaque showing Vishnu on Ananta,
87. Mamallapuram: Sculptured panel on “ratha”.
88. Mirpur Khas: Terracotta plaque showing a male figure.
89. Ajanta, Cave XVI: Dying Princess.
90. Ajanta, Cave II: Palace Scene.
91. Ajanfa, Cave I: The Great Bodhisattva.
92. Ajanta, Cave XVII: Apsaras.
93. Bagh: Group of Musicians.
94. Badami, Cave III: J§iva and Parvatl.
95. Ajanta, Cave I: A daughter of Mara.
96. Sittannavasal: Dancing Apsara.
97. Mahasthan: Terracotta medallion showing amatory couple.
98. Ahichchhatra: Head of Parvatl (Terracotta).
99. Raj ghat: Copper seal matrix with the figure of a bull and
inscription. *
100. Plaster of Paris cast from above.
101. Rajghat: Copper seal matrix with the figure of a lion and
inscription.
102. Plaster of Paris cast from above.
103. Basarh: Inscribed clay sealing.
104. Bhita: Inscribed clay sealing.
105. Basarh: Inscribed clay sealing.
ABBREVIATIONS
ABORI.
Achar. Su. AHD.
AIG.
AIHT.
AIIC.
AIOC.
Amara.
AMV.
AO.
AOR.
Ap.
AR.
ASC.
ASI.
ASS.
Asv. Gr. Su. ASWI.
Baudh.
BB.
BCAI.
BDCRI.
Beal (or Life).
BEFEO.
BG.
Bharata Kaumudl.
Bh. List.
BI.
Bri.
Br. I.A.
Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute , Poona.
Achdrdnga Sutra.
Ancient History of the Deccan , by G. Jouveau Dubreuil. Pondicherry , 1920.
Age of the Imperial Guptas , by R. D. Banerji. Benares , 1933.
Ancient Indian Historical Tradition , by F. E. Pargiter. Oxford, 1922.
Ancient India and Indian Civilization, by P. Masson-Oursel and others. London, 1934.
All-India Oriental Conference.
Amarakosha.
Asutosh Memorial Volume. Patna, 1926-28.
Acta Orientalia, Leiden.
Annals of Oriental Resea!rch, Madras Univer¬ sity.
Apastamba Dharma-sutra.
Annual Report.
Archaeological Survey of India, Reports by Sir Alexander Cunningham.
Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Reports.
Ananddsrama Sanskrit Series, Poona.
Asvaldyana Grihya-sutra.
Archaeological Survey of Western India.
Baudhayana Dharma-sutra.
Bibliotheca Buddhica, St. Petersburg.
Bidletin de la commission Archaeologique de ITndochine.
Bulletin of the Deccan College Post-graduate and Research Institute, Poona.
The Life of Hiuen Tsang, by Shaman Hwui Li, with an introduction etc. by Samuel Beal. London, 1914.
Bulletin de Vficole Franqaise dyExtreme Orient, Hanoi.
Bombay Gazetteer.
Studies in Indology in honour of Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji. 2 Parts. Allahabad, 1945, 1947.
A List of Inscriptions of Northern India , by D. R. Bhandarkar (Appendix to El, X1X-XXII1).
Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta.
Brihaspati Smriti (Page refs, to Brihaspati Smriti reconstructed. Ed. by K. V. Ranga- swami Aiyangar. GOS. Baroda. 1941).
Indian Architecture, Buddhist and Hindu , by Percy Brown. Bombay, 1942.
Iv
THE CLASSICAL AGE
BS.
BSD.
BSS.
Bu-stcm.
BV.
Cat. M.M.
COM.
CGD.
Chh. Up. CII.
CP.
cv.
Dasa.
DHI.
DHNI.
Div.
DKA.
EHI.
EHVS.
EL
Stats.
FAS.
FTL.
Gaut.
G.E.
GIL.
Giles.
GOS.
GSAI.
HAL.
Har (or Harsha). HAS,
Brihat-sarhhitd of V arahamihira.
Bibliography of the Sanskrit Drama, by M.
Schuyler. New York, 1906.
Bombay Sanskrit Series.
History of Buddhism, by Bu-ston. Eng. trans.
by E. Obermiller. Heidelberg, 1932. Bharatiya Vidyd , Bombay.
Catalogue of the Archaeological Museum at Mathura, by J. Ph. Vogel. Allahabad, 1910. Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta.
Catalogue of the Coins of the Gupta Dynasties and of Sasdhka , king of Gauda (in the Bri¬ tish Museum), by John Allan. London, 1914. Chhdndogya Vpanishad.
Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum.
Copperplate.
Chullavagga (tr. SEE, XX). Dasakumdra-charita of Dandin (Page refs, to the 3rd revised ed. by M. R. Kale. Bom, hay, 1926). Development of Hindu Iconography , by J. N.
Banerjea. Calcutta . 1942.
Dynastic History of Northern India, by H. C.
Ray. 2 Vols. Calcutta, 1931, 1936. Divyavaddna.
Dynasties of the Kali Age, by F. E. Pargiter. Oxford . 1913.
Early History of India , by V . A. Smith. 4th Edition. Oxford, 1924 .
Early History of the Vaishnava Sect, by H. C.
Raychaudhuri. 2nd Ed. Calcutta, 1936. Epigraphia Indica.
Les Etats Hindouises D’Indochine et D’ Indo¬ nesia. Paris, 1948 .
History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon , by V. A. Smith. Oxford, 1911.
Record of the Buddhistic Kingdoms, being an account of the Chinese inonk Fa-hien’s Travels. Tr. by J. H. Legge. Oxford, 1886. Gautama Dharma-stistra.
Gupta Era.
Geschichte der Indichen Literatur, by M.
Winternitz. 3 Vols. Leipzig, 1905, 1909,' 1920. The Travels of Fa-hien (A.D. 399-414), or Record of the Buddhistic Kingdoms. Re¬ translated by H. A. Giles. Cambridge , 1923. Gaekwad’s Oriental Series, Baroda.
Giornale della Societa Asiatica Italiana. History of Alamkdra Literature, by P. V. Kane.
Bombay, 1923.
Harsha-chcirita ( text ) .
Hyderabad Archaeological Series.
Ivi
ABBREVIATIONS
HBR.
HC.
HCSL.
H.E.
HIEA.
HIED.
HIIA.
HIJ.
HIL.
Hist. Ins.
I-IK.
HNI.
HOS.
HPL.
HSL.
HSP.
HTB.
HTW (or Watters).
IA.
IAL.
IC.
ID.
IHC.
ITIIJ.
IHQ.
Imp. Ins. Bar. St.
IP.
IRT.
IS.
JA.
JAHRS.
History of Bengal. VoL 1. Edited by R. C.
Majumdar . Dacca , 1943.
Harsacarita. Eng. trans. by E. B. Cowell and F. W. Thomas. London , 1897.
History of Classical Sanskrit Literature , by M. Krishnamachariar. Madras, 1937.
Harsha Era.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture , by J. Fergusson. 2nd Ed. Revised by J. Burgess and R. P. Spiers. London, 1910. History of India as told by its own Historians.
Ed. by Elliot and Dowson.
History of Indian and Indonesian Art, by A. K.
Coomaraswamy. London , 1927.
History of India, A.D. 150-350, by K. P.
Jayaswal. Lahore, 1933.
History of Indian Literature, by M. Wmternitz. Eng. Trans, by Mrs. S . Ketkar. Calcutta University Press.
Historical Inscriptions of South India, by R. B. Sewell.
History of Kanauj, by R. S. Tripathi.
History of North-Eastern India, by R. G. Basak .
Calcutta, 1934.
Harvard Oriental Series.
History of Pali Literature, by B. C. Law. 2 Vols. London, 1933.
History of Sanskrit Literature.
History of Sanskrit Poetics.
Buddhist Records of the Western World. Translated from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsang, by Samuel Beal. London, 1906.
On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India, by T.
Watters. London, 1908.
Indian Antiquary, Bombay.
Indian Art and Letters, London.
Indian Culture, Calcutta.
Das indische Drama, by Sten Konow. Berlin, 1920.
Indian History Congress.
Imperial History of India, by K. P. Jayaswal. Lahore, 1934.
Indian Historical Quarterly, Calcutta. Important Inscriptions of the Baroda State, by A. S. Gadre. Baroda, 1943.
Indian Philosophy, by S. Radhakrishnan.
A Record of the Buddhist Religion as practised in India and the Malay Archipelago , by I-ts- ing. Translated by J. Takakusu. Oxford, 1896. Indische Studien. Ed. A. Weber.
Journal Asiatique, Paris.
Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society, Rajahmundry.
lvii
THE CLASSICAL AGE
JARS.
JASB.
JBBRAS. .
JBORS.
JBRS.
JDL.
JGIS.
JIH.
JISOA.
JKHRS.
J.Mal.Br.R.A.S.
JMU.
JNSI.
JOR.
JPASB.
JPTS.
JRAS.
JRASB(L).
JUB.
JUPHS.
Kad.
Kam.
Kat.
Kat. Add.
Kaut.
KHDS.
KIS.
KM.
KRT.
KS.
KSS.
Kum.
Kush-Sas. Coins.
Journal of the Assam Research Society.
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Cal¬ cutta.
Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay.
Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society , Patna.
Journal of the Bihar Research Society, Patna.
Journal of the Department of Letters, Cal¬ cutta University.
Journal of the Greater India Society, Calcutta.
Journal of Indian History, Madras.
Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, Calcutta.
Journal of the Kalinga Historical Research Society, Balangir.
Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Journal of the Madras University.
Journal of the Numismatic Society of India, Bombay.
Journal of Oriental Research, Madras.
Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta.
Journal of the Pali Text Society.
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, London.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal: Letters. Calcutta.
Journal of the University of Bombay, Bombay.
Journal of the U.P. Historical Society.
Kddambari of Bdna (Page refs, to the 3rd revised edition by M. R. Kale. Bombay , 1928).
Kamandaka’s Nitisara.
Katyayana Smriti (Refs, to Kdtydyana-Smriti - Sdroddhdra, edited by P. V. Kane. Bombay, 1933).
Additional Verses of Katyayana on Vyavahdra , by K. V. Rcingaswami Aiyangar (A Volume of Studies in Indology presented to P. V. Kane. Poona, 1941)/
Arthasdstra of Kautilya.
History of Dharma-sdstra, by P. V. Kane.
Indian Sculpture, by Stella Kramrisch. Cal¬ cutta, 1933.
Kdvyamdld. NSP. Bombay.
RdjataranginI by Kalhana.
Kdmasutra of Vatsydyana.
Kamarupa-sdsanavali.
Kumdrasambhava of Kalidasa.
Kushano-Sassanian Coins by E. He'rzfeld. MASI, No. 38. Calcutta, 1930.
lviii
ABBREVIATIONS
Life (or Beal).
Malatl.
Malav.
Manu.
MAH.
Mark. Pur.
Martin.
MASI.
Mat. Pur.
Mbh.
Meg.
Megha.
Memoire.
MKHS Papers Mlm Su. MMK.
MR.
Mri.
Mud.
MV.
Nag.
Nar.
NHIP.
NIA.
NIS.
NSP.
Num. Chr. Num. Suppl. OZ.
Pan.
Pancha.
Par.
PHAI.
PIHC.
PLC.
POC.
PR. ASI. WC.
The Life of Hiuen Tsang, by Shaman Hwui Li, with an introduction, etc. by Samuel Beal. London, 1914.
Mdlati-mddhava of Bhavabhuti. Mdlavikdgnimitra of Kalidasa.
Manu-smriti.
Mysore Archaeological Report.
MarkaruLeya Purana.
Coins of the Kiddra Kushdnas (JRASBL, 111 —Num. Suppl., XLVII, pp. 23-50 ) by M. F. C. Martin.
Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India. Matsya Purana.
Mahabhdrata.
Megasthenes.
Meghaduta of Kalidasa.
Memoire compose a Vepoque de la grande dynastie Tang sur les Religieux Eminents qui allerent chercher a loi dans les pays d’Occident, par I-tsing, traduit en fran^ais par Edouard Chavannes. Paris, 1894.
Papers of the Mahdkosala Historical Society. Mirnamsa-sutras.
Mahjusrl-mulakalpa. Ed. T. Ganapati Sastri. TSS.
Modern Review, Calcutta.
Mrichchhakatika of Sudraka.
Mudmrakshasa of Visakhadatta.
Mahdvagga (Trans. SBE, XIII, XVII). Nagananda of Harsha.
Narada-smriti (Ed. by J. Jolly).
New History of the Indian People. Vol. VI. Edited by R. C. Majumdar and A. S. Altekar. Lahore, 1946
New Indian Antiquary, Bombay.
New Imperial Series.
Nirnaya Sagar Press, Bombay.
Numismatic Chronicle.
Numismatic Supplement.
Ostasiatische Zeitschrift.
Pdnini.
Pahchatantra.
Pardsara-smriti .
Political History of Ancient India, by H. C.
Raychaudhuri. 4th Ed. Calcutta, 1938. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Pali Literature of Ceylon, by M. H. Bode. London, 1909.
Proceedings of the All-India Oriental Con¬ ference.
Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western Circle.
lix
THE CLASSICAL AGE
Pratima.
Priya.
PTS.
Pur.
Raghu.
Ram.
Ratnavali.
Record
(or Takakusu)
pitu.
Sak,
Sat. Br.
SBE.
SBH.
Sel. Ins.
SII.
Siksha.
SIS.
SJS.
Sm. C.
SP.
Sue. Sat.
Svap (or Svapna). Taitt. Ar. Takakusu (or Record)
Tar.
TSS.
Uttara.
Vas.
Vi.
Vi. Pur.
Vij.
VS.
Warmington.
Watters (or HTW).
Yaj.
ZDMG.
PraLimd-nataka of Bhdsa .
Pnyadarsikd of Harsha.
Pali Text Society , London .
Pur ana.
9
Raghuvarhsa of Kalidasa.
Rdmdyana.
Ratnavali of Harsha.
A record of the Buddhist religion as practised in India and the Malay Archipelago by I-tsing. Trans, by J. Takakusu. Oxford, 189b.
Ritusamhdra of Kalidasa.
Sdkuntala of Kalidasa.
Satapatha Brdhmana.
Sacred Books of the East, Oxford.
Sacred Books of the Hindus, Allahabad.
Select Inscriptions bearing on Indian History and Civilization. Vol. I. By D. C. Sircar . Calcutta , 1942.
South Indian Inscriptions.
Sikshd-samuchchaya of Sdntideva. Ed. by C. Bendall. St. Petersburg, 1897-1902.
Sino-Indian Studies, Calcutta .
Singhi Jain Series.
Smriti-chandrika of Devannabhatta. Ed. by L. Srinivasacharya. Mysore, 1914-21.
Sanskrit Poetics, by S. K. De.
Successors of the Sdtavdhanas in the Lower Deccan, by D. C. Sircar. Calcutta, 1939.
Svapna-V dsavadatta of Bhdsa.
Taittiriya Aranyaka.
A record of the Buddhist religion as practised in India and the Malay Archipelago by I-tsing. Trans, by J. Takakusu. Oxford, 1896.
Taranatha. Geschichte des Buddhismus in Indien. German trans. by A. Schiefner.
Trivandrum Sanskrit Series.
Uttarardma-charita of Bhavabhuti.
Vasishtha Dharma-sutra.
Vishnu-smriti.
Vishnu Pur ana.
Vijnanesvara.
Vaishnavism, Saivism and minor religious systems, by R. G. Bhandarkar. Strassburg, 1913.
The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India , by E. H. Warmington, Cam¬ bridge, 1928.
On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India, by T. Watters. London, 1908.
Ydjnavalkya-smriti.
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft.
lx
CHAPTER I
THE RISE OF THE GUPTAS
The political disintegration which followed the dissolution of the Kushana empire continued right up to the beginning of the fourth century A.D. The Kushanas still ruled over the western Punjab, but had ceased to exercise any authority further east. The Sakas ruled over Gujarat and a part of Malwa, but their power was rapidly on the decline. The rest of Northern India was divided into a number of small kingdoms and autonomous tribal states. The time was ripe for a great Indian military leader to arise and build up a mighty empire, and such a leader soon arose in a petty ruling family known as the Guptas.
1. ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY
The origin and early history of this family are shrouded in obscurity. The name or surname Gupta is not absolutely unknown in ancient Indian history. Names of officials ending in Gupta and queens of the Gupta clan or family are mentioned in old records, particularly of the Suhga and the Satavahana period. But whether all of them were connected with a parent Gupta clan or there were different families, without any such connection, who assumed the name Gupta, cannot be determined, though the latter view seems mor^ probable. In any case, the particular Gupta family, ruling in the fourth century A.D., cannot be affiliated to any ancient family or clan of that name.
The first three rulers of this family are referred to in the Gupta records as Maharaja Srigupta, his son Maharaja Sri Ghatotkacha- gupta and the latter’s son, M a ha rajddhirdj a Sri Chandra-gupta. The fact that the third ruler is given the higher title of Mahdrajadhirdja , whereas his father and grandfather are called simply Maharaja, cannot but be regarded as significant. We must assume that Chandra-gupta was a more powerful ruler than his predecessors and extended the ancestral kingdom.
Of the first two kings the Gupta records do not mention any¬ thing beyond their names and titles. We have, therefore, no defi¬ nite information about their exact status or the locality where they ruled. The title Maharaja was often borne by feudatory chiefs, and it has been surmised that both Gupta and Ghatotkacha were sub¬ ordinate to some paramount ruler. But no such paramount ruler of the period is known to us. On the other hand, even independent
1
C.A. — 1
THE CLASSICAL AGE
rulers are known to have used the title Maharajah and it is not unlikely that the first two Gupta kings were really independent, though their kingdom was not very large.
As regards the locality of this kingdom some light is thrown by a passing observation of the Chinese pilgrim I-tsing. I-tsing, who travelled in India during the period A.D. 671-695, refers to a king Srlgupta as having built a temple for the Chinese pilgrims and en¬ dowed it with twenty-four villages. Some scholars have identified this king with the founder of the Gupta dynasty and located the temple in Magadha. Consequently they place the kingdom of the early Guptas in Magadha. But there are certain difficulties in ac¬ cepting this view. In the first place, I-tsing places Srlgupta about five hundred years before his time, whereas the founder of the Gupta dynasty cannot be placed more than four hundred, or at the most, four hundred and fifty years before he wrote. The identity can, therefore, be maintained only if we regard the five hundred years as only a round approximate figure. This is not an unreason¬ able view, especially when we remember that the “Chinese pilgrim gives the statement on the authority of a tradition handed down from ancient times by old men.”2 The identification of the king mention¬ ed by I-tsing with Srlgupta, the founder of the Gupta family, may, therefore, be accepted, at least as a provisional hypothesis.
There is, however, no justification for the view that the temple which this king built for the Chinese was situated in Magadha. The bearing and the distance given by the Chinese pilgrim place it in the western borders of northern or central Bengal and this is corro¬ borated by some other details mentioned by him. We may, there¬ fore, hold that Srlgupta’s kingdom comprised a portion of Bengal.'3
We do not know anything of Gupta’s son and successor Ghatot- kacha. But it is interesting to note that in two records of the Vakataka queen Prabhavati-gupta,4 daughter of Chandra-gupta II, Ghatotkacha is said to be the first Gupta king. Further, in a record recently discovered at Rewa,5 the Gupta family is traced back only
].
2.
4.
5.
The examples of the Lichchhavis (Nepal), the Maghas, the Bharasivas and the Vakatakas are sufficient to prove that the title Maharaja does not necessarily indicate a feudatory rank.
CGD, xv, xix.
This point has been fully discussed in HBR. 69-70 and JBRS, XXXVIIT 410-428 Prof Jagannath’s argument (IHQ, XXII. 28) against the proposed view is based on Beal s faulty translation of the Chinese passage in IA, 1881, pp. 110-11
tZsUioZlf the^of talW’" ** Intr°duCti°n XXXvi> of his Ch°XICAPl:V5kfL?ar 211 RUhpUr CP' inS’ JPASB’ NS’ 58; See infra’
UUT%ra[ °f.PaPe:f ref atthe Twelld All-India Oriental Conference (Part "rha'JZbh?'*'? i° p?mP h’et the contains the expression
tnrl,Z°t^aChr,~Sanuimwe ' ?ut wbat bas been read ' a#., 'sadvamse’ is realty himself °r' Chhabra’ who 1S editing the record, emended the old reading
THE RISE OF THE GUPTAS
to Ghatotkacha. It is difficult to explain why or how Ghatotkacha came to be regarded as the founder of the family, at least in some quarters in Central India and the Deccan, but these references seem to imply that he was a notable ruler in some respects.
2. CHANDRA-GUPTA I
There is, however, no doubt that it was really under Chandra- gupta I, the son and successor of Ghatotkacha, that the family rose to eminence. This is clearly indicated by the higher title Maharaja- dhirdja applied to him in the family records. Further evidence is supplied by a series of gold coins issued by him. These coins depict on one side the names and figures of Chandra-gupta and his queen Kumaradevi, and on the other, a goddess seated on a lion with the name of the Lichchhavis inscribed by its side.
Kumaradevi was a Lichchhavi princess, and evidently special significance was attached to Chandra-gupta’s marriage with her. Apart from the above coins, this is also proved by the fact that their son Samudra-gupta is always referred to in the genealogical account of the Gupta records as the ‘daughter’s son of the Lichchha¬ vis,’ whereas we do not come across any such reference to the maternal family of the eight or ten other Gupta rulers, mentioned in the same records. It has been suggested by V. A. Smith that by means of this matrimonial alliance Chandra-gupta succeeded to the power previously held by his wife’s relations and secured a para¬ mount position in Magadha and the neighbouring countries. On the other hand, Allan thinks that the “pride of the Guptas in their Lichchhavi blood was probably due rather to the ancient lineage of the Lichchhavis than to any material advantages gained by this alliance.” It may be doubted, however, whether the Lichchhavis enjoyed at this time a very high status in society. For the Manu- Samhitd, which was undoubtedly held in high respect about this time, regards the Lichchhavis as a kind of degraded Kshatriyas ( Vrdtya-Kshatriya ). It appears more probable, therefore, that the marriage alliance of Chandra-gupta I was valuable from a political rather than a social point of view.
Although, therefore, we my accept the view that the political greatness of the Guptas was due, in a large measure, to their alliance with the Lichchhavis, it is difficult to define more precisely, as V. A. Smith has done, the extent of their indebtedness. For we do not know for certain anything about the power or political status of the Lichchhavis, or even the position of their kingdom at this time. As noted above,1 the Lichchhavis ruled over the republican state of Vaisall when Gautama Buddha flourished. About the time
l. Vol. IT, pp. 6 f.
o
»)
THE CLASSICAL AGE
of which we are speaking we find kings of the Lichchhavi dynasty ruling in the valley of Nepal.1 We do not know whether the Lichchhavi relations of KumaradevI belonged to the ruling family of Vaisall or Nepal or of some other kingdom. The view that they ruled in Magadha rests on very dubious grounds. On the whole, it is more reasonable to regard the Lichchhavis as ruling somewhere in North Bihar, in the region between Vaisali and Nepal. It is highly probable that the Lichchhavis and Guptas ruled over adjoining prin¬ cipalities and that the two kingdoms were united under Chandra- gupta by his marriage with KumaradevI. This happy union, which enhanced the power and prestige of the new kingdom and augured so well for the future, was evidently commemorated by the gold coins jointly issued by Chandra-gupta and his Lichchhavi queen.2
So little is definitely known about Chandra-gupta I that we have only to rely upon such provisional hypotheses for the recon¬ struction of his history. We may reasonably infer that his domi¬ nions must have been sufficiently large to justify his assumption of the imperial title M a hartijadhimj a and to enable his son to launch upon that career of conquest which led to the foundation of a mighty empire. It is generally held on the basis of a passage3 in the Puranas, that Chandra-gupta ruled over Saketa (Awadh), Prayaga (Allahabad) and Magadha (S. Bihar). But apart from the uncer¬ tainty in the reading and interpretation of the passage, we cannot even be certain that it refers to the period of Chandra-gupta I. Although, therefore, no definite conclusions are possible, we may, judging from the military campaigns of his son, regard the kingdom of Chandra-gupta as comprising nearly the whole of Bihar and por¬ tions of Bengal and Awadh.
It is generally assumed that the well-known Gupta era, which commenced on February 26, 320 A.D.,4 5 was founded by Chandra- gupta I to commemorate his accession or coronation.6 * Although this is a very probable view, there is no definite evidence in support of it, and we cannot altogether exclude the possibility that the era
1. See infra, Ch. VIII. 7: Nepal.
2. JRASBL, III. Num. Suppl., pp. 105 ff; JIH, VI. Suppl. pp. 10 ff. The view that the coins were issued by Samudra-gupta (CGD. lxiv) is no longer held by any scholar.
3. DKA, 53 fn. 8; IHQ, XXI. 141; NHIP . 134-5.
4. Or December, 20, 318 A.D. Cf. EHR 280; JRASBL. VIII. 41.
5. According to V. A. Smith Chandra-gupta I ascended the throne some time
before A.D. 308 but founded a new era in A.D. 320 to commemorate his formal consecration or coronation. The reason for this long interval between accession and formal coronation is not clear, particularly when it is held that Chandra -
gupta had married KumaradevI in or about A.D. 308 (EHI.8 279-80). According to Dr. H. C. Raychaudhuri, Chandra-gupta I ascended the throne in A.D. 320
careey^CPHA/'MO)5 P°siti°n by marrying KumaradevI “at some stage of his
4
THE RISE OF THE GUPTAS
commemorates the coronation of Samudra-gupta, the greatest king of the dynasty and the founder of the Gupta empire. The chrono¬ logy of the early Gupta kings can be fixed only with reference to this date. If we assume that Chandra-gupta I ascended the throne in A.D. 320, we may place the reigns of Gupta and Ghatotkacha between that year and A.D. 270. On the other hand, if we regard A.D. 320 as the date of Samudra-gupta’s coronation, we shall have to push back the reign of Gupta to about A.D. 250. This would be more in accordance with the statement of I-tsing who places Srigupta about 500 years before his time (c. A.D. 700).
In view of the vagueness and uncertainty of our knowledge regarding the early history of the Guptas, it would be wise not to indulge in further speculation on the subject. It has been suggested, for example, that Chandra-gupta I ‘simply drove out the Scythians and gave independence to the province of Magadha after three cen¬ turies of subjection and foreign oppression.’ We have, however, absolutely no evidence that Chandra-gupta I ever came into conflict with the Scythian rulers, or led any ‘war of liberation.’ It is also a mere gratuitous assumption that Gupta and Ghatotkacha were ‘petty landholders’ or ‘feudatory chiefs subordinate to the Kushanas.’1 Still more illusory is the attempt to reconstruct the history of Chandra-gupta I on the basis of the drama Kaumudl-Mahotsav a.2 It describes how the cursed Chandasena, an adopted son of Sundara- varman, king of Magadha, and the commander of his army, allied himself with the barbarian Lichchhavis and got possession of Magadha by defeating and killing the king, his adoptive father It is nothing short of ‘fantastic’ to equate Chandasena with Chan¬ dra-gupta I and to construct the history of the period from the romantic episodes described in a dramatic work of a later age, which agree so little with the data of contemporary inscriptions. An attempt has also been made to reconstract the history of the early Guptas with such graphic details as the murder of Chandra-gupta I by his son Samudra-gupta. But the passage in the Bhavishyottara- Purdna which contains this and other similar episodes can be easily demonstrated to be ‘a palpable modern forgery’.3
These vague conjectures and wild theories need not be seriously discussed in a sober history. For the present we have to rest con¬ tent with the little that we definitely know about the early Guptas,
1. AIG. pp. 1-5.
2. Jayaswal’s reconstruction ( ABORI . XII. 50; JBORS. XIX. 113) of the origin and early history of the Guptas, on the basis of the drama Kaumudl-mahotsava, though supported by some (JBORS, XXI. 77; XXII. 275), has been justly rejected by most other scholars ( Aiyangar Comm. Vol. 359-362; 1C, IX. 100- IHQ, XIV. 582; Thomas Comm. Vol. 115; JAHRS, VI. 139).
3. NHIP, VI, 133, fn. 2; JBRS, XXX 1 ff, IHQ, XX. 345.
5
THE CLASSICAL AGE
or can reasonably infer about them, and we may sum up the position somewhat as follows:
Towards the close of the third century A.D., India was divided into a number of independent states both monarchical and non- monarchical. Two of these in Eastern India were united by a mar¬ riage alliance between Kumaradevi, the Lichchhavi princess, and Chandra-gupta I, the grandson of Gupta and the son of Ghatotkacha. Chandra-gupta I thus ruled over a fairly extensive kingdom which probably included nearly the whole of Bihar and also parts of U.P. and Bengal. He signalised his increased power and dominion by changing the title Maharaja, adopted by his father and grandfather, for the higher imperial title Mahdrajadhirdja, and probably also by founding an era to commemorate his coronation in A.D. 320.
6
CHAPTER II
THE FOUNDATION OF THE GUPTA EMPIRE
1. ACCESSION OF SAMUDRA-GUPTA
Samudra-gupta, the son of Chandra-gupta I and Kumaradcvi, succeeded his father. We possess a long eulogy of this king com¬ posed by one of his officials named Harishena and engraved on the Asoka pillar at Allahabad.1 This eulogy or prasasti gives a detailed account of the career and personality of Samudra-gupta, such as we do not possess of any other king of ancient India, except the great Maurya emperor Asoka. Thanks to this record we are in a position to describe the remarkable military exploits of Samudra-gupta which laid the foundation of the Gupta empire. The Allahabad prasasti vividly describes at the outset, how in a full session of the royal court Chandra-gupta I embraced his son Samudra-gupta, and declar¬ ed, in accents surcharged with emotion: “Thou art worthy, rule this whole world.” The poet leaves no doubt that the assembly was held in a tense atmosphere, and while the royal declaration was received with cheers by most of those present in the court, it caused great dis¬ content and heart-burning to the rival candidates of the royal family. The royal declaration is usually taken to mean that Chandra-gupta I publicly announced Samudra-gupta as the heir-apparent to the throne. The words put in his mouth, however, taken literally, mean that Chandra-gupta I formally abdicated in favour of his son.2
In any case, Samudra-gupta was deliberately selected by his father as the next king and this evidently caused deep disappoint¬ ment to the rival princes who coveted the throne. It possibly led to trouble, and it is not even unlikely that when Samudra-gupta ascended the throne he had to face a revolt of his brothers. The name of a king Kacha is known from a few coins which bear a close resemblance to those of Samudra-gupta. It has been suggested that Kacha was the eldest brother of Samudra-gupta and headed the rebellion against him.3 But this is by no means certain, and some hold that Kacha was only the original name of Samudra-gupta. But whatever troubles might have arisen, they were quelled by Samudra- gupta who soon made his position stable and secure.
1. CII, III. 1; Sel. Ins . 254.
2. Dr. Chhabra has come to the same conclusion after a critical discussion of the whole passage. He also offers a new reading and interpretation of the passage. The words of Chandra-gupta I, quoted above, are translated by him as “Come, Come! Protect thou the whole earth” (fC, XIV. 141).
3. ABORL IX. 83.
THE CLASSICAL AGE
2. SAMUDRA-GUPTA’S CONQUESTS
The reign of Samudra-gupta is chiefly remarkable for the series of military campaigns which he led in various parts of India. The author of the Allahabad prasasti refers to the skill he displayed in a hundred battles which left scars all over his body. Judging from the< long list of countries which he conquered and brought under various degrees of subjection, the statement need not be regarded as a mere poetic effusion or even a highly exaggerated encomium.
A number of rulers of Northern India, among whom nine are specifically named, felt the full brunt of Samudra-gupta’s aggressive policy. These kings were defeated and crushed and their kingdoms were annexed to the Gupta kingdom. Two of them, Nagasena and Ganapati-naga, were rulers of the Naga family who had set up three kingdoms at Padmavati (Padam Pawaya, 25 miles north-east of Narwar in old Gwalior State), Vidisa (Rhilsa) and Mathura.* 1 Two other kings, Achyuta and Chandra-varman, ruled respectively in Ahichchhatra (near Bareilly) and Western Bengal (in the Bankura District). The dominions of the remaining five kings, viz. Rudra- deva, Matila, Nagadatta, Nandin, and Balavarman cannot be located at present.2 But we can form an idea of the territory, thus con¬ quered and directly administered by Samudra-gupta, from the men¬ tion of the kingdoms and tribal states, situated at the frontiers of his kingdom, which paid taxes, obeyed orders and rendered obei¬ sance in person to the emperor. Three of these kingdoms, Samatata, Kamarupa, and Nepala are well known and correspond respectively to South-East Bengal, Upper Assam and Nepal. The^ fourth, Davaka, was most probably situated in the Nowgong District of Assam. The fifth, Kartripura, has been identified with Kartarpur in the Jalandhar District, and according to some it even comprised the territory of the Katuria Raj of Kumaon, Garhwal and Rohil- khand. But this cannot be regarded as certain.
These five tributary kingdoms are expressly stated to be situated on the frontiers of Samudra-gupta’s dominions. The feuda¬ tory tribal states which are mentioned along with them, and were also presumably on the frontier, were nine in number, and may be
1
For the identifications of kings and states mentioned in the Allahabad Inscrin- tion cf. the works of Allan, Smith, Aiyangar and Raychaudhuri, mentioned at the end under General References, and also the following:—
(i) V. A. Smith in JR AS, 1897, pp. 87 ff.
(ii) Fleet in JR AS, 1898, p. 368.
(iii) D. R. Bhandarkar in 1HQ, I. 252 ff.
(lv) R. Sathianathaier— Studies in the Ancient History of Tondama- ndalam (pp. 13-19).
ur' cp+ DilC?r £as su§'Sested that Rudra-deva might he identified with the W Satiap Rudradaman II or his son Rudrasena III, and Nagadatta was pro¬ bably a king of N. Bengal and an ancestor of the viceroys of the Imperial Guptas whose names end in Datta ( PIHC , VII. 78). p Guptas
8
THE FOUNDATION OF THE GUPTA EMPIRE
easily divided into two groups. The first comprises the Malavas, the Arjunayanas, the Yaudheyas and the Madrakas. The Malavas were at this time settled in Eastern Rajputana, in the regions now known as Mewar, Tonk and Kotah. The Yaudheyas inhabited the territory still known as Johiyabar along both banks of the Sutlej on the borders of the Bahawalpur State; at one time their dominions extended up to the Yamuna and included Bharatpur. The Madrakas occupied the territory between the Ravi and the Chinab with their capital at Sakala, modern Sialkot. The Arjunayanas cannot be loca¬ ted with certainty, but if, as is generally believed, the names of the tribes have been recorded in a geographical order, their territory may be placed near Jaipur.
Of the second group of five states, only the Sanakanikas may be located with some degree of certainty near Bhilsa. The Abhiras are known to have had various settlements, but the reference here is probably to the one in Central India, called Ahirawara, between Bhilsa and Jhansi. The remaining three states, viz. Prarjunas, Kakas and Kharaparikas, -cannot be located with certainty, but may be placed to the north and east of Bhilsa and not very far from it. For Eran in the Saugor District, Madhya Pradesh, about 50 miles to the N.N.E. of Bhilsa, is definitely known to have been included in the kingdom of Samudra-gupta.
If we now consider the position of the tributary states on the frontiers of Samudra-gupta’s dominions, we may form an idea ol the territory directly under the administration of Samudra-gupta. In the east it included the whole of Bengal, excepting its south¬ eastern extremity. Its northern boundary ran along the foothills of the Himalayas. In the west it extended up to the territory of the Madras in the Punjab and probably included its eastern districts between Lahore and Karnal. From Karnal the boundary followed the Yamuna up to its junction with the Chambal, and thence along an imaginary line drawn almost due south to Bhilsa. The southern boundary ran from Bhilsa to Jubbulpore and thence along the Vindhya range of hills. Samudra-gupta is said to have conquered ail the Atavi-rajyas (forest kingdoms) which probably denoted the hilly tracts, full of dense forest, extending eastwards from Jubbulpore.
Samudra-gupta’s campaigns of conquest were not confined to North India. He made one or more expeditions to the Deccan and defeated no less than twelve rulers. The defeated chiefs included Mahendra of Kosala (Drug, Raipur, Bilaspur and Sambalpur Dis¬ tricts), Vyaghraraja of Mahakantara (probably forest regions in Jeypore State, Orissa), Mahendragiri of Pishtapura (Pithapuram in the Godavari District), Hastivarman (the Salankayana chief) of Veiigi (modern Pedda-Vegi, 7 miles north of Ellore between the
9
THE CLASSICAL AGE
Krishna and the Godavari), Ugrasena of Palakka (Nellore District), and Vishnugopa (the Pallava king) of Kanchi ( Conjee varam in Chingleput District). Kings Damana of Erandapalla and Kuvera of Devarashtra probably ruled in the Vizagapatam District.1 Four other kings, Mantaraja of Kaurala, Svamidatta of Kottura,2 Nilaraja of Avamukta and Dhananjaya of Kusthalapura cannot be identified with certainty.
Although these four southern kingdoms cannot be located, it is clear that Samudra-gupta proceeded through the eastern and southern parts of Madhya Pradesh to Orissa and then advanced along the eastern coast up to the Pallava kingdom, probably beyond the city of Madras.3 Samudra-gupta defeated and captured the rulers of these southern states. But he later set them at liberty and they were presumably allowed to rule over their kingdoms as feudatories of Samudra-gupta.4
Samudra-gupta had probably other military campaigns to his credit, though we cannot speak of them with any degree of certainty. It is, however, evident that his supremacy was acknowledged by powerful rulers in the western and north-western frontiers of India, such as the Saka chiefs ruling in Western Malwa or the Kathiawar Peninsula, and the Kushana king or kings of the Western Punjab and Afghanistan referred to as Daivaputra-shahi-shahanushahi.5 The passage describing their relations with Samudra-gupta is some¬ what vague and uncertain, but it may be taken for granted that they
1. The correct identification of Erandapalla and Devarashtra is of great historical importance. Fleet identified them respectively with Erandol (in Khandesh) and Maharashtra and held that Samudra-gupta passed through the Western Deccan after his victorious campaign in the eastern coast. This view was generally accepted until Dubreuil proposed to locate Erandapalla in the Gan jam and Devarashtra in the Vizagapatam District ( AHD . 58, 160). Dubreuil’s identi¬ fication is now generally accepted and the view that Samudra-gupta proceeded to the Maharashtra State is discredited. Recently some scholars have supported the old view of Fleet ( ABOR1 , XXVI. 138).
2. Kottura has been identified by Dr. Saletore with Kottura in the Kudligi taluk , Bellary District, Madras ( ABORI , XXVI. 120). This tallies with the old view of Fleet, mentioned in the preceding footnote, but as there is no positive evidence that Samudra-gupta proceeded so far to the west, it is better to identify Kottura with Kothoor in Ganjam or Vizagapatam District (PHAI4, 453).
3. Mr. Sathianathaier (op. cit.) proposes to identify, among others, Mahakantara
with Kanker and Bastar, Kerala with Cheraia (Nugur taluk, E. Godavari District), Kottura with Kottura near Tuni (E. Godavari District), Erandapalla with Erraguntapalle in the Chentalapudi taluk of the West Godavari District, and Devarashtra with the place of that name in the Khanapur Sub-division of the Satara District. He thus maintains, against the generally accepted view, that Samudra-gupta did not pass through Orissa, Ganjam and Vizagapatam’ but first emerged on the east coast at Pishtapura (Pithapuram), and that he* also conquered Western Deccan. *
4. J. Dubreuil is of opinion (op. cit. pp. 60-61) that Samudra-gupta, who advanced up to the Krishna, was opposed by a confederacy of the kings of the E. Deccan, and being repulsed, abandoned the conquests he had made in the coast of Orissa and returned home. This is pure imagination, and directly contradicted by the explicit statements in the Allahabad Ins.
5. For details Cf. Chapter VII.
10
THE FOUNDATION OF THE GUPTA EMPIRE
sought to win the favour of the great emperor by personal attendance in his court, offering daughters in marriage, and asking permission for the use of imperial coins or soliciting imperial charters confirming them in the enjoyment of their territories. Whether this attitude of subservience was the result of military defeat or was merely a diplomatic move to save themselves from a worse fate, we cannot say. The discovery of some coins of the Kushana type with the names of Samudra and Chandra, and the use of Gupta type of coins by some Scythian rulers of the west, indicate that the Guptas really exercised a sort of suzerainty over some of these frontier kingdoms still under foreign rulers, and the statement in the records of Samudra-gupta about his relations with the Saka and Kushana chiefs may not be regarded as altogether without foundation.
3. POLITICAL RELATION WITH CEYLON
Even the distant Siriihala (Ceylon) and all other islands are included in the same category of vassal states to which the &akas and the Kushanas belonged. If we remember that Ceylon and many other islands in the Indian ocean were colonised by the Indians and bear a deep impress of Gupta culture, it is not unlikely that some of them at any rate sought to maintain close contact with the most powerful empire in the mainland, and thought it politic to win the good graces of the great emperor by sending rich presents or showing respect in some other way. The reference to the homage paid by the people of all these islands cannot, therefore, be dismiss¬ ed as mere rhetoric, but may be based on actual relationship, the exact nature of which cannot be determined.
So far as Ceylon is concerned, we have fortunately independent evidence of its political relations with Samudra-gupta. We learn from a Chinese text that king Meghavarna of Ceylon (c. A.D. 352-379) sent two monks to Bodh-Gaya to visit the sacred spots, but they were put to great inconvenience for want of suitable accommo¬ dation. To obviate the difficulty for future pilgrims to the holy place, Meghavarna decided to found a monastery there. He accord¬ ingly sent a mission to Samudra-gupta with rich presents and asked for permission to build a monastery and a rest-house for Ceylonese pilgrims. Samudra-gupta readily granted permission and the Ceylonese king built a splendid monastery to the north of the Bodhi tree. By the time of Hiuen Tsang it had developed into a magni¬ ficent establishment, with more than 1000 priests, and the pilgrim has described the rich decorations and massive grandeur of the buildings. Referring to the old history of its foundation, Hiuen Tsang says that the Ceylonese king ‘gave in tribute to the king of
11
THE CLASSICAL AGE
India all the jewels of his country.’ It is likely that Samudra-gupta’s courtiers regarded the rich presents as tributes, and construed the Ceylonese king’s prayer for permission to build a monastery as an ‘application for charter confirming him in the enjoyment of his territories,’ one of the forms of homage paid by the category of vassal states in which Sirhhala is included. There may be similar basis for the inclusion of the other states in this category, the offer of a daughter’s hand being very common among neighbourly kings. In view of the great renown of Samudra-gupta, the neighbouring Saka and Kushana rulers might have sought to cultivate friendly relations with him and strengthen them by personal visits or matri¬ monial alliances. It may also be conceded that the rulers of the weaker states, situated just outside the limits of the empire, main¬ tained diplomatic relations with Samudra-gupta and deliberately sought to win his favour and goodwill by various measures which, however derogatory to their royal status and position of equality, did not theoretically detract from their independent status. But it is difficult to believe, without more positive evidence, such as we possess in the case of some Scythian states mentioned above, that all these rulers in any way openly acknowledged the suzerainty of the Gupta emperor, and enjoyed their kingdoms merely as fiefs by virtue of charters granted by Samudra-gupta.
4. SAMUDRA-GBPTA’S EMPIRE
The above discussion enables us to describe the nature and extent of the empire of Samudra-gupta with an accuracy and full¬ ness of detail rare in ancient Indian history. It comprised nearly the whole of Northern India, with the exclusion of Kashmir, West¬ ern Punjab, Western Rajputana, Sindh and Gujarat, and includ¬ ed the highlands of Chattisgarh and Orissa with a long stretch of territory along the eastern coast extending as far south as Chingleput, and probably even further. Of these vast territories, a considerable portion of Northern India, whose boundaries have been defined above, was directly administered by the emperor through his offi¬ cials. This was surrounded on all sides except on the south by an almost continuous line of tributary states. Beyond them lay the Saka and the Kushana principalities on the west and north-west. Some of these probably acknowledged the suzerainty of the Gupta empire, but there is no doubt that all of them were within the sphere of its influence. The states along the eastern coast of the Deccan and the Pallava kingdom in the Tamil country beyond the Krishna were also feudatories, while Ceylon and probably some other islands in the Indian Ocean or the East Indies maintained a submissive and respectful attitude towards the emperor. Thus to use the words of
12
THE FOUNDATION OF THE GUPTA EMPIRE
the Allahabad prasasti, was the (whole) world bound by means of the amplitude of the vigour of the arm of Samudra-gupta.
It is permissible to hold that the consolidation of Samudra- gupta’s empire was the result of a definite policy deliberately pur¬ sued. He may have been inspired by the vision of an all-India empire, but he realised the impracticability of any idea to establish, immediately, a direct rule over the whole country or even a con¬ siderable part of it. He, therefore, created, by ruthless suppression of a number of independent states, a central block of territory over which he exercised direct sway. He thus established an imperial authority strong enough to ensure the internal peace of India by checking the disruptive tendencies of minor states. But he did not attempt to bring all the outlying kingdoms under his direct sway. That would have not only taxed his strength to the utmost, but might have even led to serious disaster for, as is shown by the his¬ tory of India at all times, it is hard to conquer the frontier states and still harder to retain control over them. Instead of permanently antagonising them by a policy of subjugation such as he had followed in the centre, within a limited sphere, he tried gradually to win them over by a policy of conciliation. He allowed them internal autonomy without liberty to create discord and disunion within the body-politic of India. The frontier-states on the west might also have been retained as buffer-states in order to increase the defen¬ sive strength of the empire against foreign foes. It was left to the successors of Samudra-gupta to build on the solid foundations laid by him. With the consolidation of the empire, the directly admini¬ stered areas were gradually extended in the east as well as in the west, until nearly the whole of Northern India from Chittagong to Kathiawar was ruled by the governors of the Gupta emperor.
5. PERSONALITY OF SAMUDRA-GUPTA
The vast empire of Samudra-gupta must have been the result oi numerous military campaigns extending over many years. We have no specific or detailed account of them and it is not necessary to suppose that he fought separately with every single state mentioned above as included in his kingdom or tributary to him Nevertheless when we recall the large number of states acknowledg¬ ing his authority it is impossible not to feel profound admiration for his military genius. The total extermination of the nine states in Northern India demanded uncommon daring and military skill. His southern campaign, over long distances, and through compara¬ tively unknown and inhospitable regions far from his base, must have called forth powers of leadership and organisation of the highest order. His march along the coastal regions makes it likely
13
THE CLASSICAL AGE
that the land-operations were aided by the navy, the possession of which is implied in his dominion over islands in the sea. He is known to have performed the Asvamedha sacrifice. No historical Indian ruler, either before or after him, had greater justification for per¬ forming this time-honoured ceremony and unique method of assert¬ ing universal supremacy. V. A. Smith’s description of him as the ‘‘Indian Napoleon’5 is by no means unmerited.
Brilliant both as general and statesman, Samudra-gupta also possessed many qualities of head and heart better suited to a life of peaceful pursuits. According to the Allahabad inscription he was not only a great patron of learning but was himself a great poet and a musician. His poetical compositions, which earned him the title of ‘king of poets,5 have not survived, but we have a striking testi¬ mony to his love of music. In one type of his gold coins the great emperor is represented as seated cross-legged on a couch, playing on a vmd (lute or lyre) which rests on his knees. The royal figure on this unique type of coins was undoubtedly drawn from real life and testifies to hij inordinate love for, and skill in music. The high eulogies of the official record in respect of his personal accomplish¬ ments were not merely conventional or courtly praises, but had a large substratum of actual fact.1 We know from Buddhist records that a Gupta king was a great patron of letters and appointed the famous Buddhist scholar Vasubandhu as his minister. The date of Vasubandhu is not known with certainty, but if he died about the middle of the fourth century A.D., as is generally held,2 we must regard Samudra-gupta as his patron, and this would indicate his patronage of letters to which such a pointed reference is made in the Allahabad inscription. The same record emphasises his charity and kindness. His munificence, we are told, removed the eternal discord between good poetry and plenty and he restored the kings fallen from their high estate to wealth and fortune.
Samudra-gupta was devoted to religious observances and the sacred scriptures. He was a follower of the orthodox Brahmanical cult, and gave many hundreds of thousands of cows by way of gift to Brahmanas. He is said to have revived the Asvamedha sacrifice which had been long in abeyance. This statement may not be strictly accurate, as Asvamedha was performed by Indian kings not
1. Dr. R. K. Mookerji has made a detailed analysis of the ‘many-sided genius and character of Samudra-gupta’ on the basis of his inscriptions and coin-legends (IC, IX. 77). But we should hardly be justified in accepting the expressions occurring in them at their face value.
2. Takakusu held that Vasubandhu lived from about A.D. 420 to 500 (JR AS. 1905, pp. 43 ff). Against this M. Peri maintained (BEFEO, XI. 339 ff) that Vasu¬ bandhu lived in the fourth century A.D., and died soon after the middle of that century. This view is generally accepted. Takakusu opposed it and reaffirmed his old view (Indian Studies in honour of C. R. Lanman pp. 79 ff). For other views, cf. EHI,S 328 ff.
14
THE FOUNDATION OF THE GUPTA EMPIRE
long before his time. But there can be hardly any doubt that his reign marked a distinct revival of the old glory and influence of the Brahmanical religion which had suffered decline since Asoka made Buddhism the dominant religion of India. The neo-Brahmanical doctrine that ‘the king is a great deity in human form’ is reflected in the Allahabad record which describes Samudra-gupta as ‘a god dwelling on earth, being a mortal only in celebrating the rites of the observances of mankind.’
There can be no doubt that Samudra-gupta was a striking, almost unique, personality; and he ushered in a new age in the history of India. It is in the fitness of things that he assumed the title Vikramanka,1 evidently in imitation of the king Vikramaditya of legendary fame. We have a remarkable memorial of his life and reign in the rich variety of gold coins issued by him.2 They not only indicate the power, wealth and grandeur of his empire but also give us some idea of his physical appearance and insight into his re¬ markable personality. Three types of coins represent him in a mili¬ tary garb. In one he stands fully dressed, holding a bow and an arrow, and on the margin runs the legend “having conquered the earth, the invincible one wins heaven by good deeds.” Another depicts him as holding a battle-axe with the appropriate legend “wielding the axe of Kritanta (the god of death), the unconquered conqueror of unconquered kings is victorious.” In the third the king, wearing turban and waist-cloth, is trampling on a tiger which falls backwards as he shoots it with the bow in his right hand, the left hand pulling the string back behind the ear. The legend refers to the king as ‘having the prowess of a tiger.’ These figures of the king are apparently drawn from real life, as also that of the fourth type referred to above in which the king, wearing waist-cloth, plays on a vina. The legend on this type of coins simply gives his name without any reference to his martial exploits. The fifth type of coins commemorates the Asvamedha, sacrifice. It shows, on the obverse, a spirited horse standing before a sacrificial post, and on the reverse, the figure of the queen-empress. The legend on this type reads: “The king of kings, who performed the Asvamedha sacrifice, having protected the earth, wins heaven.” These five tvpes of coins thus symbolise both the martial and peaceful pursuits of the king. The personal appearance of the king, so far as we can judge from his figure on the coins, is in keeping with the impression we otherwise form of him. Tall in stature and of good physique, he has strong muscular arms and a fully developed chest.
1. This is inferred from the legend “6rI-Vikramah” recently found on one of his coins ( JNSJ . V. 1361. Some scholars, however, do not accept Ihe view.
2. For the coins cf. Allan, op. cit.
15
THE CLASSICAL AGE
The artistic execution of the gold coins of Samudra-gupta fully illustrates the wonderful progress of art which forms such a distinc¬ tive feature of the Gupta period and justifies its designation as the Classical Age in India. Samudra-gupta, as far as we can judge of him from the materials at our disposal, was the visible embodiment of the physical and intellectual vigour of the coming age which was largely his own creation. His coins and inscriptions hold up before our mind’s eye a king of robust and powerful build, whose physical strength and prowess, matched by his cultural attainments, herald¬ ed a new era in Aryavarta (N. India). After five centuries of politi¬ cal disintegration and foreign domination, she again reached the high watermark of moral, intellectual and material progress. It was the Golden Age which inspired succeeding generations of Indians and became alike their ideal and despair.
Samudra-gupta probably had a fairly long reign. He died in, or a little before, A.D. 380; but it is difficult to determine the date of his accession. If he founded the Gupta era, as seems not unlikely, he must have ascended the throne in A.D. 320. But if, as is general¬ ly believed, the era was founded to commemorate the coronation of his father, the accession of Samudra-gupta may be placed between A.D. 340 or 350. Some scholars put it between A.D. 325 and 335; but there is hardly any justification for assuming such a short reign of Chandra-gupta I.1 * *
1 . It is not a little curious that even those who place Chandra-gupta’s accession
in A.D. 320 and his marriage with KumaradevI after that date, do not hesitate to
accept A.D. 325 or 335 as the date of Samudra-gupta’s accession (cf. PHAI 4 445, 447). For Samudra-gupta would then be less than 4 or 14 years of age at the time of his accession and it is difficult to believe that his father selected him, at that tender age, as his successor out of many other available candidates, on
the ground of fitness. Cf. PHAP, 530.
16
CHAPTER III
THE EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION
OF THE EMPIRE
1. RAMA-GUPTA
Before we proceed with the history of the Guptas we have to consider a curious episode, concerning the period immediately fol¬ lowing the death of Samudra-gupta, which formed the plot of the drama Devl-Chandra-gupta by Visakhadatta. This work is now lost, but a few passages from it, quoted in other books, give us a glimpse of the events narrated in it. These passages are supplemented by scattered references in literary works and inscriptions of a later period. All these, pieced together, enable us to reconstruct some¬ what as follows the story which formed the central theme of the dramatic work:
‘Samudra-gupta was succeeded by his son Rama-gupta whose wife was called Dhruvadevl. In the course of a war with the Saka king he was closely besieged, and placed in such a difficult position, that in order to save his people he agreed to surrender his queen to the Saka king. His younger brother Chandra-gupta protested against this act of dishonour, and offered to go to the enemy’s camp in the disguise of queen Dhruvadevl in order to kill the hated £aka king. The stratagem succeeded and Chandra-gupta saved the empire and its honour. The incident must have raised him in the estima¬ tion of the people as well as of queen Dhruvadevl, and the character and reputation of Rama-gupta suffered a corresponding decline. There was an estrangement between the two brothers, and Chandra- gupta, presumably afraid of his elder brother’s design on his life, pretended madness. Ultimately, by some unknown means Chandra- gupta succeeded in killing his elder brother, and not only seized his kingdom but also married his widow’.
It is difficult to decide how far this strange and romantic episode can be regarded as historical. The contemporary records of the Gupta period contain no reference to Rama-gupta, and imply that Chandra-gupta II immediately succeeded his father Samudra-gupta. We have numerous coins of the Gupta period, but not even one con¬ tains the name of Rama-gupta.1 These facts naturally cast a doubt upon the very existence of a king called Rama-gupta, and the story
1. It may be mentioned that a few coins f fourth century A.D.) of Rama-gupta have recently been found near Bhilsa (JNSL XII. 193 ff) and other places. This Rama-gupta may have been a local ruler of Malwa.
17
C.A , — 2
THE CLASSICAL AGE
itself contains some elements which make it difficult of acceptance without strong positive evidence. The murder of a brother for the sake of a kingdom is by no means unusual, but the marriage of his brother’s widowed queen by the regicide certainly clashes with our cherished notions of morality and social decorum. Besides, it is difficult to believe that the inheritor of the mighty empire of Samudra-gupta could be so decisively defeated by a Saka king that he had no means of saving his army or kingdom, or that he could, under any circumstances, consent to an act which would be regarded as the most ignominious in any age or country. These considerations make it difficult to believe that this drama had a historical basis. On the other hand, as there is independent evidence of the existence of such a tradition as early as the seventh century A.D. and of its wide-spread acceptance all over India, we can hardly dismiss it off-hand as al¬ together a figment of imagination. We must, therefore, suspend our judgment upon the historical character of Rama-gupta and ignore his strange but eventful reign.1
2. CHANDRA-GUPTA II
Samudra-gupta left many sons and grandsons behind him. But we know definitely the name of only one son, born of his chief queen Dattadevi. He was named Chandra-gupta II after his grandfather but had also a second name Deva-gupta, with the variants Deva-raja or Deva-sri. Two of his queens, DhruvadevI and Kuvera-naga, are known to us. The epithet Parama-bhagavata borne by him shows that he was a staunch devotee of the Vaishnava faith.
It has been held by some that Samudra-gupta chose Chandra- gupta II as his successor. But this view rests on the doubtful inter¬ pretation of an expression and cannot be regarded as certain. Apart from the problematic episode of Rama-gupta discussed above, there is nothing to indicate any interval between the death of Samudra-gupta and the accession of Chandra-gupta II.
An inscription, dated A.D. 380, gives also the regnal year of Chandra-gupta II, which has been read as prathama (first) by same, and panchama (fifth) by others. The date of his accession would accordingly be either A.D. 380 or 376. The latter appears to be more probable. Chandragupta II died some time between A.D. 413 and 415, and thus enjoyed a long reign of more than thirty -three years.
1. The question has been discussed by a large number of scholars among whom the following deserve special mention: S. Levi ( JA , CCIII, 1923, pp. 201 ff); R. Sarasvati (I A, LII, 1923, pp. 181 ff); A. S. Altekar ( JBORS , XIV, 223 ff, XV. 133 ff); R. D. Banerji (AIG, 26 ff); Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar ( Malaviya Comm. Vol. 189 ff); K. P. Jayaswal (JBORS, XVIII. 17 ff); Winternitz ( Axyangar Comm. Vol. 359 ff); Sten Konow (JBORS, XXIII. 444 ff); V. V. Mirashi (1HQ, X. 48 ff; JA. LXII, 201 ff); N. Das Gupta (IC, IV. 216 ff). For a full discussion of the different views cf. NHIP, Ch. VIII. Sec. 1.
IS
EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE EMPIRE
Chandra-gupta inherited the military genius of his father and launched upon a campaign of conquest towards the west. His chief opponent was the &aka ruler of Gujarat and the Kathiawar Peninsula. The details of the campaign are not known, but there are indications that Chandra-gupta, with his feudatory chiefs and ministers, had to make a prolonged stay in Malwa. This is proved by three inscrip¬ tions: one of Virasena, his minister of ‘peace and war’, at Udayagiri hill near Bhilsa, the second, of a Sanakanlka Maharaja, a feudatory chief, in the same locality dated 82 (z=A.D. 401-2); and the third of a military officer, named Amrakardava, at Sanchl, dated 93 (=A.D. 412-13). Chandra-gupta’s success was, however, complete. The Saka ruler Rudrasiihha III was not only defeated, but his kingdom was annexed. The date on his coin falls between 310 and 319 (the unit figure is lost) of the Saka Era, or A.D. 388 and 397; the earliest date on the coin which Chandra-gupta issued in imitation of the Saka coins is 90 -{- x (the unit figure is lost) of the Gupta Era, and thus falls after A.D. 409. The western campaign of Chandra-gupta II may thus be placed in the first decade of the fifth century A.D. Thus after more than three hundred years’ rule the line of the Western Satraps came to an end and the last vestige of foreign rule disappear¬ ed from Western India. It is not unlikely that the literary refer¬ ences to Chandra-gupta’s wars with the Saka chief, mentioned above in connection with the episode of Rama-gupta, contain an echo of this victory.
By this brilliant conquest, the Gupta emperor not only put an end to the domination of the foreigners who had been in India for the longest period, but also added the rich provinces of Kathiawar and Gujarat to his empire which now extended from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. The Gupta empire also controlled to a large extent the Indian commerce with the western world; and was thus brought into closer contact with western civilisation. Chandra- gupta’s exploits naturally recalled those of king Vikramaditya of Ujjayinl who is described in Indian legend as having expelled the first Saka conquerors of India more than four hundred years before.1 It is presumably in imitation of this legendary hero that Chandra- gupta assumed the title Vikramaditya, which was also probably adopted by his father and had come to be regarded as a title of dis¬ tinction by mighty rulers of India famed for their military exploits.
It is also likely that some of the traditions associated with Vikramaditya, especially his liberality and patronage of learning, owed their origin to this historic king. For there are ample grounds to believe that the famous poet Kalidasa, the chief of the traditional nine gems ( nava-ratna ) of the court of Vikramaditya, really lived at
1. See above, Vol. II, pp. 154-7.
19
THE CLASSICAL AGE
the court of Chandra-gupta II. While these traditions undoubtedly prove that Chandra-gupta’s name was held in great esteem by a grateful posterity, it would be too much to assume that he was the historical figure from whom the Vikramaditya legend was originally evolved. In spite of his undoubted popularity, it is difficult to maintain this claim, although upheld by several scholars, for reasons stated above.1
It may be regarded as almost certain that Chandra-gupta had other successful military operations to his credit. Saba, a hereditary minister of Chandra-gupta, states in his record that the emperor set out fio conquer the whole world.’ His general, Amrakardava, is said to have obtained great glory by winning many battles. But we have no definite information regarding the nature and result of these campaigns. The military exploits of a king called Chandra are men¬ tioned in an inscription engraved on the Iron Pillar near Qutb Minar at Delhi. Although there is no convincing proof that this Chandra is the same as Chandra-gupta II, many scholars hold this view.2 If we accept this identity, we must hold that Chandra-gupta II led vic¬ torious military expeditions in the eastern as well as in the western frontiers of his empire. The record says that he “defeated a confe¬ deracy of hostile chiefs in Vahga, and having crossed in warfare the seven mouths of the river Sindhu, conquered the Vahlikas.” Vahga denotes Eastern Bengal; very nearly the same country as Samatata which is included in the tributary frontier states of Samudra-gupta. We do not know whether there was a rebellion in East Bengal, or whether the war was caused by the aggressive imperial policy of Chandra-gupta which sought to incorporate the province into the dominions directly administered by him. In any case, it was pro¬ bably as a result of this campaign that direct Gupta rule was estab¬ lished in this province; for we know definitely that early in the sixth century A.D. a Gupta king was ruling in this region.
Vahlika, the other country conquered by Chandra-gupta II after crossing tlm “seven mouths of the river Sindhu,” is almost cer¬ tainly to be identified with Balkh (Bactria) beyond the Hindu Kush mountains. It is regrettable that we have no more definite or He tailed account of the only recorded military expedition of an Indian king in this remote region outside India. Here, too, the motive of the campaign was probably similar to that against Eastern Bengal. As mentioned above,3 the Kushanas who ruled in this region, or at least some of them, had acknowledged the supremacy of Samudra- 1 7* Vol7lTp7 156 f: ef. also FJ1V. 320 f.
2. For the different views on the identification of Chandra and the location of Vahlika (which some place in the Beas Valley, bordering on Kashmir) cf. JRASBL. IX 179 ff. In addition to the references contained therein cf FJ XIV f>67: JAHRS. X. 86: JJH. XVI. 13.
3. Bet' pn. 10-11.
20
EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE EMPIRE
gupta, and either they rebelled, or Chandra-gupta II wanted to establish his authority on a firmer basis. Thus, if we accept the identity of king Chandra of the Delhi Iron Pillar Inscription with Chandra-gupta II, we may well presume that his victorious arms penetrated as far as the eastern limits of India, and beyond Hindu Kush to the north-west. If we remember that he had also conquered the Saka kingdoms in Western Malwa, Gujarat and Kathiawar, we may regard Chandra-gupta II as having rounded off the Gupta im¬ perial dominions in Northern India in all directions. He thus com¬ pleted the task begun by his father.
Chandra-gupta II is known to have formed marriage alliances with some powerful ruling families. He married Kuvera-naga, of the Naga family, and had a daughter by her named Prabhavati-gupta. This daughter was married to the Vakataka king Rudrasena II. The geographical position of the Nagas and the Vakatakas was such that they might have been of great help to him in his campaigns against the Sakas and the Kushanas, and their hostility could easily prove to be a serious embarrassment. It is not, therefore, an unreasonable assumption that both these matrimonial alliances were deliberately made with a political object.
We learn from an inscription of the powerful Kadamba ruler Kakutsthavarman1 of Kuntala that his daughters were married to the Guptas and other kings. It is not quite certain whether it was Chandra-gupta II or his son who married a Kuntala princess. But it is another indication of the fact that since the very beginning it was the traditional policy of the Guptas to form political alliances by marriage with the more powerful and distinguished royal families of India.
While his predecessors issued only gold coins Chandra-gupta II introduced those of copper and silver as well. The obverse of his silver coins was imitated from that of the Western Satraps as these coins were obviously meant for circulation in the territories con¬ quered from them. But on the reverse the usual chaitya symbol was replaced by the bird Garuda, the vehicle of Vishnu, which figures prominently also on the coins of Samudra-gupta, as befitting a devout follower of Vishnu. The copper coins, which show no less than nine different varieties, have the same general type, viz. the king on the obverse and the Garuda on the reverse.
The gold coins of Chandra-gupta rival those of his father in grandeur and brilliance, and like them throw considerable light on his personality and imperial pomp and power. Some variations made by him in the types of his father’s coins seem to be full of
1 . The correct form is Kakutsthavarman, though Kakusthavarman is the form invariably found in the records of the Kadambas. We have uniformly used the correct form.
21
THE CLASSICAL AGE
significance. Thus he is represented as slaying a lion instead of a tiger, and the difference is emphasised by the legend Simha-Vikrama (one who has the prowess of a lion). It is generally held that these coins indicate his conquest of Gujarat where lions were then fairly common. In his couch-type of coins he holds, not a lyre like his father, but a flower, and taken with the legend vuptikriti , this new type may be taken to represent his intellectual and physical eminence or artistic sense.
Chandra-gupta II also introduced some new types of coins. In one of these he stands with his left hand on the hilt of his sword, with a dwarf-attendant holding an umbrella over his head, — probably a symbol of his claim to universal sovereignty.1 Another represents him as riding on a fully caparisoned horse. These as well as the lion-slayer type are fitting tributes to his personal valour and mar¬ tial spirit, which was evidently not incompatible with artistic or intellectual temperament suggested by the couch-type. A coin, doubt¬ fully attributed to Chandra-gupta II, represents the king as standing before a deity, probably Vishnu, and extending his right hand to receive the divine prasdda in the form of three sweetmeats.2
Fa-hien, the Chinese pilgrim who travelled over India for more than ten years (c. 400-411) during the reign of Chandra-gupta II, has left an interesting record of the country. Unfortunately, he has not noted anything about the political condition of India; so much so, that he does not even mention the name of the great emperor in whose wide dominions he must have lived for more than five years. Still even the little that he says about the life of the people is of value. Referring to the ‘Middle Kingdom’, which formed the heart of Chandra-gupta II’s dominions, he observes: “The people are numerous and happy; they have not to register their households, or attend to any magistrates and their rules; only those who cultivate the royal land have to pay (a portion of) the gain from it. If they want to go, they go: if they want to stay on, they stay. The king governs without decapitation or (other) corporal punishments.” Fa-hien never refers to the lawlessness from which Hiuen Tsang, two centuries later, suffered more than once. The mild punishment of criminals referred to by him is also in striking contrast to the harsh and severe penalties mentioned by the later Chinese pilgrim. On the whole the brief account of Fa-hien gives us some idea of the peace, prosperity and contentment prevailing in the empire of Chandra-gupta II.
The reign of Chandra-gupta II saw the consolidation of the Gupta empire. The brilliant intellectual revival, manifested in arts, sciences and literature, which distinguished the Gupta age,, has been
1. IHQ, XXIII. 113.
2. JNSI, X. 103.
EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE EMPIRE
dealt with elsewhere in this volume. But it is necessary to remem¬ ber that this age was largely the creation of Samudra-gupta and Chandra-gupta II. Their conquests brought about that imperial peace which rendered possible the progress of culture and civilisa¬ tion which has rightly earned the epithet ‘Golden Age’ or ‘Classical Age’ for the period of Gupta rule in India.
Samudra-gupta had begun the work of conquest. To his son Chandra-gupta II fell the task of completing it and assimilating into the organisation of the empire, not only the tribal states and king¬ doms on the border but also the territories ruled by foreign hordes like the Sakas and the Kushanas. The peaceful and well-knit empire which he left as a legacy to his son must have been the fruit of long endeavour not only of a great general and able statesman, but also of a striking personality. If, as is generally believed, Chandra-gupta Vikramaditya lived longer in the memory of a grateful posterity which had forgotten his illustrious father, the explanation is not far to seek. People are more impressed by the finished superstructure, and give greater credit to its architect than the master-builder who conceived the plan and laboriously laid the foundation. Samudra- gupta, the victor of a hundred fights, is a hero of history. Chandra- gupta II, who brought to maturity the new era of political greatness and cultural regeneration, won a place in the hearts of his people.
3. KUMARA-GUPTA I
On the death of Chandra-gupta II, his son Kumara-gupta, born of his chief queen DhruvadevI, ascended the throne.1 His earliest known date is A.D. 415 and he died in A.D. 455. He had thus a long reign of forty years or more.
The Gupta empire had now reached its zenith. No specific military campaign of Kumara-gupta is known to us, but there is no doubt that he maintained intact the vast empire he had inherited from his father. He also performed an Asvamedha sacrifice and
<u
assumed the title Mahendraditya. He gave great prominence to the God Karttikeya, whose name (Kumara) he bore. He issued a new type of gold coins depicting Karttikeya riding on a peacock on one side, and the king feeding a peacock on the other. He also substi¬ tuted the peacock for Garuda on the silver coins.
Quite a large number of records of the governors and feudatories of Kumara-gupta have come to light. They indicate the develop¬ ment of the administrative machinery and the strength and stability of the empire. There is reason to believe that Kumara-gupta’s long
1. It is difficult to accept Bhandarkar’s view (JC, XI. 231) that. Kumara-gupta is identical with Govinda-gupta, or the theory of Jagannath (IC, XII. 167) that the latter ascended the throne after Chandra-gupta II and ruled before the former.
THE CLASSICAL AGE
reign was on the whole peaceful and prosperous, and the empire enjoyed to the full the benefits of the military victories of his father
and grandfather.
Towards the very end of his reign the peace of the empire was rudely disturbed by the invasion of an enemy whose identity is not definitely established. It is generally believed that the hostile forces belonged to a tribe whose name was Pushyamitra, but the reading of this name is uncertain.1 Whoever might have been the adversary (or adversaries), there is no doubt that he was very powerful, and his progress must have constituted a grave menace to the empire. A contemporary inscription expressly states that the enemies ‘had great resources in men and money/ and in the course of his fight with them ‘to restore the fallen fortunes of his family/ the crown- prince Skanda-gupta passed a whole night on bare earth. In spite of obvious poetic fancies and exaggerations, the statement leaves the impression that the Gupta emperor had met with serious reverses and was threatened with utter ruin when Skanda-gupta turned the scale in his favour by inflicting a crushing defeat upon the enemy. The poet, who composed the inscription, tells us that this heroic achievement of Skanda-gupta was sung in every region ‘by happy men, even down to the children.’ The sense of relief echoed in these laudatory songs gives us a proper measure of the apprehended calamity. It is significant that in four successive verses the poet refers no less than three times to the ‘ruined fortunes of the Gupta family/ and their restoration by Skanda-gupta. This emphasises the serious nature of the crisis that was averted by Skanda-gupta, but its exact nature still remains unknown.
The reign of Kumara-gupta is generally regarded as devoid of interest and importance. But in forming a true estimate of his character and achievements we must give full importance to certain significant details which are generally overlooked. The numerous inscriptions of this age mention only one military campaign towards the very end of his reign, while they all clearly indicate a peaceful and stable administration from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal under his personal authority. Only a strong and benevolent admi¬ nistration could have kept the vast empire so thoroughly in check. The repulse of the Hunas and other enemies shortly after his death proves the efficiency of the imperial army and that it was preserved for nearly 40 years even under peaceful conditions reflects no small credit upon Kumara-gupta. On the whole, it is not unlikely that
L The information is derived from the Bhitari pillar Inscription/” Fleet read the crucial expression as “Pushya-mitrams-cha”, but noted that the second syllable of the name is damaged (CI7, III. 54, 55 fn. 2). Dr. H. R. Divekar proposes to read the compound as “Yudhy-amitrdms-cha” ( ABORI. I. 99 ff) A trib* called Pushyamitra is referred to in the Vishnu Purdna which associates it with the region near the source of the Narmada river.
24
EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE EMPIRE
more credit is due to Kumara-gupta’s administration and personality than is usually given to him by modern historians. His reign is generally looked upon as a mere dark background against which shine brilliantly those of his two predecessors and immediate suc¬ cessor. But for aught we know this may be unfair to him and not in consonance with strict historical truth.
4. SKANDA-GUPTA
The aged emperor Kumara-gupta died before Skanda-gupta's return from his victorious campaign (A.D. 455-6). The official re¬ cord, mentioned above, describes how Skanda-gupta reported his glorious victory over the enemies to his mother, who received him with tears as Devaki did unto Krishna. This allusion to the well- known story might have more meaning than is apparent to us. It has been suggested that Devaki1 was the name of the queen-mother. But the analogy might have been called forth by the similarity of circumstances as much as by a common name.2
It is curious that the official records of a later date omit the name of Skanda-gupta from the royal genealogical list. It is equally strange that while the genealogical portion, even in the inscription of Skanda-gupta himself, mentions the chief queens who were mothers of his three predecessors, it does not refer to his own mother. Further, an official record, composed shortly after the accession of Skanda-gupta, states how the “goddess of sovereignty, of her own accord, selected him as her husband, having in succession discarded all other princes.” This idea is also probably represented in a type of coins which depicts the king, armed with bow and arrow, as standing in front of the Garuda standard while, beyond it, is a female figure facing the king and holding a lotus in her left hand and an indistinct object, probably a fillet, in her right hand. All these scattered evidences may indicate that Skanda-gupta’s mother was probably not the chief queen of Kumara-gupta, and having no indis¬ putable legitimate claim to the throne, Skanda-gupta had to fight for it with one or more rivals.3 It is probable, for example, that
1. Hist. Ins. 349; PHAP, 573, f. n. 3.
2. B.C. Law Vol. I. 618; EL XVIII. 242.
3. Arguments in support of this hypothesis are given in JPASB, XVII. 253 ff. They have been criticised in detail in PHAI1 , 482 ff. The criticism seeks to establish that the conclusion does not necessarily follow from the data; in other words, it cannot be regarded as a settled fact. Now, this was never claimed, and the views were expressly stated to be a tentative hypothesis. Besides, the criticism misses the real points of many of the arguments. Thus regarding the omission of the name of Skanda-gupta's mother in the Bhitari pillar Ins. it is merely observed