Gupta Empire

Gupta Empire
Gupta Empire
c. 240–c. 579
	Garudadhvaja; (standard)
	Gupta empire at its peak
Status	Empire
Capital	Prayag; Ayodhya (after 455);
Common languages	Sanskrit (literary and academic); Prakrit (vernacular)
Religion	Hinduism (official); Buddhism; Jainism;
Government	Monarchy
Maharajadhiraja
• c. 240 – c. 280	Gupta (first)
• c. 540 – c. 550	Vishnugupta (last)
Historical era	Classical India
• Established	c. 240
• Disestablished	c. 579
Area
400 est.; (high-end estimate of peak area)	3,500,000 km2 (1,400,000 sq mi)
440 est.; (low-end estimate of peak area)	1,700,000 km2 (660,000 sq mi)
Population
• 5th century	75,000,000
Currency	Dinara (gold coins); Rupaka (silver coins); Karshapana (copper coins); Cowries
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Western Satraps
	Nagas of Padmavati
	Pañcāla
	Arjunayanas
	Yaudheya
	Mahameghavahana dynasty
	Murunda dynasty
	Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom
Later Guptas
Kingdom of Valabhi
Kingdom of Thanesar
Gurjara kingdoms
Aulikaras
Maukhari Dynasty
Today part of	India; Pakistan; Bangladesh; Nepal; Afghanistan;

The Gupta Empire was an Indian empire which lasted from around 320 to 550 AD. It managed to unify large parts of the Indian subcontinent. The time of the Gupta Empire is traditionally referred to as India's Golden age.

Plenty of information about this dynasty can be found through coins, inscriptions, monuments, and Sanskrit writings. The Gupta rulers were great conquerors and administrators. Eventually, provincial revolts and invaders from Central Asia weakened broke up the empire, but many of their cultural and intellectual achievements were saved and transmitted to other cultures and live on today. Fa Hien visited India during the reign of Chandragupta II and stayed in this country for several years.

People lived a simple life. Goods were affordable and all round prosperity ensured that their requirements were met easily. Gold and silver coins were issued in great numbers which is a general indicative of the health of the economy. Trade and commerce flourished both within the country and outside. Silk, cotton, spices, medicine, priceless gemstones, pearl, precious metal and steel were exported by sea.

Gupta dynasty

The Gupta dynasty lasted from around 240 to 579.

Some of its main rulers were:

Administration

The Gupta Empire was divided into 26 provinces. These were called Bhukti, Desha, or Rajya. Each province had smaller parts called Vishaya (districts), ruled by officers called Vishayapati. The Vishayapati was helped by a local council called the Adhikarana. This council had four members: the head of the city, a trade leader, a top artisan, and a government writer. A smaller area inside a district was called a Vithi.^[14]

The Gupta Empire had trade links with the Sassanids and Byzantines. The social system followed four main castes (varnas).^[15]

The Guptas used many different gold and silver coinages across their empire. This showed their wealth. Some were also trying to unify the empire by using the same coins over the empire.

References

↑ Goyal, SR. History of the imperial Guptas. p. 367.
↑ Sharma, R.S. (25 January 2007), "Rise and Growth of the Gupta Empire", India’s Ancient Past, Oxford University Press, p. 242, ISBN 978-0-19-568785-9, UP therefore seems to have been the place from where the Guptas operated and fanned out in different directions. Probably with their centre of power at Prayag, they spread into the neighbouring regions.
↑ Sharma, Tej Ram (1989). A Political History of the Imperial Guptas. Concept Publishing Company. p. 39. ISBN 978-81-7022-251-4. Prayaga region of the modern eastern Uttar Pradesh was the centre of power of the early Guptas
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Goyal, S. R. (1967). History Of The Imperial Guptas. pp. 210–213. The capital of the Guptas was located somewhere in the eastern part of U. P. The evidence of the Puranas from which we learn that Prayāga was the nucleus of the original Gupta state, the incision of the prasasti of Samudragupta on a stone pillar at Prayāga, the discovery of several other early Gupta inscriptions and numerous hoards of coins from this area, and the possibility of the performance of Asvamedha at Prayāga by Samudragupta bring out the fact that at least in the early part of their history, the Guptas had their capital at Prayāga. [...] Later on, however, Ayodhyā was made the formal residence of the emperor, for, Paramartha, a Buddhist scholar of the Gupta age refers to this city as the capital of Vikramaditya i.e. Skandagupta who appointed Vasubandhu as the teacher of his crown-prince Bālāditya.
↑ Raychaudhuri, Hemchandra (2006). Political History of Ancient India. Cosmo Publications. p. 496. ISBN 978-81-307-0291-9. The importance of this identification lies in the fact that it proves that the immediate successors of Skanda Gupta had a capital at Ayodhyā probably till the rise of the Maukharis. If the spurious Gayā plate is to be believed Ayodhyā was the seat of a Gupta jaya-skandhāvāra, or 'camp of victory,' as early as the time of Samudra Gupta. The principal capital of Bālāditya and his successors appears to have been Kāśī.
↑ Mookerji, Radhakumud (1989). The Gupta Empire. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 52. ISBN 978-81-208-0089-2. the successors of Chandra Gupta II set up their capital at Ayodhyā. It also appears from the Sarnath Stone inscription of Prakațāditya (Fleet, No. 79) that they had another capital at Kāśī.
↑ Hans T. Bakker (1982). "The rise of Ayodhya as a place of pilgrimage". Indo-Iranian Journal. 24 (2): 105. doi:10.1163/000000082790081267. S2CID 161957449. During the reign of either the emperor Kumāragupta or, more probably, that of his successor Skandagupta (AD 455–467), the capital of the empire was moved from Pāțaliputra to Ayodhyā...
↑ Sharma, Tej Ram (1978). Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions. Robarts - University of Toronto. Delhi : Concept. p. 112. An indication of the leaning of the Gupta kings towards Vaisnavism is clear from the Garuda emblem of the Guptas. The gupta monarchs also used the title 'Paramabhāgavata' i.e.; the devout devotee of Visnu, in their imperial records.
↑ Bakker, Hans T. (12 March 2020). The Alkhan: A Hunnic People in South Asia. Barkhuis. p. 73. ISBN 978-94-93194-00-7. On the south banks of the Bina, the building of a religious complex dedicated to Vishnu, the Empire's tutelary deity, had expanded under Budhagupta.
↑ pg.17 : Gupta Empire at its height (5th-6th centuries) connected with the development of Mahayana Buddhism with the development of Tantric Buddhism.Ganeri, Anita (2007). Buddhism. Internet Archive. London : Franklin Watts. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-7496-6979-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
↑ Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D (December 2006). "East-West Orientation of Historical Empires". Journal of World-Systems Research. 12 (2): 223. doi:10.5195/JWSR.2006.369. ISSN 1076-156X.
↑ Taagepera, Rein (1979). "Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D". Social Science History. 3 (3/4): 121. doi:10.2307/1170959. JSTOR 1170959.
↑ Angus Maddison (2001). "Growth of World Population, GDP and GDP Per Capita before 1820". p. 238.
↑ Vidya Dhar Mahajan (1990), pp. 530–531
↑ Sen, Sailendra Nath (1999). Ancient Indian History and Civilization. New Age International. p. 235. ISBN 978-81-224-1198-0.

Other websites

Frontline Article on Gupta Period Art Archived 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine

[1] Goyal, SR. History of the imperial Guptas. p. 367.

[2] Sharma, R.S. (25 January 2007), "Rise and Growth of the Gupta Empire", India’s Ancient Past, Oxford University Press, p. 242, ISBN 978-0-19-568785-9, UP therefore seems to have been the place from where the Guptas operated and fanned out in different directions. Probably with their centre of power at Prayag, they spread into the neighbouring regions.

[TRSharmaPrayag-3] Sharma, Tej Ram (1989). A Political History of the Imperial Guptas. Concept Publishing Company. p. 39. ISBN 978-81-7022-251-4. Prayaga region of the modern eastern Uttar Pradesh was the centre of power of the early Guptas

[GoyalPrayagAyodh-4] 4.0 ^4.1 Goyal, S. R. (1967). History Of The Imperial Guptas. pp. 210–213. The capital of the Guptas was located somewhere in the eastern part of U. P. The evidence of the Puranas from which we learn that Prayāga was the nucleus of the original Gupta state, the incision of the prasasti of Samudragupta on a stone pillar at Prayāga, the discovery of several other early Gupta inscriptions and numerous hoards of coins from this area, and the possibility of the performance of Asvamedha at Prayāga by Samudragupta bring out the fact that at least in the early part of their history, the Guptas had their capital at Prayāga. [...] Later on, however, Ayodhyā was made the formal residence of the emperor, for, Paramartha, a Buddhist scholar of the Gupta age refers to this city as the capital of Vikramaditya i.e. Skandagupta who appointed Vasubandhu as the teacher of his crown-prince Bālāditya.

[AyodhyaKasi-5] Raychaudhuri, Hemchandra (2006). Political History of Ancient India. Cosmo Publications. p. 496. ISBN 978-81-307-0291-9. The importance of this identification lies in the fact that it proves that the immediate successors of Skanda Gupta had a capital at Ayodhyā probably till the rise of the Maukharis. If the spurious Gayā plate is to be believed Ayodhyā was the seat of a Gupta jaya-skandhāvāra, or 'camp of victory,' as early as the time of Samudra Gupta. The principal capital of Bālāditya and his successors appears to have been Kāśī.

[MookerjiAyodhKasi-6] Mookerji, Radhakumud (1989). The Gupta Empire. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 52. ISBN 978-81-208-0089-2. the successors of Chandra Gupta II set up their capital at Ayodhyā. It also appears from the Sarnath Stone inscription of Prakațāditya (Fleet, No. 79) that they had another capital at Kāśī.

[BakkerAyodhya-7] Hans T. Bakker (1982). "The rise of Ayodhya as a place of pilgrimage". Indo-Iranian Journal. 24 (2): 105. doi:10.1163/000000082790081267. S2CID 161957449. During the reign of either the emperor Kumāragupta or, more probably, that of his successor Skandagupta (AD 455–467), the capital of the empire was moved from Pāțaliputra to Ayodhyā...

[8] Sharma, Tej Ram (1978). Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions. Robarts - University of Toronto. Delhi : Concept. p. 112. An indication of the leaning of the Gupta kings towards Vaisnavism is clear from the Garuda emblem of the Guptas. The gupta monarchs also used the title 'Paramabhāgavata' i.e.; the devout devotee of Visnu, in their imperial records.

[9] Bakker, Hans T. (12 March 2020). The Alkhan: A Hunnic People in South Asia. Barkhuis. p. 73. ISBN 978-94-93194-00-7. On the south banks of the Bina, the building of a religious complex dedicated to Vishnu, the Empire's tutelary deity, had expanded under Budhagupta.

[GANERI-10] .17 : Gupta Empire at its height (5th-6th centuries) connected with the development of Mahayana Buddhism with the development of Tantric Buddhism.Ganeri, Anita (2007). Buddhism. Internet Archive. London : Franklin Watts. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-7496-6979-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)

[Turchin223-11] Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D (December 2006). "East-West Orientation of Historical Empires". Journal of World-Systems Research. 12 (2): 223. doi:10.5195/JWSR.2006.369. ISSN 1076-156X.

[Taagepera-12] Taagepera, Rein (1979). "Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D". Social Science History. 3 (3/4): 121. doi:10.2307/1170959. JSTOR 1170959.

[13] Angus Maddison (2001). "Growth of World Population, GDP and GDP Per Capita before 1820". p. 238.

[14] Vidya Dhar Mahajan (1990), pp. 530–531

[15] Sen, Sailendra Nath (1999). Ancient Indian History and Civilization. New Age International. p. 235. ISBN 978-81-224-1198-0.

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Gupta dynasty

Administration

Further reading

References

Other websites