Gupta Empire: Golden Age of Classical India

The Great Civilization of India

Throughout history, many civilizations ushered periods of prosperity in the regions they grew up in. In the West, many think of Classical Greece and Imperial Rome as example of this, while in China, the height of dynasties like the Tang and Song come to mind. Sandwiched between those two poles of civilization is the Indian Subcontinent, another great human civilization full of ethic and religious diversity, cultural achievements, and magnificent art is developing.

India has been ruled over by countless mighty empires over the millenia, but perhaps one of the greatest, ruling during India's Classical Golden Age, is the Gupta empure. This dynasty, which reigned from the 4th - 6th Century CE, produced magnificent art, as well as some of India's greatest poets and scholars.

Its tenure also saw major developments in religious such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism that have lasted to this day. So What was the Gupta empire? Who were its famous kings? How did their economy and statecraft function? And what contributions did they make to Indian and world culture? 

In this Blog, we will explore the definitive empire of India's Classical Golden Age, my information about the Gupta empire comes from two sources; the first being literary sources such as the poet Kalidasa, who may have lived in Gupta times, and the second being archaeological material, which comez in the form of coinage or architecture.

Through the appearance of King’s names on coins, art in temples such as in Udayagiri which I will discuss later on, or Sanskrit inscriptions in places such as the pillar in Allahabad, we can place together a decent inference on the chronology of Gupta history,  and the core values of its society. 

Granted, it should be born in mind that all of these sources are inherently bias, being made, for example, to praise the Kings of the age, and thus should be absorbed in an academic context, rather than at face value.

The Rise of the Gupta Empire, Legacy, Cultural Contribution.

The origins of the Gupta Empire can be found in an era when the Indian subcontinent was in a  

protracted period of fracturing and transition following the collapse of the Maurya Empire. During this period, various empires that ruled the Northwest of the subcontinent, such as the Kushans and Sakas, had risen and fallen. 

The Ganges plain was equally geopolitically capricious, with various states such as the Nagas, the Vakatakas, and the Kshatrapas rising  to prominence then collapsing, while large areas remained controlled by Adivasi peoples, or indigenous tribes of various localities. The memory of the Maurya Empire from some six centuries before still occupied a giant place in the social memory of India’s rulers, as they were the only ones to come close to uniting the sub-continent. 

The Satavahanas, one the juggernaut of central India, were a shadow of their former selves, but had continued the tradition of patronising literature and religion, and had begun the process of using Sanskrit as a language of high culture instead of one only used in religious ritual. In terms of religion, India was much different to today. The various sects of Buddhism and Jainism, which today are minority faiths in India, were still strong as religions of kings, nobles and merchants. 

Hinduism was also in a period of transition. Before the Common Era, the most prevalent form was that of the Vaidika, which focused on worship of multiple deities in a typical Indo-European fashion. Gods such as Indra for Thunder, Agni for Fire, Varuna for the Ocean, and Surya and Chandra for the Sun and Moon, were preferred as they were mentioned in the Vedas. 

This pre-Gupta period also saw the beginnings of the worship of Vishnu and Shiva, as well as the development of the Puranas, which brought Hinduism closer to the faith as we understand it today. It is this tumultuous period of Indian history, when the land was fractured, and its cultures and religion were in a period of transition, that the Guptas would emerge onto the scene.

The Guptas began their empire in the land of Magadha, the same region from where the Mauryas had risen, centuries earlier. This link to the Mauryas became quite important to the Guptas, who used similar tactics of propagation and statecraft to draw parallels between themselves and that prestigious unifying Empire of old. The throne of Magadha itself became a tool to help the young empire achieve legitimacy in the eyes of its peers, precisely because of its Mauryan legacy. 

Chandragupta I and the Expansion of the Empire 

The founder of the Empire was most likely a man named Sri Gupta for whom the dynasty is named after. Not much is known about him, as he has left us no coins or inscriptions, although sources from the reigns of later Gupta kings, and even some Chinese monks, claim he ascended to  the throne of Magadha around the mid 3rd century CE. Sparse records aside, its generally accepted  that Gupta seems to have established a certain level of control over territories in Magadha, setting the foundations of the empire that would follow. 

His son, Chandragupta I, would be the Alexander to Magadha’s Philip, conquering many kingdoms of the surrounding region, including the Nagas of Central India, and establishing the Guptas as an empire. From what we can summarize, the expansion of the empire was quite extensive under Chandragupta, as exemplified by the coinage minted during his reign, whose royal scenes of elegant harpists, nobles archers and Hindu deities project the visual imagery of a world-conquering monarch.

Samudragupta I: The Warrior and Poet King 

After Chandragupta I, the Gupta Empire’s most impactful ruler was a man called Samudragupta I, the son of the as for mentioned Chandragupta I. His rule was defined by both the conquests he embarked upon, particularly against the Western Kshatrapas, the Vakatakas, and the Sakas of Gandhara, and the great art he patronised, such as the great poet Harishena’s inscriptions on Allahabad. 

The Allahabad inscription is of particular note, as it showcases the sophisticated written Gupta script, a successor of previous Brahmi scripts and predecessor to the Devanagiri script of later times. Moreover, the words themselves are an intriguing insight into Gupta ideology. 

This lofty column, the raised arm of the earth, proclaiming as it were, that the fame having pervaded the entire surface of the world with rise caused by the conquest of the whole earth, has acquired an easy and graceful movement in that it has repaired from here to the abode of Indra the lord of the gods - of that prosperous Samudragupta the Mahārājādhirāja.

By and large, the Allahabad inscription, alongside other inscriptions of its like, display how Samudragupta and other Gupta monarchs carefully cultivated an image for themselves as warriors, masterful poets, as well as a major philanthropist of religious endowments, all to legitimate their rule as enlightened philosopher kings.

Chandragupta II and his Successors 

Samudragupta’s successor, Chandragupta II, also known as Vikramaditya, was also well known for expanding the cultural achievements of the Gupta Empire, and was supposedly a patron of the Navaratnas, or Nine Jewels, a circle of poets who, under Chandragupta II’s patronage, managed to produce some of the finest Sanskrit poetry of all time. 

The Navaratnas’ most well-known poet, Kalidasa, extolled his ruler’s virtues and power in the language considered to be spoken by the gods of the Hindu pantheon. This practice, which had probably begun under the Sakas and Satavahanas, was popularised by the Guptas and set the standard for thousands of kings from Afghanistan to Java who would use similar Sanskrit-language literature for the next millennium.

Chandragupta II was not just a man of letters, but also of one of conquest, having either vassalized or annexed the Kshatrapas to the east. These campaigns made the Gupta King renowned among people as far flung as the Buddhist Monks of China, with one such monk, Fa Hsien, praising him as a great patron of religious endowments. 

This was not something unique to the Guptas, for the royal sponsorship of religious institutions was a consistent pattern in Indian history. Unlike in later Christian or Muslim Kingdoms, which for the most part only had one state religion, Indian rulers often provided equal patronage to all the diverse faiths in their realms. 

Chandragupta II was no exception to this. While he was himself most likely a devotee of the god Vishnu, he appears to have given land to and sponsored temples for various Buddhist sects and alternative Hindu schools. After the passing of Chandragupta II, a series of fairly unremarkable rulers came to occupy the Gupta throne. 

After them, the Empire would receive a rejuvenation in royal vigour with the rise of kings Kumaragupta and Skandagupta. Like his predecessor Chandragupta, Kumaragupta was a beloved sponsor of land grants to all religions, whether Buddhist, Hindu, or Jaina. Skandagupta, meanwhile, was a great warrior according to the Bhitari inscription, which mentions him fending off a Hephthalite invasion from the North-west. 

Later kings like Narasimha Gupta would continue Skandagupta’s legacy, and continued his policy of fortifying defence from western invaders. However, in an echo of the Roman Emperor Trajan, Skandagupta would be the last great Gupta King who expanded the dynasty’s power, as from that point on, the Empires’ borders were set, and for the rest of its history, it would be on the defensive until its slow decline began.

The Gupta Golden Age: Art, Religion, and Philosophy.

Having thus finished a brief chronological survey of the Gupta Kings, let us take a pause from the march of history, and dive more deeply into what society in the Gupta Empire was like. By and large, the Gupta empire was an era where high thinkers flourished. Many of the famous Indian scholars of the Classical Age, such as the great mathematician Aryabhata, who is said to have been a pioneer of the concept of zero, are said to have lived during this period. 

Works in astronomy, often based on earlier Greco-Roman breakthroughs, were also a feature of Gupta learning. As previously stated, Sanskrit poetry, written in the unique Gupta script, saw a great flourishing due to the dynasty’s generous patronage of poets such as Kalidhasa. Inscriptions such as the prashastis of Allahabad are remarkable for their literary quality, a fact which both gave prestige to the Guptas and enabled their political performance in the arena of Classical India. 

The cultivation of this prestige also extended to other means of literature, such as Kavya, a genre encompassing plays, poems and epics with elegant metaphors. Indian philosophy also developed highly during this period, as the Gupta golden age was the time where all six schools of Hindu philosophy; Vedanta, Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika and Nyaya, were producing pioneering works.

A criticism often levied against the Gupta Empire is that it presided over a period of where India’s cities were in decline. This, however, has been discredited by most modern historians, who assert that during Gupta rule, urban society was still vibrant in most of India. Consequently, this bias may have sprung up due to the fact that Gupta society primarily relied not on cities, but on rural agriculture and mining settlements to fuel its economy, which were sponsored by the Royal Court through a sophisticated bureaucratic system of tax grants, and delegating land management to social notables like local religious figures, for whom religious ritual and land management went hand in hand. 

Overall, the Guptas ran an efficient yet institutionally diverse realm, focusing on delegating tasks to local kings they subjugated. Through an efficient system of ministers and prime ministers, as well as delegating work to local Adivasi tribes and religious functionaries, the Guptas managed to have a prosperous yet decentralised empire.

In addition, the empire was keen to utilise matrimonial alliances for diplomacy. Many kings would have many wives and balance out diplomatic relations through the balancing out of military coercion, economic engagement, and diplomatic means.

Although the Gupta Empire has been called the Golden Age of Classical India,  the two terms ‘Classical’ and ‘Golden Age’, are loaded terms which imply that this was an ideal society and that other periods, usually where different religions were present in India, were lesser. Neither of these are true, but taking those natural biases into account, we can nevertheless admire the many strides that Gupta India made in both art and religion.  

Gupta Art developed from influences from the well-established Mathura, Gandhara, and Varanasi schools of art, and is known for its mobility and floral decorations. Gupta art saw an increasing focus on the Hindu deities most prominently worshipped by modern Hindus today, such as the Dashavatara Temple in Deogarh, dedicated to Vishnu. Here, Vishnu is depicted lounging on Shesha, the King of Snakes or Nagas, while a woman, his wife the Goddess Lakshmi,  is massaging his feet. 

Beyond Hindu monuments, Buddhist and Jain images of Bodhisattvas and Tirthankaras also were popular throughout the Gupta realm. Religious monuments often served not only spiritual, but also practical purposes, like the irrigation of land. For example, Udayagiri is a large temple site with various water management systems. A great statue within the site represents the deity Varaha, a large boar man and the third avatar of Vishnu who stopped a large flood. The statue greets the rising sun in the morning, and the stylized pose embodies the sense of the spiritual power associated with the water management that the temple provides.

As as for mentioned, the Guptas were major patrons of all major Indian faiths, whether Hindu, Buddhist or Jaina. Many temples during this period received patronage and endowments. Universities such as Nalanda, which was mainly the purview of Buddhists, remained prosperous and strong in their production of academic knowledge. 

However, the Guptas were mostly Hindu by persuasion, and as such, it was the quasi-priestly, quasi-judicial Brahmin caste who most likely held the most power among all the spiritual leaders in the Gupta realm. Brahmins received many  tax-exempt villages and land grants, establishing their power as economic and social actors.  

According to Johannes Bronkhorst, the Brahmins could provide many services on matters such as statecraft or astrology, something movements like Buddhism were not able to provide. By that token, it was the Guptas who set up temple Hinduism as we know it today. The site of Badhh-Pathari is a sophisticated network of temples and statues on the landscape of vast plains, providing protection during monsoon by deities like Shiva and Vishnu. 

During the Gupta period, the old Vedic pantheon was gradually sidelined in favour of Vaisnavism and Saivism, which focus on Vishnu and Shiva as the Supreme Beings respectively. Many Gupta kings would  identify their royal ideology the sacred traits of preservation and destruction embodied by Vishnu or Shiva. 

Sacred texts like the Puranas also came about during this period, and reflect some of the political reality of the time. Other forms of Hinduism, such as Shaktism which focuses on the Goddess Mahadevi, or less known denominations like worship of Surya and Kartikeya,  were also present. Ultimately, the Guptas were the forerunner of Hinduism’s dominance in India.

Decline and Lasting impact of the Gupta Empire

The last Gupta emperors faced an array of political instability and decentralisation. Dynastic squabbling, combined with onslaughts of invasions from the Northwest, slowly weakened the empire. After Skandagupta, the power and prestige of the crown slowly faded into obscurity, and by the 6th Century CE, the Guptas Empire as a whole had faded into memory. 

However, the innovations of the Guptas are still with us to this day. Their contribution to art and religion, as well as the development of feudalism and Sanskrit in India, made their mark in India for the next millennium. Many later emperors looked to the Guptas as inspirations for kingship, statecraft and religious innovations. 

This dynasty, while not as long-lived as some of its contemporaries like Eastern Rome or the Sassanians, made an incredible mark on India in ways that still impact the subcontinent’s massive population to this day. More Blogs on Indian history are on the way so stay tuned...