Hindu India
from the beginning of the Maurya dynasty in 322 B.C.
to the seventh century A.C.

 p147  Chapter 3

The Gupta period; a golden age; literature, art, and science; Hindu renaissance; the Huns; King Harsha; the Chalukyas; disorder in northern India.

Definite chronology from A.D. 320. The transition from the unsettled and hotly dispute history of the foreign dynasties to the comparatively serene atmosphere of the Gupta period is no less agreeable to the historian than the similar passage from the uncertainties of the Nandas to the ascertained verities of the Mauryas. In both cases the experience is like that of a man in an open boat suddenly gliding from the misery of a choppy sea outside into the calm water of a harbour.

The chronology of the Gupta period, taking that period in a wide sense as extending from A.D. 320, or in round numbers from A.D. 300, to A.D. 647 or the middle of the seventh century, is not only certain in all its main outlines, but also precise in detail to a large extent, except for the latter half of the sixth century.

It is possible, therefore, to construct a continuous narrative of the history of northern and western India for the greater part of three centuries and a half, without the embarrassment which clogs all attempts at narrative when the necessary chronological framework is insecure.

Rise of the Gupta dynasty. The exact course of events which brought about the collapse of the Indo-Scythian or Kushān empire in India at some time in the third century is not known. The disturbed state of the country seems to be the explanation of the lack of contemporary inscriptions or other memorials of the time, and of the hopeless confusion of tradition as recorded in books. Many independent states must have been formed when the control of a paramount authority was withdrawn. The Lichchhavis of Vaisāli, last heard of in the days of Buddha, now emerge again after eight hundred years of silence. It would seem that the clan or nation must have obtained possession of Pātaliputra, the ancient imperial capital, and have ruled there as tributaries or feudatories of the Kushāns, whose head-quarters were at Peshāwar. Early in the fourth century a Lichchhavi princess gave her hand to a Rājā in Magadha who bore the historic name of Chandragupta. The  p148 matrimonial alliance with the Lichchhavis so enhanced his power that he was able to extend his dominion over Oudh as well as Magadha, and along the Ganges as far as Prayāg or Allahabad. Chandragupta recognized his dependence on his wife's people by striking his gold coins in the joint names of himself, his queen (Kumāra Dēvī), and the Lichchhavi nation.⁠1 He felt himself sufficiently important to be justified in establishing a new era, the Gupta, of which the year 1 ran from February 26, 320, presumably the date of his enthronement or coronation, to March 13, 321. The era continued in use in parts of India for several centuries. The reign of Chandragupta I was short, and may be assumed to have ended about A.D. 330. His son and successor was always careful to describe himself as being 'the son of the daughter of the Lichchhavi', a formula implying the acknowledgment that his royal authority was derived from his mother.

Samudragupta. Samudragupta, the second Gupta monarch,⁠2 who reigned for forty or fifty years, was one of the most remarkable and accomplished kings recorded in Indian history. He undertook and succeeded in accomplishing the formidable task of making himself the paramount power in India. He spent some years first in thoroughly subduing such princes in the Gangetic plain as declined to acknowledge his authority. He then brought the wild forest tribes under control, and finally executed a military progress through the Deccan, advancing so far into the peninsula that he came into conflict with the Pallava ruler of Kānchī (Conjeeveram) near Madras. He then turned westward and came home through Khandēsh, no doubt using the road which passed Asīrgarh. That wonderful expedition must have lasted at least two or three years. Samudragupta did not attempt to retain permanently his conquests to the south of the Narbadā, being content to receive homage from the vanquished princes and to bring back to his capital a vast golden treasure. He celebrated the asvamedha or horse sacrifice, which had been long  p149 in abeyance, in order to mark the successful assertion of his claim to imperial rank, and struck interesting gold medals in commemoration of the event.

Samudragupta's empire. At the close of Samudragupta's triumphal career his empire — the greatest in India since the days of Asoka — extended on the north to the base of the mountains, but did not include Kashmīr. The eastern limit probably was the Brahmaputra. The Narbadā may be regarded as the frontier on the south. The Jumna and Chambal rivers marked the western limit of the territories directly under the imperial government, but various tribal states in the Panjāb and Mālwā, occupied by the Yaudhēyas, Mālavas, and other nations, enjoyed autonomy under the protection of the paramount power.

Tribute was paid and homage rendered by the rulers of five frontier kingdoms, namely Samatata, or the delta of the Brahmaputra; Davāka, perhaps Eastern Bengal; Kāmaru̅pa, roughly equivalent to Assam; Kartripura, probably represented by Kumaon and Garhwāl; and Nepāl.

Relations with foreign powers. Samudragupta further claims that he received respectful service from the foreign Kushān princes of the north-west, whom he grouped together as 'Saka chiefs', and even from the Sinhalese.⁠3 It is clear, relief, that his name was known and honoured over the whole of India proper. He did not attempt to carry his arms across the Sutlaj or to dispute the authority of the Kushān kings who continued to rule in and beyond the Indus basin. The fact of the existence of a Chinese historian who relates that King Meghavarman of Ceylon (c. 352‑79) sent an embassy with gifts to Samudragupta and obtained his permitted to erect a splendid monastery to the north of the holy tree at Bo̅dh Gayā for the use of pilgrims from the island. The extensive mound which marks the site of the building has not yet been excavated.

Personal gifts. Samudragupta was a man of exceptional personal capacity and unusually varied gifts. His skill in music and song is commemorated by certain rare gold coins or medals which depict the king seated on a couch playing the Indian lute (vīnā). He was equally proficient in the allied art of poetry, and  p150 MAP  p151 is said to have composed numerous works worthy of the reputation of a professional author. He took much delight in the society of the learned, whose services he engaged in the defence of the sacred scriptures. Although himself a Brahmanical Hindu with a special devotion to Vishnu, like the other members of his house, that fact did not prevent him from showing favour in his youth to Vasubandhu, the celebrated Buddhist author.

The exact date of Samudragupta's death is not known; but he certainly lived to an advanced age, and when he passed away had enjoyed a reign of apparently uninterrupted prosperity for nearly half a century.

Chandragupta II. About A.D. 380 he was succeeded by a son specially selected as the most worthy of the crown, who assumed his grandfather's name and is therefore known to history as Chandragupta II. Later in life he took the additional title of Vikramāditya ('Sun of power'), which was associated by tradition with the Rājā of Ujjain who is believed to have defeated the Sakas and established the Vikrama era in 58‑57 B.C. It is possible that such a Rājā may really have existed, although the tradition has not yet been verified by the discovery of inscriptions, coins, or monuments. The popular legends concerning 'Rājā Bikram' probably have been coloured by indistinct memories of Chandragupta II, whose principal military achievement was the conquest of Mālwā, Gujarāt, and Surāshtra or Kāthiāwār, countries which had been ruled for several centuries by foreign Saka chiefs. Those chiefs, who had been tributary to the Kushāns, called themselves Satraps or Great Satraps. The conquest was effected between the years A.D. 388 and 401. 395 may be taken as the mean date of the operations, which must have lasted for several years. The advance of the imperial arms involved the subjugation of the Mālavas and certain other tribes which had remained outside the frontier of Samudragupta, although enjoying his protection. Rudrasimha, the last of the Satraps, was killed. A scandalous tradition, recorded by an author of the seventh century, affirmed that the king of the Sakas, 'while courting another man's wife, was butchered by Chandragupta, concealed in his mistress's dress'. The reader is at liberty to believe or disbelieve the tale as he pleases.

 p152  Trade with west: Ujjain. The annexation of the Satraps' territories added provinces of exceptional wealth and fertility to the northern empire, which had become an extremely rich and powerful state at the beginning of the fifth century. The income from the custom duties collected at the numerous ports on the western coast which were now brought under Gupta rule must have been a valuable financial resource. From time immemorial Bharo̅ch (Broach), Sopāra, Cambay, and a multitude of other ports had carried on an active sea‑borne trade with the countries of the west. Ujjain appears to have been the inland centre upon which most of the trade routes converged. The city, dating from immemorial antiquity, which still retains its ancient name unchanged and exists as a prosperous town in Sindia's Dominions, has been always reckoned as one of the seven sacred Hindu cities, little inferior to Benares in sanctity. Longitudes were reckoned from its meridian in ancient times. The favourable position of the city for trade evidently was the foundation both is material prosperity and of the sanctity attaching to a site which enjoyed the favour of successive ruling powers by whom religious establishments of all kinds were founded from time to time.

The Great Satraps of Mahārāshtra. Two distinct dynasties of foreign Saka press using the style of Great Satrap ruled in western India, and should not be confounded by being lumped together under a single designation as the 'Western Satraps'.

The earlier dynasty ruled in Mahārāshtra or the region of the western Ghāts, its capital apparently being at or near Nāsik. The date of its establishment is not known, and so far the names of only two princes, Bhu̅maka and Nahapāna, have been recovered, but others may have existed. About A.D. 117, during the assumed interval between the death of Kadphises II and the accession of Kanishka, an Āndhra king called Gautamipura extirpated the line of Nahapāna and annexed the dominions of the dynasty, restriking their coins.

The Great Satraps of Ujjain. At nearly the same time, or probably a few years earlier, a chieftain name Chasthana became Great Satrap of Mālwā, with his capital at Ujjain. He must have been a subordinate of Kadphises II. His reign was not long, and his son did not come to the throne. Possibly both father and son may have been killed in battle, for the times were troubled. Chasthana's grandson, named Rudradāman, in or about A.D. 128, and certainly before A.D. 130, won afresh for himself the position of Great Satrap, presumably under the suzerainty of Kanishka, and became the ruler of western India, including the provinces which the Āndhra had wrested from the Satrap of Mahārāshtra a few years previously. Chasthana's sculptors must have continued to be tributaries of Huvishka. When the Kushān empire broke up, the urs of the west, who continued to style themselves Great Satraps, became  p153 independent, and preserved their authority until the twenty-first Great Satrap was killed by Chandragupta II at the close of the fourth century, when his country was incorporated into the Gupta empire, as already mentioned. The names and dates of the Great Satraps of Ujjain have been well ascertained, chiefly from coins, but little is known about the details of their history.4

Character of Chandragupta II. The principal Gupta kings, except the founder of the dynasty, all enjoyed long reigns, like Akbar and his successors in a later age. Chandragupta Vikramāditya occupied the throne for nearly forty years until A.D. 413. The ascertained facts of his career prove that he was a strong and vigorous ruler, well qualified to govern and augment an extensive empire. He loved sounding titles which proclaimed his martial prowess, and was fond of depicting himself on his coins as engaged in the sport of kings, personal combat with a lion. Lions were numerous in the northern parts of the United Provinces as late as the time of Bishop Heber in 1824, but are now found only in Kāthiāwār. The last specimen recorded in northern India was killed in the Gwālior State in 1872.

Fa‑hien, Chinese pilgrim. The indispensable chronological skeleton of Gupta history constructed from the testimony of numerous dated inscriptions and coins is clothed with flesh chiefly by the help of foreign travellers, the pilgrims from China who crowded into India as the Holy Land of Buddhism from the beginning of the fifth century. Fa‑hien or Fa‑hsien, the earliest of those pilgrims, was on his travels from A.D. 399 to 414. His laborious journey was undertaken in order to procure authentic texts of the Vinaya-pitaka, or Buddhist books on monastic discipline. The daring traveller after leaving western China followed the route to the south of the Taklamakān (Gobi) Desert, through Sha‑chow and Lop‑nor to Khotan, where the population was wholly Buddhist, and chiefly devoted to the Mahāyāna doctrine.⁠5 He then crossed the Pāmīrs with infinite difficulty and made his way into Udyana or Suwāt (Swāt), and so on to Taxila and Purushapura or Peshāwar. He spent three years at Pātaliputra and two at Tāmralipti, now represented by Tamlu̅k in the Midnapore District of Bengal. In those days Tāmralipti was an important port. Its modern successor is a small town at least •sixty miles distant from the sea. Fa‑hien sailed from Tāmralipti on his return journey, going home by sea, and visiting Ceylon and Java on the way. His stay in India proper, extending from A.D. 401 to 410, thus fell wholly within the limits of the reign of Chandragupta II. About six years were spent in the dominions of that monarch.

The enthusiastic pilgrim was so absorbed in the religious task to which his life was devoted that he never even mentions the  p154 name of any reigning sovereign. His references to the facts of ordinary life are made in a casual, accidental fashion, which guarantees the trustworthiness of his observations. Although we moderns should be better pleased if the pious traveller had paid more attention to worldly affairs, we may be thankful for his brief notes, which give a pleasing and fairly vivid picture of the condition of the Gangetic provinces in the reign of Chandragupta II. He calls the Gangetic plain Mid‑India or the Middle Kingdom, which may be taken as equivalent roughly to the modern Bihār, the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, Mālwā, and part of Rājputanā. The whole of Mid‑India was under the rule of the Gupta emperor.

State of the country. The towns of Magadha or South Bihār were large; the people were rich and prosperous; charitable institutions were numerous; rest-houses for travellers were provided on the highways, and the capital possessed an excellent free hospital endowed by benevolent and educated citizens. Pātaliputra was still a flourishing city, specially interesting to Fa‑hien because it possessed two monasteries — one of the Little, and one of the Great Vehicle, where six or seven hundred monks resided, who were so famous for their learning that students from all quarters attended their lectures. Fa‑hien spent three happy years at the ancient imperial capital in the study of the Sanskrit language and Buddhist scriptures. He was deeply impressed by the palace and halls erected by Asoka in the middle of the city, and still standing in the time of the pilgrim. The massive stone work, richly adorned with sculpture and decorative carving, seemed to him to be the work of spirits, beyond the capacity of merely human craftsmen. The site of that palace has been identified at Kumrahār village, to the south of the modern city.

Pātaliputra probably continued to be the principal royal residence in the reign of Samudragupta, but there are indications that in the time of his successor Ajodhyā was found to be more convenient as the head-quarters of the government.

In the course of a journey of •some 500 miles from the Indus to Mathurā on the Jumna the traveller passed a succession of Buddhist monasteries tenanted by thousands of monks. Mathurā alone had twenty such institutions with three thousand residents. Fa‑hien noted that Buddhism was particularly flourishing along the course of the Jumna.

Administration. He liked the climate and was pleased with the mildness of the administration. He notes that people were free to come or go as they thought fit without the necessity of being registered or obtaining passes; that offences were ordinarily punished by fine only; the capital penalty not being inflicted, and mutilation being confined to the case of obstacle rebellion, meaning probably professional brigandage. Persons guilty of that crime were liable to suffer amputation of the right hand. The revenue was derived mainly from the rent of the crown lands, 'land revenue' in modern language. The royal guards and officers were paid regular salaries.

 p155  Habits of the people. The Buddhist rule of life was generally observed.

The Chandālas or outcastes, who did not observe the rules of purity, were obliged to lie apart, and were required when entering a town of bazaar to strike a piece of wood as a warning of their approach, in order that other folk might be polluted by contact with them.

Those observations prove that a great change had occurred in the manners of the people and the attitude of the government since the time of the Mauryas. The people of Taxila had had no scruple in supplying Alexander with herds of fat beasts fit for the butcher; even Asoka did not definitely forbid the slaughter of kine; while the Arthasāstra not only treated the liquor trade as a legitimate source of revenue, but directed that publish-houses should be made attractive to customers. Fa‑hien's statements may be, and probably are, expressed in terms too comprehensive, and without the necessary qualifications. Sacrifice, for instance, must have been practised by many Brahmanical Hindus. It is hardly credible that in A.D. 400, 'throughout the whole country', nobody except the lowest outcastes would kill any living thing, drink strong liquor, or eat onions or garlic.⁠6 But Fa‑hien's testimony may be accepted as proving that the ahimsā sentiment was extraordinarily strong in 'Mid‑India' when he resided there. Evidently it was far more generally accepted than it is at the present day, when Buddhism has long been extinct. The pilgrim's statements, no doubt, apply primarily to the Buddhists, who seem to have been then the majority. The traveller's account of the precautions enforced on Chandāla outcastes in order to protect caste people from defilement may be illustrated by modern descriptions of the customs prevalent either now or not long ago in the extreme south of the peninsula; and a somewhat similar attitude toward certain degraded classes like the Mahārs, Doms, Chuhras, and Chamārs is still observable in Bombay and northern India, though the impact of western civilization has mitigated to some extent the extreme rigour of caste rules.7

Good government. Fa‑hien's incidental observations taken as a whole indicate that the Gupta empire at the beginning of the fifth century was well governed. The government let the people  p156 live their own lives without needless interference; was temperate in the repression of crime, and tolerant in matters of religion. The foreign pilgrim was able to pursue his studies in peace wherever he chose to reside, and could travel all over India without molestation. He makes no mention of any adventures with robbers, and when he ultimately returned home he carried to his native land his collections of manuscripts, images, and paintings. Many other Chinese pilgrims followed his example, the most illustrious being Hiuen Tsang or Yuan Chwang in the seventh century.

Kumāragupta I. In A.D. 415 Chandragupta II was succeeded by a son named Kumāragupta who ruled the empire for more than forty years. Details of the events of his reign are not on record, but it is probable that he added to his inherited dominions, because he is known to have celebrated the horse-sacrifice, which he would not have ventured to do unless he had gained military successes.

Skandagupta, the last great Gupta. He died early in A.D. 455, when the sceptre passed into the hands of his son Skandagupta. In the latter part of Kumāragupta's reign the empire had been attacked by a tribe or nation called Pushyamitra, perhaps Iranians, who were reputed. Soon after the accession of Skandagupta a horde of Hu̅nas, or Huns, fierce nomads from Central Asia, made a more formidable inroad, which, too, was successfully repented. But fresh waves of invades arrived and shattered the fabric of the Gupta empire. The dynasty was not destroyed. It continued to rule diminished dominions with reduced power for several generations. Skandagupta, however, was the last of the great imperial Guptas, as Aurangzēb Ālamgīr was the last of the Great Moguls.

The Gupta golden age. Before we deal more closely with the Hun invasions and their consequences we shall offer a summary review of the golden age of the Guptas, which may be reckoned as extending from A.D. 320 to 480, comprising the reigns of Chandragupta I; Samudragupta; Chandragupta II, Vikramāditya; Kumāragupta I; and Skandagupta, who followed his grandfather's example in taking the title Vikramāditya.

A learned European scholar declares that 'the Gupta period is in the annals of classical India almost what the Periclean age is in the history of Greece'. An Indian author regards the time as that of 'the Hindu Renaissance'. Both phrases are justified. The age of the great Gupta kings presents a more agreeable and satisfactory picture than any other period in the history of Hindu India. Fa‑hien's testimony above quoted proves that the government was free from cruelty and was not debased by the horrible system of espionage advocated by Kautilya and actually practised by the mauryas. Literature, art, and science flourished in a degree  p157 beyond the ordinary, and gradual changes in religion were effected without persecution. Those propositions will now be developed in some detail.

Hindu renaissance. The energetic and long continued zeal of Asoka probably succeeded in making Buddhism the religion of the majority of the people in northern India, during the latter part of his reign. But neither Brahmanical Hinduism or Jainism ever died out. The relative prevalence of each of the three religions varied immensely from time to time and from province to province. The Buddhist convictions of the Kushān kings, Kanishka and Huvishka, do not seem to have been deep. In fact, the personal faith of those monarchs apparently was a corrupt Zoroastrianism or Magism more than anything else. Their predecessor, Kadphises II, placed the image of Siva and his bull on his coins, a practice renewed by Huvishka's successor, Vāsudeva I. The Satraps of Ujjain, although tolerant of Buddhism, were themselves Brahmanical Hindus. The Gupta kings, while showing as a family preference for devotion to the Deity under the name of Vishnu or Bhagavata, allowed Buddhists and Jains perfect freedom of worship and full liberty to endow their sacred places. Although we moderns can discern from our distant point of view that the Hindu renaissance or reaction had begun the conquest of Buddhist in the fifth century, or even from an earlier date, Fa‑hien was not conscious of the movement. India was simply the Buddhist Holy Land in his eyes, and the country in which the precepts of his religion were best observed.

Sanskrit. The growing power of the Brahmans, as compared with the gradually waning influence of the Jain and Buddhist churches, was closely associated with the increased use of Sanskrit, the sacred language of the Brahmans. Asoka never used Sanskrit officially. All his proclamations were composed and published in easily intelligible varieties of the vernacular tongue, and so were accessible to anybody who knew how to read. The Āndhra kings too used Prākrit. The earliest known inscriptions written in grammatical standard Sanskrit date from the time of Kanishka, when we find a short record at Mathurā dated in the year 24 (= about A.D. 144), and a long literary composition at Girnār in Surāshtra, recorded about A.D. 152, which recites the conquests to Great Satrap Rudradāman.

Literature: Kālidāsa. The increasing use of Sanskrit is further marked by the legends of the Gupta coins, which are in that language, and by the development of Sanskrit literature of the highest quality. Critics are agreed that Kālidāsa surpasses all rivals writing in Sanskrit whether as dramatist or as poet. Something like general assent has been won to the proposition that the literary work of the most renowned of Indian poets was accomplished in the fifth century under the patronage of the Gupta kings. Good reason has been shown for believing that Kālidāsa was a native of Mandaso̅r in Mālwā (now in Sindia's dominions), or of some place in the immediate neighbourhood of that once famous town. He was thus brought up in close touch  p159 with the court of Ujjain, and the active commercial and intellectual life which centred in that capital of western India. His early descriptive poems, the Ritusamhāra and Meghadu̅ta. may be assigned to the reign of Chandragupta II, Vikramāditya, the conqueror of Ujjain, and his dramas to that of Kumāragupta I (A.D. 413‑55); but it is probable that his true dates may be slightly later. Sakuntalā, the most famous of his plays, secured enthusiastic admiration from European critics the moment it was brought to their notice, and the poet's pre‑eminence has never been questioned in either East or West.8

Other literature. Good authorities are now disposed to assign the political drama entitled the 'Signet of the Minister' (Mudrā Rākshasa) to the reign of Chandragupta II, Vikramāditya; and the interesting play called 'The Little Clay Cart' (Mrichchhaka-tikā) may be a little earlier. The Vāyu Purāna, one of the most ancient of the existing Purānas, may be assigned to the first half of the fourth century in its present form. All the Purānas contain matter of various ages, some parts being extremely ancient; any date assigned to such a composition refers only to the final literary form of the work.

 p160  The eminent Buddhist author, Vasubandhu, lived in the reigns of Chandragupta I and Samudragupta, dying in the third quarter of the fourth century. Samudragupta, while prince and passing under the name of Chandraprakāsa, was intimate with Vasubandhu, who attended his father's court.

Science. the sciences of mathematics and astronomy, including astrology, were cultivated with much success during the Gupta period. The most famous writers on those subjects are Āryabhata, born in A.D. 476, who taught the system studied at Pātaliputra, and including Greek elements; Varāhamihira (A.D. 505‑87), who was deeply learned in Greek science and used many Greek technical terms; and, at the close of the period, Brahmagupta, who was born in A.D. 598.

Fine arts. The skill of Samudragupta in music has been recorded. We may be assured that the professors of that art, as the recipients of liberal royal patronage, were numerous and prosperous. The three closely allied arts of architecture, sculpture, and painting attained an extraordinarily high point of achievement. The accident that the Gupta empire consisted for the most part of the provinces permanently accepted at an early date by the Muhammadans, who systematically destroyed Hindu buildings for several centuries, obscures the history of Gupta architecture. No large building of the period has survived, and the smaller edifices which escaped destruction are hidden in remote localities away from the track of the Muslim armies, chiefly in Central India  p161 and the Central Provinces. They closely resemble rock‑cut temples.

The most important and interesting extant stone temple of Gupta age is one of moderate dimensions at Dēogarh in the Lalitpur subdivision of the Jhānsi District, U. P., which may be assigned to the first half of the sixth, or perhaps to the fifth, century. The panels of the walls contain some of the finest specimens of sculpture. The larger brick temple at Bhītargāon in the Cawnpore District, U. P., may be ascribed to the reign of Chandragupta II. It is remarkable for vigorous and well-designed sculpture in terra-cotta. Fragments, including some beautiful sculptures, indicate that magnificent stone temples of Gupta age stood at Sārnāth near Benares and elsewhere. Sārnāth has proved to be a texture-house of Gupta figures and reliefs, among which are many of high quality dating from the time of Samudragupta and his successors. The Gupta artists and craftsmen were no less capable in working metals. The pillar at Delhi, made of wrought iron in the time of Samudragupta, is a marvel of metallurgical skill. The art of casting copper statues on a large scale by the cire perdue process was practised with conspicuous success. A copper image of Buddha about eighty feet high was erected at Nālānda in Bihār at the close of the sixth century; and the fine Sultānganj Buddha, •7½ feet high, is still to be seen in the Museum at Birmingham. It dates from the reign of Chandragupta II. The highest development of the arts may be assigned to the fifth century, the age of Kālidāsa, in the reigns of Chandragupta II and his son. Two of the finest caves at Ajantā, Nos. XVI and XVII, were excavated in the same century of brilliant achievement.⁠9 It is needless to dwell upon the high merits of the paintings in the Ajantā caves, which are now freely recognized. A Danish artist, who has published a valuable professional criticism, declares that 'they represent the climax to which genuine Indian art has attained'; and that 'everything in these pictures from the composition as a whole to the smallest pearl  p162 or flower testifies to depth of insight coupled with the greatest technical skill'.10

The closely related frescoes at Sīgiriya in Ceylon were executed between A.D. 479 and 497, soon after the close of the reign of Skandagupta.

Hindu art at its best. The facts thus indicated in outline permit no doubt that the fine arts of music, architecture, sculpture, and painting attained a high level of excellence during the Gupta period, and more especially in the fifth century, which in my judgement was the time when Hindu art was at its best. The Gupta sculpture exhibits pleasing characteristics which usually enable a student familiar with standard examples to decide with confidence whether or not a given work is of Gupta age. The physical beauty of the figures, the gracious dignity of their attitude, and the refined restraint of the sculpture in the same degree. Certain more obvious technical marks are equally distinctive. Such are the plain robes showing the body as if they were transparent, the elaborate haloes, and the curious wigs. Others might be enumerated. Many of the sculptures are dated.

Exchange of ideas. The extraordinary intellectual vitality of the Gupta period undoubtedly was largely due to the constant and lively exchange of ideas with foreign lands in both East and West. Between A.D. 357 and 571 whose read of ten embassies or missions, some probably only of a commercial character, which were sent to China from one part of India or the other. The stream of Buddhist pilgrims from the Celestial Empire, set in motion by Fa‑hien, continued to flow, while, in return, another stream of Indian sages flowed to China. Active communication between the Indian coasts and the islands of the Archipelago was maintained. The Chinese say that the conversion of the Javanese to Buddhism was effected by Gunavarman, Crown Prince of Kashmīr, who died at Nanking in China in A.D. 431. The Ajantā frescoes record intercourse between western India and Persia early in the seventh century. Three missions to Roman emperors in A.D. 336, 361, and 530 are mentioned. The coinage bears unmistakable testimony to the reality of Roman influence, and the word dīnār, the Latin denarius, was commonly used to mean a gold coin.

The conquest of western India by Chandragupta II at the close of the fourth century brought the Gangetic provinces into di direct communication with the western ports, and so with Alexandria and Europe. Trade also followed the land routes through Persia. The effect of easy communication with Europe is plainly visible in the astronomy of Āryabhata and Varāhamihira, who must have known Greek. The belief of Windisch that the many striking resemblances in form between the classical Indian dramas and the plays of the school of Menander are not accidental rests on substantial  p163 arguments. The influence of Greek taste on the sculpture of the Gupta age, although necessarily less obvious, is not less certain. The works are truly Indian. They are not copies or even imitations of Greek originals, and yet manifest the Greek spirit, forming a charming combination of East and West, such as we see on a vast scale in the inimitable Tāj many centuries later. When the intercourse with Europe died away in the seventh century India developed new schools of sculpture in which no trace of foreign example can be detected. Some expert critics maintain that the works of the eighth century mark the highest achievement of Indian art; but those of the fifth century commend themselves, as already observed, to my taste, and appear to me to be on the whole superior to those of any other age.

The Huns. The meagre annals of the Gupta monarchs subsequent to Skandagupta present little matter of interest, and may be passed by with a mere allusion. But the nature of the foreign inroads which broke down the stately fabric of the Gupta empire demands explanation. The work of destruction was effected by hordes of nomads from Central Asia who swarmed across the north-western passes, as the Sakas and Yueh‑chi had done in previous ages. The Indians generally spoke of all the later barbarians as Hūnas or Huns, but the Huns proper were accompanied by Gurjaras and other tribes. The section which encamped in the Oxus valley in the fifth century was distinguished as the White Huns or Ephthalites. They gradually occupied both Persia and Kābul, killing the Sassanian king Firōz in A.D. 484. Their first attack on the Gupta empire about A.D. 455 was reputed, but the collapse of Persian resistance opened the flood-gates and allowed irresistible numbers to pour into India. Their leader, Toramāna, who was established in Mālwā in A.D. 499 or 500, was succeeded about A.D. 502 by his son Mihiragula ('Sun‑flower'), whose Indian capital appears to have been Sākala or Siālkōt in the Panjāb.

India at that time was only one province of the Hun empire which extended from Persia on the west to Khotan on the east, comprising forty provinces. The head-quarters of the horde were at Bāmyin near Herat, and the ancient city of Balkh served as a secondary capital. The power of Mihiragula in India was broken about A.D. 528 by Yasodharman, king of Mālwā, helped perhaps by the Gupta king of Magadha. Mihiragula retired to Kashmīr, where he seized the throne, and died. His short is obscured by fanciful legends.

Soon after the middle of the sixth century the Hun kingdom on the Oxus was overthrown by the Turks, who became masters of the greater part of the short-lived Hun empire.

A turning-point in history. The barbarian invasions of the  p164 fifth and sixth centuries, although slurred over by the Indian authorities, constitute a turning-point in the history of northern and western India, both political and social. The political system of the Gupta period was completely broken up, and new kingdoms were formed. No authentic family or clan traditions go back beyond the Hun invasions. All genuine tradition of the earlier dynasties has been absolutely lost. The history of the Mauryas, Kushāns, and Guptas, so far as it is known, has been recovered laboriously by the researches of scholars, without material help from living tradition.⁠11 The process by which the foreigners became Hinduized and the Rājpūt clans were formed will be discussed in the next chapter.

Valabhī and other kingdoms. When the Gupta power became restricted at the close of the fifth century western India gradually passed under the control of rulers belonging to a foreign tribe called Maitraka, possibly Iranian in origin. The Maitrakas established a dynasty with its capital at Valabhī (Walā, or Vala of I. G., Wullubheepoor of the Rās Mālā), in the Surāshtra peninsula, which lasted until about 770, when it seems to have been overthrown by the Arabs. The names and dates of the long line of the kings of Valabhī, who used the Gupta era, are known with sufficient accuracy. The kingdom attained considerable wealth and importance. In the sixth century the capital was the residence of renowned Buddhist teachers, and in the seventh it rivalled Nālānda in Bihār as a centre of Buddhist learning. The modern town is insignificant and shows few signs of its ancient greatness.

After the overthrow of Valabhī its place as the chief city of western India was taken by Anhilwāra (Nahrwālah, &c., or Pātan), which in its turn was superseded in the fifteenth century by Ahmadābād.

The Gurjaras, who have been mentioned as associated with the Huns, founded kingdoms at Bharōch (Broach) and at Bhinmāl in southern Rājputanā.

The history of India during the sixth century is exceedingly obscure. The times evidently were much disturbed.

About the middle of that century a chief belonging to the Chalukya clan, which probably was connected with the Gurjaras and had emigrated from Rājputanā, founded a principality at Vātāpi, the modern Bādāmi in the Bījāpur District, Bombay, which developed into an important kingdom in the early years of the seventh century, and became for a time the leading power in the Deccan, which will be noticed more particularly in a later chapter.

Nothing definite of moment can be stated about the Tamil kingdoms of the Far South during the period dealt with in this chapter.

Ample material for seventh century. The embarrassing  p165 lack of material for the history of the latter half of the sixth century is no longer felt when the story of the seventh has to be told. The invaluable description of India recorded by Hiuen Tsang or Yuan Chwang, the eminent Chinese pilgrim; his biography written by his friends; the official Chinese historical works; and an historical romance composed by Bāna, a learned Brahman who enjoyed the friendship of King Harsha, when combined with a considerable amount of information derived from inscriptions, coins, and other sources, supply us with knowledge surpassing in fullness and precision that available for any other pretend of early Hindu history, extract that of the Mauryas. Harsha of Kanauj, the able monarch who reduced anarchy to order in northern India, and reigned for forty‑one years, as Asoka had done, is not merely a name in a genealogy. His personal characteristics and the details of his administration, as recorded by men who knew him intimately, enable us to realize him as a living person who achieved greatness by his capacity and energy.

King Harsha, A.D. 606‑47. Harsha, or Harsha-vardhana, was the younger son of Prabhākara-vardhana, Rājā of Thānēsar, the famous holy town to the nnno Delhi, who had won inaccessible military successes over his neighbours — the Gurjaras, Mālavas, and others, in the latter part of the sixth century. His unexpected death in A.D. 604 was quickly followed by that of his elder son, who was treacherously assassinated by Sasānka, king of Gaura, of Central Bengal. His younger son, Harsha, then only sixteen or seventeen years of age, was constrained by his nobles to accept the vacant throne, and to undertake the difficult task of bringing northern India into subjection and tolerable order. The young sovereign, who reluctantly accepted the trust imposed upon him in October 606, was obliged to spend five years and a half in constant fighting. The Chinese pilgrim who came to India a few years later tells us that during that strenuous time Harsha 'went from east to west subduing all who were not obedient; the elephants were not unharnessed, nor the soldiers unhelmeted'. His conquests were achieved with a force of 5,000 elephants, 20,000 cavalry, and 50,000 infantry. He seems to have discarded chariots. When he had finished his task the cavalry had increased to 100,000, and the elephants are said to have numbered 60,000, a figure hardly credible, and probably erroneous. Harsha's subjugation of upper India, excluding the Panjāb, but including Bihār and at least the greater part of Bengal, was completed in 1612, when he appears to have been solemnly enthroned. But the new era established by him, which attained wide currency, was reckoned from the beginning of his reign in October 606. His last recorded campaign in 643 was directed against Ganjām on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. A few years earlier he had waged a successful war with Valabhī, which resulted in the recognition of Harsha's suzerainty by the western powers. In the east his name was so feared that even the king of distant Assam was obliged to obey his imperious commands and to attend his court.  p166 MAP

 p167  War with the Chalukyas. The Chalukya kingdom in the Deccan, founded, as has been mentioned, in the middle of the sixth century, was raised to a paramount position by its king, Pulakesin II, the contemporary of Harsha. The northern monarch, impatient of a rival, attacked Pulakesin about A.D. 620, but was defeated, and obliged to accept the Narbadā as his southern frontier. So far as is known that defeat was Harsha's only failure. During the greater part of his reign, although his armies may have been given obscuration from time to time, he was free to devote his exceptional powers to the work of administration and to consecrate an extraordinarily large share of his time to religious exercises and discussions.

Kanauj the capital. The action town of Kanauj (Kanyākubja) on the Ganges, which was selected by Harsha as his capital, was converted into a magnificent, wealthy, and well-fortified city, •nearly four miles long and a mile broad, furnished with numerous lofty buildings, and adorned with many tanks and gardens. The Buddhist monasteries, of which only two had existed in the fifth century, numbered more than a hundred in Harsha's time, when Brahmanical temples existed in even larger numbers. The inhabitants were more or less equally divided in their allegiance to Hinduism and Buddhism. The city, after enduring many vicissitudes, was finally destroyed by Shēr Shāh in the sixteenth century. It is now represented by a petty Muhammadan country town and miles of shapeless mounds which serve as a quarry for railway ballast. No building erected in Harsha's reign can be identified either at Kanauj or elsewhere.

Administration: literature. Harsha, who was only forty-seven or forty-eight years of age when he died late in A.D. 646 or early in 647, was in the prime of life throughout his long reign. We hear nothing of the elaborate bureaucratic system of the Mauryas, although an organized civil service must have existed. The king seems to have trusted chiefly to incessant personal supervision of his extensive empire, which he effected by constantly moving about, except in the rainy season when the roads were impassable. He marched in state to the music of golden drums, and was accommodated, like the Burmese kings of modern times, in temporary structures built of wood and bamboos, which were burnt on his departure. Many provinces were governed in detail by tributary Rājās. The Chinese pilgrim thought well of the royal administration, although it was less mild than that of the Guptas in the fifth century. The penalty of imprisonment, inflicted after the cruel Tibetan fashion, which left the prisoner to live or die, was freely awarded, and mutilation was often adjudged. The roads, apparently, were not as safe as they had been in the days of Vikramāditya. Official records of all events were kept up in each province by special officers. Education was widely diffused, and the great Buddhist monasteries at Nalāndā in Magadha and other places were centres of learning and the arts. The king himself was an accomplished scholar. He is credited with the composition  p168 of a grammatical work, sundry poems, and three extant Sanskrit plays, one of which, the Nāgānanda., with an edifying Buddhist legend for its subject, is highly esteemed and has been translated into English. A Brahman named Bāna, who was an intimate friend of the king, wrote an account of part of his master's reign in the form of an historical romance, which gives much accurate and valuable information wrapped up in tedious, affected rhetoric, as tiresome as that of Abu‑l Fazl in the Akbarnāma.

Religion. Harsha, who was extremely devout, assigned many hours of each day to devotional exercises. Primarily a worshipper of Siva, he permitted himself also to honour the Sun and Buddha. In the latter part of his reign he became more and more Buddhist in sentiment, and apparently set himself the task of emulating Asoka. He 'sought to plant the tree of religious merit to such an extent that he forgot to sleep or eat'; and forbade the slaughter of any living thing or the use of flesh as food throughout the 'Five Indies', under pain of death without hope of pardon.

The details of his proceedings make interesting reading; indeed, the historical material is so abundant that it would be easy to write a large volume devoted solely to his reign. Hiuen Tsang or Yuan Chwang, the most renowned of the Chinese pilgrims, being our leading authority, it is desirable to give a brief account of his memorable career.

Hiuen Tsang or Yuan Chwang. He was the fourth son of a learned Chinese gentleman of honourable lineage, and from childhood was a grave and ardent student of things sacred. When he started on his travels at the age of twenty-nine (A.D. 629) he was already famous as a Buddhist sage. His intense desire to obtain access to the authentic scriptures in the Holy Land of India nerved him to defy the imperial prohibition of travelling westward, and sustained him through all the perils of his dangerous journey, which exceeded •three thousand miles in length, as reckoned from his starting place in western China to Kābul, at the gates of India. The narrative of his adventures, which we possess in detail, is as interesting as a romance. The dauntless pilgrim travelled by the northern route, and after passing Lake Issik Kul, Tashkend, Samarkand, and Kunduz arrived in the kingdom of Gandhāra about the beginning of October 630. Between that date and the close of 643 he visited almost every province in India, recording numberless exact observations on the country, monuments,  p169 people, and religion, which entitle him to be called 'the Indian Pausanias'.12

He returned by the southern route, crossing the Pāmīrs, and passing Kāshgar, Yarkand, Khotan, and Lop‑nor — a truly wonderful journey. Eight years, 635 to 643, had been mostly spent in Harsha's dominions. Early in 645 he reached his native land, bringing with him a large and valuable collection of manuscripts, images, and relics. He occupied the remainder of his life in working up the results of his expedition with the aid of a staff of scholars, and died in 664 at the age of sixty-four or sixty-five. His high character, undaunted courage, and profound learning deservedly won the respect and affection of the Chinese emperor and all his people. The memory of the Master of the Law, the title bestowed upon him by universal consent, is there is as fresh in Buddhist lands as it was twelve hundred years ago.

It is impossible to over­estimate the debt which the history of India owes to Hiuen Tsang.

Assemblies at Kanauj and Prayāg. King Harsha, who was in camp in Bengal when he first met the Master, organized in his honour a splendid assembly at Kanauj the capital, which was attended by twenty tributary Rājās, including the King of Assam from the extreme east, and the King of Valabhī from the extreme west. After the close of the proceedings at Kanauj, Harsha carried his honoured guest with him to Prayāg (Allahabad), where another crowded assembly was held, and the royal treasures were distributed to thousands of the holy men of all the Indian religions, Brahmanical, Jain, and Buddhist. On the first day the image of Buddha received honours of the highest class, the effigies of the Sun and Siva being worshipped respectively on the second and third days with reduced ceremonial. The assembly at Prayāg in 643 was the sixth of its kind, it being Harsha's custom to distribute his accumulated riches at intervals of five years. He did not live to see another celebration. The pilgrim was dismissed with all honour and presented with lavish gifts.

Death of Harsha; results. Either late in 646 or early in 647 the king died, leaving no heir. The withdrawal of his strong arm threw the whole country into disorder, which was aggravated by famine.

Then a strange incident happened. A Chinese envoy named Wang-hiuen‑tse was at Harsha's court, attended by an escort of thirty men. A minister who had usurped the vacant throne attacked the envoy, plundered his goods, and killed or captured  p170 the men of his escort. Wang-hiuen‑tse succeeded in escaping to Nepāl, which was then tributary to Tibet. The Tibetan king, the famous Srong‑tsan Gampo, who was married to a Chinese princess, assembled a force of Tibetans and Nepalese, who descended into the plains, stormed the chief city of Tirhūt, defeated the Indian army with great slaughter, and captured the usurper with his whole family. The captive was sent to China, where he died. Tirhūt remained subject to Tibet until A.D. 703.

The death of Harsha having loosened the bonds which had held his empire together, the experiences of the third and sixth centuries were repeated, and a rearrangement of kingdoms was begun, of which the record is obscure. It is impossible to say exactly what happened in most of the provinces for a considerable time at his disappearance from the scene.

His rival, Pulakesin II, Chalukya, who had successfully defended the Deccan against aggression from the north, had met his fate five years before Harsha's death. He was utterly defeated and presumably killed in 642 by Narasimha-varman, the Pallava king of Kānchī or Conjeeveram in the far south, who thus became the paramount sovereign of the peninsula. The story will be told from the southern point of view in a later chapter.

Unity of history lost. The partial unity of Indian history vanishes with Harsha and is not restored in any considerable measure until the closing years of the twelfth century, when the extensive conquests effected by and for Muhammad of Ghōr brought the most important provinces under the sway of the Sultans of Delhi. The story of Hindu India from the middle of the seventh century until the Muhammadan conquest, which may be dated approximately in A.D. 1200 for the north and A.D. 1300 for the south, cannot be presented in the form of a single continuous narrative. The subject will be treated in Book III.

Chronology

---

The Author's Notes:

1 That seems to me the natural interpretation of the coin legends. Mr. Allan, of the British Museum, regards the coins as having been struck by Samudragupta in honour of his parents, a view which I cannot accept.

2 Kācha (Kacha), who struck a few gold coins, may have intervened for a few months, if he was distinct from Samudragupta; but the best opinion is that they were identical.

3 The great inscription, which records in line 23 the rendering of 'acts of respectful service' by Daivaputra-Shāhi-Shāhānushāhi-Saka-murundas, Sinhalese, and others', must be interpreted in the light of modern research as meaning that the civilities were tendered by Meghavarman, king of Ceylon, and by sundry Kushān princes of the north-west, described collectively as 'Saka-murundas', or 'Saka chiefs', who used the styles of Daivaputra (= Chinese 'Son of Heaven'), Shāhi, or 'king'; and Shāhānushāhi or "King of Kings'. Shāhānu is a genitive plural. See Konow's paper as cited in chap. 3. The Purānas treat the Murundas as distinct from the Sakas, but originally the word meant simply 'chief' = Chinese wang. In practice the name Murunda was employed to denote a section of the Sakas.

4 Much difference of opinion has been expressed concerning the date of Nahapāna, and the question has not been settled.

5 The details of the pilgrim's route from Lop‑nor to Khotan have not been worked out properly by any of the translators and are obscure; but he certainly passed Lop‑nor.

6 The assertion in the same chap. XVI that 'in buying and selling they use cowries' must not be pressed to mean that coins were unknown. Chandragupta II coined freely in gold, and more sparingly in silver and copper.

7 See article on 'Outcastes' in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, IX, pp581 ff.

8 For Kālidāsa's birthplace see M. M. Haraparshad Shastri in J. B. & O. R. Soc., vol. I, pp197‑212. I accept the continuous tradition that the Ritusamhāra is an early work of Kālidāsa.

9 J. R. A. S., 1914, p335.

10 Ann. Rep. Archaeol. Dept. Nizam's Dom., for 1914‑15, App. H, by Axel Jarl.

11 Jain traditions of Samprati constitute a small exception to the statement in the text.

12 See map prepared by the author at the end of vol. II of Watters, On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India (1905). For the benefit of readers unfamiliar with Greek history it may be mentioned that Pausanias travelled through Greece in the second century A.C. and recorded his detailed observations in the form of an Itinerary divided into ten books. The Chinese pilgrim's Travels or Records of Western Lands comprise 12 books (chuan); but the last three books, equivalent to chaps. XVI‑XVIII of Watters, seem to be interpolated and are of inferior authority (Watters, II.233).

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