The Gupta Empire

Centuries after the Mauryas, another great empire rose in the Ganga plains: the Gupta Empire. Though smaller than the Mauryan empire, the Gupta age is remembered as the golden age of ancient India, a time when art, literature, science and mathematics flowered as never before. Its achievements, especially in mathematics, shaped the whole world.

The empire was founded by Chandragupta I in the fourth century CE, with its base in the rich Ganga plains around Pataliputra. It was expanded by two great rulers:

• Samudragupta, a brilliant conqueror whose victories are recorded in a long inscription, the Allahabad pillar. He was also a patron of music and learning.
• Chandragupta II (Vikramaditya), under whom the empire reached its height and culture flourished.

The Guptas ruled more loosely than the Mauryas, leaving conquered kings in place as long as they accepted Gupta overlordship.

The Gupta period saw a remarkable flowering of culture. Kings were great patrons of art and learning, and their courts attracted brilliant minds. The poet and playwright Kalidasa, author of Shakuntala, lived in this age.

Sanskrit drama of this age followed a fixed language convention. Kings, brahmanas and other upper-caste male characters speak Sanskrit on stage. Women and shudras speak Prakrit, the everyday spoken language. So in a play like Shakuntala, the heroine's lines are in Prakrit while the king's are in Sanskrit.

Learning thrived in great centres of education, above all the university of Nalanda, which drew students from across Asia. Magnificent temples, sculpture and the cave paintings of Ajanta belong to this era of artistic achievement.

Buddhist pilgrims from China visited India in search of sacred texts, and their accounts are valuable records of the age.

• Fa-hien (Faxian): travelled to India during the reign of Chandragupta II (c. 399–414 CE). He described a prosperous, peaceful and well-governed kingdom. He belonged to the Gupta age, long after Kanishka. He therefore could not have attended the fourth Buddhist Council held in Kanishka's time.
• Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang): a later pilgrim who came in the seventh century CE, after the Gupta period. He met the ruler Harsha and found him a generous patron of Buddhism, not its opponent.

The Gupta age was a high point of Indian science and mathematics:

• The astronomer-mathematician Aryabhata declared that the Earth rotates on its axis and is round. He also made important advances in astronomy.
• Indian mathematicians developed the concept of zero and the decimal place-value system. Passed on through the Arabs, these ideas became the number system the whole world uses today.
• The physician Sushruta is the great name in medicine of this period. His treatise, the Sushruta Samhita, is the foundational Indian work on medicine and surgery.
• There were notable advances in metallurgy too, shown by the rust-resistant Iron Pillar of Delhi.

The Gupta economy rested on land and its revenue. Land grant records of the period measure fields in units based on the seed needed to sow them. A kulyavapa was the area sown with one kulya of seed, and a dronavapa the area sown with one drona. These terms therefore denote measurements of land, not coins or rituals. Alongside regular taxes, the state could demand vishti, forced labour from its subjects. Vishti was treated as a source of income for the state, a kind of tax paid in labour rather than in cash or grain. It was common in regions such as Madhya Pradesh and Kathiawar, and the labourer received no wages.

Craft production and trade were organised through shrenis, the guilds of artisans and merchants. A guild was a self-governing body. It fixed the wages of its members, the rules of work, the standards of its products and their prices. It also held judicial powers over its own members, settling disputes by its own customs. Guilds were not registered with any central authority, and the king was not their administrative head. They even acted as banks, receiving deposits and paying interest.

Maritime trade flourished in this age. Different ports served different circuits:

• Tamralipti: the great port of Bengal that handled the trade of north India, sending goods to South-East Asia and China.
• Ghantasala, Kadura and Chaul: ports on the peninsular coasts known for handling foreign trade with Rome, Arabia and South-East Asia.

The seeds of decline lay partly in how the state paid its servants. The feudal system in ancient India originated in military campaigns: officers were given grants of land in lieu of pay for their service. Under the Guptas this practice expanded considerably. Kings made large land grants to brahmanas and to officials, often with the right to collect revenue from the peasants directly. These two facts are separate: the system was born in military campaigns, and its great expansion under the Guptas came later. Over time the grant-holders grew into local lords. Royal authority weakened as power and revenue passed into their hands.

Like all empires, the Guptas eventually declined. The main causes were:

• Repeated invasions by the Hunas from Central Asia, which drained the empire's strength.
• The rise of regional powers and ambitious governors who broke away.
• Weak later rulers unable to hold the empire together.

By the sixth century CE the empire had broken into smaller kingdoms, ending the golden age but leaving a lasting legacy in Indian and world culture.