Gupta Empire: A Visual History

The Gupta Empire, founded around 320 by Chandragupta I in Magadha, ruled most of northern India from about 350 to 550 under Samudragupta, Chandragupta II and Kumaragupta. Its age saw the flowering of Sanskrit literature (Kalidasa), Hindu temple architecture, the mathematics of Aryabhata and the concept of zero, and Nalanda university, and the Chinese pilgrim Faxian described a prosperous, orderly land. Invasions by the Hephthalite Huns from the 450s and the rise of feudatories broke it up by about 550.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Gupta Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Gupta territory including tributaries

Timeline of the Gupta Empire

1. 320
   Chandragupta IGupta era begins.
2. 335
   SamudraguptaConquests across India.
3. 375
   Chandragupta II
4. 400
   Faxian visits; Western Satraps conquered
5. 455
   Skandagupta repels the Huns
6. 499
   Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya
7. 510
   Toramana overruns Malwa
8. 550
   Empire dissolves

Rise

Chandragupta I married a Licchavi princess and took the title maharajadhiraja around 320. His son Samudragupta (about 335-375), the 'Indian Napoleon' of a famous pillar inscription at Allahabad, conquered the Ganges plain, raided deep into the south and made the frontier kingdoms tributary. Chandragupta II (about 375-415) defeated the Western Satraps, took Gujarat and its ports, and reputedly held the court of the 'nine gems' including Kalidasa.

The classical age

Faxian, visiting around 400, found free hospitals, a light tax regime and Buddhist and Hindu institutions coexisting. Aryabhata computed pi and the length of the year and used a place-value system; the Ajanta paintings and the earliest freestanding Hindu temples date from the period, as do the iron pillar of Delhi and the Gupta gold coins. Sanskrit became the language of courts across South and Southeast Asia.

The Huns and decline

Skandagupta repelled the first Hephthalite ('Huna') attack around 455, but the effort drained the treasury and the coinage was debased. Later kings faced further Huna invasions under Toramana and Mihirakula, who overran the Punjab and Malwa around 500-515. Governors and feudatories became independent; the last Guptas ruled only Magadha by the mid sixth century.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Kushan Empire (30 to 375)
• Western Satraps (35 to 415)
• Hephthalite Empire (440 to 560)
• Pushyabhuti dynasty (Harsha's empire) (500 to 647)
• Satavahana dynasty (100 BC to 225)
• Maurya Empire (322 BC to 185 BC)
• Magadha (600 BC to 320 BC)
• Sasanian Empire (224 to 651)

8 surprising things about the Gupta Empire

1. The Gupta age gave the world the decimal place-value system and the symbol for zero.
2. The iron pillar of Delhi, forged around 400, has stood for 1,600 years without rusting.
3. Faxian noted that Indians did not eat onions or garlic, kill animals or drink wine, and that no one kept household registers.
4. The Gupta kings performed the ancient horse sacrifice to proclaim universal sovereignty.
5. Kalidasa's play Shakuntala so impressed Goethe when translated in 1791 that he wrote a poem about it.
6. The Gupta gold coin was called a dinara, from the Roman denarius.
7. The Hephthalite king Mihirakula was described by Chinese sources as a persecutor of Buddhism who slaughtered thousands of monks.
8. The Gupta period is when the Puranas, chess (chaturanga) and the Kama Sutra took shape.

Sources

• Gupta dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Gupta Empire Wikipedia
• Gupta Empire World History Encyclopedia
• Upinder Singh, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India (2008) Pearson

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