THE GREAT ANCIENT EMPIRESHis vigilance enabled Skandagupta to successfully meet another and
probably much more serious challenge to the Gupta empire when the
Xiongnu or Huns descended upon India from Central Asia where they
had fought the Yuezhi in the second century BC. In the middle of the
fourth century AD, the Huns invaded the Sassanid empire in Persia and
then attacked the Alans and Goths living west of the Volga thus
starting the great migration in Europe. Other tribes of the Huns
remained in Bactria where they joined with other nomadic tribes and
under a great leader, Kidara, who emerged as a powerful ruler towards
the end of the fourth century. A new wave of aggressive Huns pushed
these people farther south in the beginning of the fifth century. They
crossed the Hindukush mountains and descended upon the Indian
plains. In about 460, only a few years after the famous Hun ruler,
Attila, was defeated in Europe they seem to have clashed with
Skandagupta. In the same inscription in which Skandagupta mentioned
his victory over the Pushyamitras he also claims to have vanquished the
Huns and in another inscription he again refers to victories over the
foreigners (mleccha). Sassanid and Roman sources contain no reports
of victories of the Huns in India and thus it seems that Skandagupta
succeeded in thwarting the first attacks of the Huns on India. But this
struggle disrupted the international trade of northwestern India and
thus diminished one of the most important financial sources of the
Gupta empire.
Skandagupta died around 467, and there was a long drawn-out war of
succession between his sons and the sons of his half-brother, Purugupta.
The winner of this war was Budhagupta, the son of Purugupta and the last
of the great Gupta rulers. During his long reign (467 to 497) the empire
remained more or less intact, but the war of succession had obviously
sapped its vitality. The successors of Budhagupta, his brother Narasimha
and Narasimha’s son and grandson, who ruled until about 570, controlled
only small parts of the empire. In east Bengal a King Vainyagupta is
mentioned in an inscription of 507 and in the west one Bhanugupta left an
inscription of 510. It is not known whether these rulers were related to the
Gupta dynasty or not, but they were obviously independent of the Guptas
of Magadha whose power declined very rapidly.
The Huns must have noted this decline as they attacked India once more
under their leader, Toramana. They conquered large parts of north-western
India up to Gwalior and Malwa. In 510 they clashed with Bhanugupta’s
army at Eran (Madhya Pradesh). Bhanugupta’s general, Goparaja, lost his
life in this battle. Coins provide evidence for the fact that Toramana
controlled the Panjab, Kashmir, Rajasthan and presumably also the
western part of what is now Uttar Pradesh. About 515 Toramana’s son,
Mihirakula, succeeded his father and established his capital at Sakala
(Sialkot).