A History of India, Third Edition

(Nandana) #1
THE GREAT ANCIENT EMPIRES

The best-known contribution of the ‘dark period’ was, of course, to
Indian art. After the early sculptures of the Mauryas which were greatly
influenced by the Iranian style, a new Indian style had first emerged under
the Shungas and their successors in the Buddhist monuments of Bharhut
and Sanchi which particularly showed a new style of relief sculpture. The
merger of the Gandhara school of art, with its Graeco-Roman style, and
the Mathura school of art which included ‘archaic’ Indian elements and
became the centre of Indo-Kushana art, finally led to the rise of the
Sarnath school of art. This school then set the pattern of the classical
Gupta style.
Less well-known, but much more important for the future development
of Hindu society, was the compilation of the authoritative Hindu law
books (dharmashastra), the foremost of them being the Code of Manu
which probably originated in the second or third century AD. After the
breakdown of the Maurya and Shunga empires, there must have been a
period of uncertainty which led to a renewed interest in traditional social
norms. These were then codified so as to remain inviolate for all times to
come. If we add to this the resurgence of Sanskrit, as testified by
Rudradaman’s famous rock inscription of the second century AD, we see
that this ‘dark period’ actually contained all the elements of the classical
culture of the Gupta age. Thus the much maligned ‘dark period’ was
actually the harbinger of the classical age.


THE CLASSICAL AGE OF THE GUPTAS


Like the Mauryas a few centuries earlier, the imperial Guptas made a
permanent impact on Indian history. In his Allahabad inscription,
Samudragupta, the first great ruler of this dynasty, mentions one Maharaja
Shri Gupta and one Ghatotkacha as his ancestors. But, except for these
names, nothing else is mentioned in any other Gupta inscription nor have
any coins been found which bear their names. They were probably local
princelings somewhere around Allahabad or Varanasi. The Puranas report
that the early Guptas controlled the area along the Ganges from Prayag
(Allahabad) to Magadha. But Pataliputra and the centre of Magadha were
certainly not within their reach.
The dynasty stepped into the limelight of history with Chandragupta I
(AD 320 to about 335) who married a Licchavi princess. This marriage
must have greatly contributed to the rise of the Guptas because the
Licchavis were a mighty clan controlling most of north Bihar ever since the
days of the Buddha. Chandragupta’s coins show the king and his queen,
Kumaradevi, and on the reverse a goddess seated on a lion with the legend
‘Licchavi’. Samudragupta was also aware of the importance of this
connection and in his famous Allahabad inscription he called himself ‘son
of the daughter of the Licchavi’ rather than ‘son of the Gupta’.

Free download pdf