A History of India, Third Edition

THE GREAT ANCIENT EMPIRES

storehouse of myths about different gods as well as legends concerning the
holy places of the Hindus. There are altogether eighteen Great Puranas and
eighteen Lesser Puranas which were frequently amended up to late
medieval times. The Vishnu Purana is one of the most important religious
books of the Vaishnavas. The devotees of the goddess, Durga, find a
magnificent account of her deeds in the Devimahatmya which is a part of
the Markandeya Purana. The fight of the goddess against the buffalo
demon, Mahisha, is vividly portrayed in this text. The various incarnations
(avatara) of Vishnu as well as the deeds of Durga are frequently depicted in
the sculptures of the Gupta Age.

An age of religious tolerance and political consolidation

During the long reign of Chandragupta’s son, Kumaragupta (415–455),
the empire remained undiminished but there are no reports about
additional conquests. Kumaragupta’s rule was obviously a peaceful one
and cultural life continued to flourish and to extend its influence into the
distant parts of the subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Although
Kumaragupta was a devotee of Vishnu like his predecessors and had to pay
his respects to Kumaraskanda, the god of war and his namesake, his reign
was characterised by a spirit of religious tolerance.
Inscriptions registering endowments for the holy places of Buddhism
and Jainism as well as for the Hindu gods like Vishnu, Shiva, Skanda and
the sun god, Surya, and for the goddess, Shakti, abound in all parts of the
empire. Gold coins were donated to Buddhist monasteries with detailed
instructions for the use of the interest accruing on the investment of this
capital. Thus monks were to be maintained or oil procured for the sacred
lamps or buildings were to be added or repaired, etc. The Buddhist
monasteries retained their functions as banks in this way. But they were
very much dependent on the rich citizens of the cities and towns of the
empire. As these cities and towns declined in the late Gupta period this also
greatly affected the fortunes of those monasteries. More secure were the
donations to Brahmins and Hindu temples which took the form of land
grants or of the assignment of the revenue of whole villages. Several such
grants inscribed on copper plates were made during the reign of
Kumaragupta. Five sets of copper plates, from 433 to 449, were found in
Bengal alone. All referred to land granted to Brahmins for the performance
of specific rites. One inscription provided for the maintenance and service
of a Vishnu temple. Most of these grants referred to uncultivated land
which indicates that the grantees had to function as colonisers who not
only propagated the glory of their royal donors but also extended the scope
of agriculture.
After nearly a century of rapid expansion, Kumaragupta’s reign was a
period of consolidation in which the administrative structure of the empire