Indian History · Chronicle VI of XI
India's Golden Age
India's classical golden age: Samudragupta, Kalidasa, Aryabhata and the birth of the zero.
The FoundingPolitical
From Magadha, Chandragupta I builds a new empire that will reunite much of northern India.
After centuries of division, a new dynasty rose in the old Mauryan heartland. Chandragupta I, strengthened by a royal marriage into the Licchavi clan, took the grand title Maharajadhiraja, "great king of kings," and laid the foundation of an empire that would preside over a classical flowering of Indian civilisation.
The ConquerorMilitary
Samudragupta extends Gupta power across India in a sweep of conquests praised on the Allahabad pillar.
A warrior and poet, Samudragupta subdued the kings of the north and marched deep into the south, taking tribute and homage. A famous inscription on an old Ashokan pillar celebrates his victories and his gifts as a musician and scholar. Under him the Guptas became the paramount power of the subcontinent.
The Height of EmpirePolitical
Chandragupta II, called Vikramaditya, brings the empire to its height; the Chinese pilgrim Fa-Xian marvels at its peace.
Under Chandragupta II — "Sun of Valour" — the empire reached its greatest extent and prosperity. The Buddhist pilgrim Fa-Xian, travelling from China, described a contented, well-governed land of free hospitals and honest officials. His court was adorned by the "nine gems," the finest scholars and poets of the age.
The Golden AgeCultural
The poet Kalidasa writes plays and verse that become the summit of classical Sanskrit literature.
The Gupta peace nourished a brilliant culture. Kalidasa, the greatest poet and dramatist of India, wrote the play Shakuntala and the lyric Meghaduta, works of such grace they have been loved for fifteen centuries. Around him flourished a classical age of literature, music, dance and refined courtly life.
The Golden AgeCultural
The murals of Ajanta and the rise of the Hindu temple mark a high point of classical Indian art.
In the cliffs of Ajanta, painters filled Buddhist cave-halls with murals of the Buddha's past lives, glowing with colour and tender feeling — the masterpiece of ancient Indian painting. In the same era the free-standing stone Hindu temple took shape, beginning a tradition of sacred architecture that would cover the subcontinent.
The Golden AgeCultural
The mathematician Aryabhata advances astronomy and the decimal system that gave the world the zero.
Gupta scholars made India a wellspring of science. Aryabhata calculated the value of pi, proposed that the earth rotates on its axis, and worked with the place-value decimal system. The Indian concept of zero and the decimal numerals, later carried by Arab scholars to Europe, became the foundation of all modern mathematics.
The DeclineMilitary
Waves of Huna invaders from Central Asia batter the empire, and Gupta power crumbles.
From the north-west came the Hunas — the Hephthalites, or White Huns — whose repeated invasions drained the empire's strength. Though the Guptas won victories, the cost broke them, and by the mid-sixth century the empire had fractured into regional kingdoms. The golden age was over, but its literature, science and art remained the classical measure of Indian civilisation.
