The Gupta Empire: Founders and Administration

Five kings shaped the empire, from Chandragupta I to Skandagupta. Each one below gets his dates, his main deeds, what coins and records show, and one exam trap. All dates are approximate. They follow the historian Vincent Smith and the Gupta inscriptions.

Who was Chandragupta I?

• Who: A local raja near Pataliputra. He married the Lichchhavi princess Kumaradevi. His father was Ghatotkacha and his grandfather was Sri Gupta. Both of them were only Maharaja.
• When: Smith dates the first year of the Gupta era from 26 February 320 CE to 13 March 321 CE. He takes the first date as the coronation. Smith says the king died five or six years later.
• Main deed: He was the first of the line to take the title Maharajadhiraja. His land ran along the Ganges to Allahabad. It took in Tirhut, Bihar and Oudh.
• Coins and records: He struck coins in the joint names of himself, his queen and the Lichchhavis. His son called himself the son of the Lichchhavi princess.
• Exam trap: He is not Chandragupta Maurya and not Chandragupta II. He, not Samudragupta, began the Gupta era.

What is the Gupta era?

Gupta records give their dates in this era, such as Gupta year 146. Fleet gives Gupta year 136 as 455-56 CE.

Who was Samudragupta?

• Who: The son of Chandragupta I and the Lichchhavi princess. His father chose him as heir.
• When: His reign was unusually long. Smith puts the next accession near 375 CE.
• Main deeds: He uprooted nine northern kings and freed twelve southern kings. He then revived the horse sacrifice, called the ashvamedha. Smith says it had not been held in the north since Pushyamitra.
• Coins and records: The Allahabad pillar inscription tells his story. Gold coins show the horse before the altar. A few rare gold coins show him playing the lyre.
• Exam trap: The lyre coin is his. The lion-fight coin belongs to his son, Chandragupta II.

Who was Chandragupta II Vikramaditya?

• Who: A son of Samudragupta and his queen Dattadevi. He was not the eldest. His father chose him as yuvaraja.
• When: Smith puts his accession near 375 CE. He says the reign lasted nearly forty years and ended in 413 CE.
• Main deed: He took Malwa, Gujarat and Surashtra from the Saka western satraps. Smith places the campaigns between 388 and 401 CE. He killed the satrap Rudrasinha. This gave the empire the western ports.
• Coins and records: Smith says he showed himself fighting a lion on his coins. Fleet lists a Mathura stone record and the Udayagiri cave record of his reign. The pilgrim Fa-hien visited in his time.
• Exam trap: Vikramaditya is a title. Fleet notes that Skandagupta also used it on his coins.

Who was Kumaragupta I?

• Who: The son of Chandragupta II. Smith says he came to the throne in 413 CE.
• When: His reign ran past forty years. Fleet gives Gupta year 136 as the last date of his reign.
• Main deeds: The empire stayed whole through most of his rule. Smith says he, like his grandfather, held a horse sacrifice. Hun raids hit near the end.
• Coins and records: Fleet lists many of his records. They include the Bilsad pillar, the Gadhwa stone, the Mathura image and the Damodarpur copper plates. The Mandasor record is also his.
• Exam trap: The horse sacrifice was not Samudragupta’s alone. Kumaragupta I held one too.

Who was Skandagupta?

• Who: The son of Kumaragupta I. Fleet calls him the first Gupta king to meet the Hunas in a set battle and beat them back.
• When: His records run from Gupta year 136 to 146. These are the years on the Junagadh rock, the Kahaum pillar and the Indore copper plate.
• Main deed: The Junagadh and Bhitari inscriptions point to a clash with the Hunas. They were driven back before Gupta year 138, or 456-57 CE.
• Coins and records: His governor Parnadatta had the Sudarshana dam mended after it burst in Gupta year 136. Parnadatta’s son Chakrapalita built a Vishnu temple in year 138. His coins carry the title Vikramaditya.
• Exam trap: The Sudarshana lake did not begin with the Guptas. Fleet says a Maurya governor first built it, and Rudradaman had it repaired.

Samudragupta won many wars. He did not treat every beaten king in the same way. The north and the south got different treatment.

What is the Allahabad inscription?

It is a poem of praise for Samudragupta, cut on a pillar. Such a poem is called a prashasti. Harisena composed it. He was a poet and a minister at the court. He held the titles Sandhivigrahika, Kumaramatya and Mahadandanayaka.

What did he do in the north?

In his second northern war he defeated nine kings. The e-PG Pathshala module says he violently ended their rule. Three of the nine had also been beaten in his first northern war.

What did he do in the south?

He defeated twelve kings of the south. Then he captured and released them. Their kingdoms went back to them. The inscription calls this grahana-moksha-anugraha. The module says the south was too far to rule from Pataliputra.

Which border states are named?

Line 22 of the inscription names Samatata, Davaka, Kamarupa, Nepala and Kartaripura. These were frontier states of the empire.

Gupta kings used two kinds of titles. Some showed political rank. Others tied the king to the gods.

Which titles showed rank?

Maharajadhiraja and Paramabhattaraka showed rank. The e-PG module says Samudragupta took both. Skandagupta’s Indore plate of Gupta year 146 uses the same pair.

Which titles tied the king to the gods?

Paramabhagavata and Paramadaivata did this. A stone record of Gupta year 88 uses Paramabhagavata. The editors assign it to Chandragupta II. The Damodarpur and Dhanaidaha plates use Paramadaivata. The editors say this shows the king was identified with the supreme divinity.

What about Parameshvara?

The question below also names Parameshvara. In the sources we opened, it appears with Paramabhattaraka and Maharajadhiraja in the Valabhi plates from Gupta year 326. We found no early Gupta plate that uses it. The official key still marks the statement correct.

What did the past paper ask?

How could you answer it?

The official answer is (c). Statement 1 lists rank titles. Statement 2 lists god titles. Keep the two groups apart in your head.

The empire had layers. A province held districts. A district held smaller units and villages. Most of this evidence comes from Bengal, so other regions may have differed.

What was a bhukti?

A bhukti was the largest unit, like a modern division. Pundravardhana in north Bengal was one. An officer called the Uparika governed it. The emperor chose him. A plate of Gupta year 224 hints that a prince or a family member sometimes held the post.

What was a visaya?

A visaya was a district, the next unit down. Its head was called Kumaramatya in the earlier period and Ayuktaka later. Under the Later Guptas the title Visayapati was used. The governor usually named these heads. The Baigram plate shows one who answered to the emperor directly.

What lay below the district?

A vithi was a smaller unit. A grama was a village. The village was probably the smallest unit of all. Leading villagers took part in local matters. Scholars cannot show that a Gramika ran every village.

Each district had an office called the adhikarana. Plates from Kotivarsha in north Bengal show who sat in it.

Who ran it?

The Damodarpur plate of Gupta year 124 shows the Uparika Ghiratadatta at work. He named Kumaramatya Vetravarman to run the town court. Banglapedia says the final power in a district lay with its Visayapati.

Who were the four other members?

• Nagara-shreshthin: head of the town guilds or a rich banker. Dhritipala held the seat.
• Sarthavaha: the chief merchant. Bandhumitra held the seat.
• Prathama-kulika: the chief craftsman. Dhritimitra held the seat.
• Prathama-kayastha: the chief scribe. Sambapala held the seat.

Who did not chair it?

The merchant leader did not chair the court. An officer of the king did. Record-keepers, called pustapalas, served in the office.

Why does this matter?

The court mixed officials with local leaders. Banglapedia calls this a sign of local people taking part. It cannot say if the members were elected or named by the state.

Land deals followed a set path. The deed was a copper plate. Many of these plates survive today.

How did a sale go?

A buyer applied to the adhikarana of his district. He stated the land, its size and its purpose. The office sent the request to the pustapalas. The sale went ahead only after they agreed and the price was paid. The buyer then received a copper plate as his deed.

What did land cost?

In Kumaragupta’s time one kulyavapa of waste land cost three dinaras. A kulyavapa is the area that one kulya of seed could sow. The plate of Gupta year 224 gives the same rate.

Who bought the land?

Many buyers gave it to religious causes. Karpatika, a Brahmana, bought land for his Agnihotra rites. In year 224, Amritadeva paid fifteen dinaras for five kulyavapas. He gave them to the god Svetavaraha-svamin.

What was an agrahara?

An agrahara was land given to a Brahmana. He was usually free from land revenue and other dues. He was often allowed to collect those dues himself. Banglapedia says villages named agrahara often seem better developed than plain gramas.

What was nivi-dharma?

Many plates use this rule. The land became a perpetual grant. The holder usually could not sell it on.

The sources give a partial picture. They show crown land rents, named taxes and fixed pay for officers.

What did Fa-hien see?

Fa-hien came in the early fifth century, in the time of Chandragupta II. Vincent Smith sums up his account. The revenue came mainly from the rents of crown lands. Royal officers drew fixed salaries. Most crimes drew only fines.

Which taxes do inscriptions name?

Inscriptions from ancient Bengal name bhaga, bhoga, kara, hiranya and uparikara. Banglapedia says it is hard to know what each one meant. It also says an officer called Sasthadhikrta collected one-sixth of the produce for the king. It gives this as a general note, not for the Guptas alone.

Who collected the revenue?

The heads of units mainly collected land revenue. They included the Uparika, the Visayapati, the Dashagramika and the Gramapati. Other officers watched tolls, ferries and fines.

Guilds, or shrenis, were groups of craft workers and merchants. The Indore plate shows one at work.

What did guilds do?

Guilds probably bought raw materials and set rules for making goods. They also sold the finished goods. Guild heads also sat in the district court.

What does the Indore plate say?

It is dated Gupta year 146, in the reign of Skandagupta. A Brahmana named Devavishnu gave a gift for a lamp in a Sun temple at Indrapura. Two merchants, Achalavarman and Bhrikunthasimha, had built the temple.

What did the guild do?

The money was placed with a guild of oil-men headed by Jivanta. The guild had to supply two palas of oil for the lamp. The duty was to last as long as the sun and moon last. The guild did not build the temple. It did not give the gift.

Samantas were local lords who backed a ruler. Large states like the Gupta empire leaned on them.

What did a samanta do?

A samanta kept himself on local resources, including land. He offered homage to the ruler. He also gave military support.

What happened when a king was weak?

Powerful samantas could become kings. Weak rulers could be pushed into a lower place.

Do the plates show such lords?

The Gunaighar plate of Gupta year 188 names two lords under King Vainyagupta. They are Maharaja Rudradatta and Maharaja-Mahasamanta Vijayasena. Banglapedia says such titles show they held parts of the land. Another plate shows Vijayasena using his own seal.

Skandagupta faced a hard test from the Hunas. The records give only a few lines on it.

What do the inscriptions say?

Stanza 8 of the Bhitari pillar inscription describes a terrible clash with the Hunas. The stanza is damaged. The Junagadh rock inscription speaks of enemies sent back to the Mlechchha lands. Scholars read this as the Hunas.

When were they pushed back?

The Junagadh record carries Gupta years 136, 137 and 138. So the Hunas were pushed back at least before Gupta year 138, or 456-57 CE.

What was the state of the empire?

The records of Skandagupta say Gupta power was tottering when his father died. The same history says he soon restored Gupta supremacy.

What are the key points?

• Titles: Sri Gupta and Ghatotkacha were Maharajas. Chandragupta I was the first Maharajadhiraja.
• Era: the Gupta era began in 320 CE, by Vincent Smith’s dating.
• South: twelve kings were captured, released and restored.
• Rank and gods: Maharajadhiraja and Paramabhattaraka show rank. Paramadaivata and Paramabhagavata link the king to a god.
• Units: bhukti, then visaya, then vithi, then grama.
• District court: an officer ran it, with four local leaders beside him.
• Land: sales went through the adhikarana and the pustapalas.
• Guilds: the Indore guild held a fund and supplied oil.

What are the traps?

1. Maharaja or Maharajadhiraja. Sri Gupta and Ghatotkacha were Maharajas. Chandragupta I first took the higher title.
2. North or south. Northern kings were defeated and ended. Southern kings were freed and restored.
3. Rank or god. Maharajadhiraja and Paramabhattaraka show rank. Two other titles tie the king to a god: Paramadaivata and Paramabhagavata.
4. Order of units. The order is bhukti, visaya, vithi, grama.
5. Who chaired the court. An officer did. The merchant leader was one of four local members.
6. Who did what at Indore. Merchants built the temple. A Brahmana gave the gift. The guild supplied the oil.
7. One-sixth. Banglapedia names an officer who collected one-sixth of the produce. It does not date this to the Guptas alone. Read the question wording before you pick.