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Gupta Empire

South AsiaHeartland today: India

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From the Ganges plain, the Gupta kings ruled much of northern India from about 320 CE. Chinese pilgrims and Sanskrit inscriptions describe the realm, the astronomer Aryabhata wrote in the capital region, and Hun raids weakened the dynasty in its last decades.

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Key events

  1. Chandragupta I takes the throne, at about the start of the Gupta eraDisputed

    Sources give 319 or 320 CE. Several historians link Chandragupta I's accession to the start of the Gupta era, but that is an assumption, and others tie the era to Samudragupta or Chandragupta II.

  2. – Samudragupta attacks the kings of the Ganges plain and sends armies southDisputed

    Almost everything comes from one praise poem, the Allahabad inscription, and the campaign dates are unknown. The span shown is the widest reign given, 335 to 380 CE (World History Encyclopedia gives 335 or 350 to 370 or 380).

  3. – The Chinese monk Faxian travels in northern India and writes that criminals are fined and households are not registered

    Faxian does not name the king. He also says rebels could lose their right hands, and that people did not kill animals or drink alcohol, except the outcaste Chandalas.

  4. Skandagupta fights the Huns at the start of his reign, as his Bhitari pillar inscription recordsDisputed

    World History Encyclopedia calls the Huns Hephthalites; Wikipedia says Indo-Hephthalites, probably the Kidarites. Which group is argued. The year is the start of Skandagupta's reign (455 to 457 in World History Encyclopedia's timeline), since the fight is placed early in it.

  5. – Huna rulers Toramana and Mihirakula push deep into northern India during the Gupta declineDisputed

    The start is the earliest date Wikipedia gives for Toramana's sack of Kausambi (497 to 500). World History Encyclopedia dates the Hun conquest of western and central India to 484 to 510. The end is Mihirakula's last year in Live History India (515 to 540; Wikipedia says 542). Wikipedia adds that Narasimhagupta and Yashodharman reversed his campaign by about 530. Sources disagree on when the Gupta empire ended and how much the Huns caused its decline.

  6. Aryabhata, aged 23, completes the Aryabhatiya, a short Sanskrit text on mathematics and astronomyDisputed

    The text gives his age, 23, in the year 3600 of the Kali Yuga, which is 499 CE. MacTutor and EBSCO read this as the year he finished writing; Wikipedia cautions that it need not date the composition. Scholars also argue about whether Kusumapura was his birthplace or only where he worked.