document1

Click Here For Integrated Guidance Programmehttp://upscportal.com/civilservices/online-course/integrated-free-guidance-programme

WWW.UPSCPORTAL.COMClick Here to Buy Full Study Kit in Hard Copyhttp://upscportal.com/civilservices/online-course/study-kit-for-ias-pre-gs-paper-1-2012

GIST OF N.C.E.R.TTERRITORIAL STATES AND

THE FIRST MAGADHAN EMPIRE

The MahajanapadasIn the age of the Buddha we find 16 large statescalled Mahajanapadas, They were mostly situatednorth of the Vindhyas and extended from the north-west frontier to Bihar. Of these Magadha, Koshala,Vatsa and Avanti seem to have been considerablypowerful. Beginning from the east we hear of thekingdom of Anga which covered the moderndistricts of Monghyr and Bhagalpur. It had itscapital at Champa, Eventually the kingdom, of Angawas swallowed by its powerful neighbour Magadha.

Magadha embraced the former districts of patna,Gaya and parts of Shahbad, and grew to be theleading state of the time. North of the Ganga inthe division of Tirhut was the state of the Vajjiswhich included eight clans. But the most powerfulwere the Lichchhavis with their capital at Vaishaliwhich is identical with the village of Basarh inthe district of Vaishali. The Purnas push theantiquity of Vaishali to a much earlier period, butarchaeologically Basarh was not settled until thesixth century B.C.

Further west we find the kingdom of Kashi withits capital at Varanasi. In the beginning Kashiappears to be the most powerful of the states, buteventually it had to submit to the power of Koshala.

Koshala embraced the area occupied by easternUttar Pradesh and had its capital at Shravasti,which is identical with Sahet-Mahet on the bordersof Gonda and Bahraich districts in Uttar Pradesh.But we see the beginnings of a mud fort. Koshalacontained an important city called Ayodhya, whichis associated with the story in the Ramayana.Koshala also included the tribal republicanterritory of the Shaky as of Kapilvastu. The capitalof Kapilavastu has been identified with Piprahwain Basti district. Lumbini, which lies at a distanceof 15 km from Piprahwa in Nepal served as anothercapital of the Shakyas. In an Ashokan inscriptionit is called the birthplace of Gautama Buddha andit was here that he was brought up.

In the neighbourhood of Koshala lay the republicanclan of the Mallas, One of the capitals of the Mallas

lay at Kushinara where Gautama Buddha passedaway. Kushinara is identical with Kasia in Deoriadistrict.

Further west lay the kingdom of the Vatsas, alongthe bank of the Yamuna, with its capital atKaushambi near Allahabad. The Vatsas were aKuru clan who had shifted from Hastinapur andsettled down at Kaushambi. Kaushambi waschosen because of its location near, the confluenceof the Ganga and the Yamuna

We also hear of the older states of the Kurus andthe Panchalas which were situated in westernUttar Pradesh, but they no longer enjoyed thepolitical importance which they had attained inthe later Veidc period.

In central Malwa and the adjoining parts of MadhyaPradesh lay the state of the Avantis. It was dividedinto two parts. The northern part had its capital atUggain, and the southern part at Mahishamati.

Rise and Growth of the Magathian EmpireMagadha came into prominence under theleadership of Bimbisara, who belonged to theHaryanka dynasty. He was a contemporary of theBuddha. He started the policy of conquest andaggression which ended with the Kalinga war ofAshoka. Bimbisara acquired Anga and placed itunder the viceroyaity of his son Ajantashatru atChampa. He also strengthened his position bymarriage alliances. He took three wives. His firstwife was the daughter of the king of Koshala andthe sister of Parsenajit. His second wife Chellanawas a Lichchhavi princess from Vaishali who gavebirth to Ajatashatru and his third wife was thedaughter of the chief of the Madra clan of Punjab.

Magadhas most serious rival was Avanti with itscapital at Ujjain. Its king Chanda PradyotaMahasena fought Bimbisara, but ultimately the twothought it wise to become friends. Later whenPradyota was attacked by jaundice, at the Avantikings request Bimbisara sent the royal physicianJivaka to Ujjain.

The earliest capital of Magadha was at Rajgir, which



was called Girivraja at that time. If was surroundedby five hills, the openings in which were closed bystone-walls on all sides. This made Rajgirimpregnable.

According to the Buddhist chronicles, Bimbisararuled for 52 years. roughly from 544 B.C. to 492B.C. He was succeeded by his son Ajatashatru (492-460 B.C.). Ajatashatru killed his father and seizedthe throne for himself. Throughout his reign hepursued an aggressive policy of expansion. Thisprovoked against him a combination of Kashi andKoshala. There began a prolonged conflict betweenMagadha and Koshala. Ultimately Ajatashatru gotthe best of the war, and the Koshalan king wascompelled to purchase peace by giving his daughterin marriage to Ajatashatru and leaving him in solepossession of Kashi.

Although his mother was a Lichchhavi princess,this did not prevent him from making war againstVaishli. He created dissensions in the ranks ofthe Lichchhavis and finally destroyed theirindependence by invading their territory and bydefeating them in battle. It took him full 16 yearsto destroy Vaishali. Eventually he succeeded indoing so because of a war engine which was usedto throw stones like catapults. He also possessed achariot to which a mace was attahced, and itfacilitated mass killings. The Magadhan empirewas thus enlarged with the addition of Kashi andVaishali.

Ajatashatru faced a stronger rival in the ruler ofAvanti. Avanti had defeated the Vatsas ofKaushambi and now threatened an invasion ofMagadha. To meet this danger Ajatashatru beganthe fortification of Rajgir. The remins of the wallscan be still seen. However, trie invasion did notmaterialize in his lifetime.

Ajatashatru was succeeded by Udayin (460-444B.C.) His reign is important because he built thefort upon the confluence of the Ganga and Son atPatna. This was done because Patna lay in thecentre of the Magadhan kingdom, which nowextended from the Himalayas in the north to thehills of Chotanagpur in the south.

Udayin was succeeded by the dynasty ofShishunagas, who temporarily shifted the capitalto Vaishali. Their greatest achievement was thedestruction of the power of Avanti with its capitalat Ujjain. This brought to an end the 100 year oldrivalry between Magadha and Avanti. From nowonwards Avanti became a part of the Magadhan

empire and continued to be so till the end of theMaurya rule.The Shishunagas were succeeded by the Nandas,who proved to be the most powerful rulers ofMagadha. So great was their power that Alexander,who invaded Punjab at that time, did not dare tomove towards the east. The nandas added to theMagadhan power by conquering Kalinga from wherethey brought an image of the Jina as a victorytrophy. All this took place in the reign ofMahapadma Nanda. He claimed to be ekarat, thesole sovereign who destroyed all the other rulingprinces. It seems that he acquired not only Kalingabut also Koshala which had probably rebelledagainst him.The later Nandas turned out to be weak andunpopular. Their rule in Magadha was supplantedby that of the Maurya dynasty under which theMagadhan empire reached the apex of glory.THE AGE OF THE MAURYASChandragupta MauryaTHE MAURYA dynasty was founded by ChandraguptaMaurya, who seems to have belonged to someordinary family. According to the brahmanicaltradition he was born of Mura, a shudra woman inthe court of the Nandas. But an earlier Buddhisttradition speaks of the existence of a kshatriyaclan called Mauryas living in the region ofGorakhpur adjoining the Nepalese terai. In alllikelihood, Chandragupta was a member of thisclan. He took advantage of the growing weaknessand unpopularity of the Nandas in the last days oftheir rule. With the help of Chanakya, who isknown as Kautilya, he overthrew the Nandas andestablished the rule of the Maurya dynasty. Themachinations of Chanakya againstChandraguptas enemies are described in detailin the Mudrarakshasa, a drama written byVishakhadatta in the ninth century. Several playshave been based on it in modern times.Justin, a Greek writer, says that Chandraguptaoverran the whole of India with an army of 600,000.But Chandragupta liberated north-western Indiafrom the thraldom of Seleucus, Chandragupta thusbuilt up a vast empire which included not onlyBihar and good portions of Orissa and Bengal butalso western and northwestern India, and theDeccan. Leaving Kerala, Tamil nadu and parts ofnorth-easrtern India the Mauryas ruled over thewhole of the subcontinent. In the north-west theyheld sway over certain areas which were notincluded even in the British empire.



Imperial OrganizationThe Mauryas organized a very elaborate system ofadministration. We know about it from the accountof Megasthenes and tghe Arthashastra of Kautilya.Megasthenes was a Greek ambassador sent bySeleucus to the court of Chandragupta Maurya. Helived in the Maurya capital of Pataliputra and wrotean account not only of the administration of thecity of Pataliputra but also of the Maurya empireas a whole. The account of Megasthenes have beenpublished in the form of a book called Indika, whichthrows valuable light on the administration, societyand economy of Maurya times.

The account of Megasthenes can be supplementedby the Arthashastra of Kautilya. Arthashastragives authentic information about the Mauryaadministration and economy. On the basis of thesetwo sources we can draw a picture of theadministrative system of Chandra-gupta Maurya.

If we believe in a statement of the Arthashastra,the king had set a high ideal the happiness of hissubjects lay his happiness and in their troubleslay his troubles. According to Megasthenes theking was assisted by a council.

The empire was divided into a number of provinces,and each province was placed under a prince whowas a scion of the royal dynasty. The provinceswere divided into still smaller units, andarrangements were made for both rural and urbanadministration. Excavations The administrationPataliputra, which was the capital of the Mauryas,was carried on by six committees, each committeeconsisting of five members. These committeeswere entrusted with sanitation, care of foreigners,registration of birth and death, regulation ofweights and measures and similar other functions.

The most striking feature of Chandraguptasadministration is the maintenance of a Huge army.According to the account of a Roman writer calledPoiny, Chandragupta maintained 600,000 foot-soldiers, 30,000 cavalry and 9000 elephants theMauryas also maintained a navy. Theadministration of the armed forces, according toMegasthenes, was carried on by a board of 30officers divided into six committees, consisting offive members.

Ashoka (273-232 B.C.)Chandragupta Maurya was succeeded byBindusara, whose reign is important for continuedlinks with the Greek princes. His son, Ashoka, isthe greatest of the Maurya rulers. According to

Buddhist tradition he was so cruel in his early lifethat he killed his 99 brothers to get the throne.But since the statement is based on a legend, itmay well be wrong. His biography, prepared byBuddhist writerters, is so full of finction that itcannot be taken seriously.

Ashokan InscriptionsThe history of Ashoka is reconstructed on the basisof his inscriptions. These incriptions, numbering39, are classified into Major Rock Edicts, Minor RockEdicts, Separate Rock Edicts, Major Pillar Edictsand Minor Pillar Edicts. The name of Ashoka occursonly in copies of Minor Rock Edict I found at threeplaces in Karnataka and at one in Madhya Pradesh.All the other inscriptions mention onlydevanamptya piyadasi, dear to gods, and leave outthe word Ashoka. The Ashokan inscriptions arefound in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan.Altogether they appear at 47 places, and their totalversions number 182. They were generally placedon ancient highways. Composed in Prakrit, theywere writtne in Brahmi script in the greater partof the subcontinent. But in its north-western partthey appeared in Aramaic language and Kharoshthiscript, and in the Afghanistan they were writtenin both Aramaic and Greek scripts and languages.He is the first Indian king to speak directly to thepeople through his inscriptions which carry royalorders. The inscriptions throw light on the careerof Ashoka, his external and domestic polices, andthe extent of his empire.

Impact of the Kalinga WarThe ideology of Buddhism guided Ashokas statepolicy at home and abroad. After his accession tothe throne, Ashoka fought only one major war calledthe Kalinga War. According to him, 100,000 peoplewere killed in this war, several lakhs perished,and 150,000 were taekn prisoners. At any rate itseems that the king war moved by the massacrein this war. So he abandoned the policyof physicaloccupation in favour of policy of cultural conquest.In other words, bherighosha was replaced withdhammaghosha. We quote below the worlds ofAshoka from his Thirteenth Major Rock Edict:

Ashoka no longer treated foreign dominions aslegitimate areas for military conquest. He tried toconquer them ideologically. He took steps for thewelfare of men and animals in foreigh lands, whichwas a new thing considering the condition of thosedays. He sent ambassadors of peace to the Greekkingdoms in West Asia and Greece. He sentmissionaries for the propagation of Buddhism to



Sri Lanka and Central Asia. As an enlightenedruler Ashoka tiled to enlarge his area of politicalinfluence through propaganda.It would be wrong to think that the Kalinga warmade Ashoka an extreme pacifist. On the otherhand he adopted a practical policy of consolidatinghis empire. He retained Kalinga after its conquestand incorporated it into his empire. There is alsonothing to show that he disbanded the huge armymaintained from the time of ChandraguptaMaurya. Within the empire he appointed a class ofofficers known as the rajukas, who were vestedwith the authority of not only rewarding people butalso punishing them, wherever necessary.Internal Policy and BuddhismAshoka was converted to Buddhism as a result ofthe Kalinga war. According to tradition hs becamea monk, made huge gifts to the Buddhists andundertook pilgrimages to the Buddhist shrines.The fact of his visiting the Buddhist shrines is alsosuggested by the dhamma yatras mentioned in hisinscriptions.According to tradition the Buddhist council(Sangiti) was held by Ashoka and missionaries weresent not only to south India but also to Sri Lanka,Burma and other countries to covert the peoplethere. Brahmi inscriptions of the second and firstcenturies B.C. have been found Sri Lanka.Ashoka set a very high ideal for himself, and thiswas the ideal of paternal kingship. He repeatedlyasked his officials to tell the subjects that the kinglooked upon them as his children. As agents of theking, the official were also asked to take care ofthe people. Ashoka appointed Dhammama-hamatras for propagating dharma among varioussocial groups including women. He also appointedrajukas for the administration of justice in hisempire.He disapporved of rituals, especially those observedby women. He forbade killing certain birds andanimals, and completely prohibited the slaughterof animals in the capital. He interdicted gay socialfunctions in which people indulged in revelries.Ashokas Place in HistoryIt is said that the pacific policy of Ashoka rainedthe Maury a empire, but this is not true. On thecountry Ashoka has a number of achievements tohis credit. He was certainly a great missionaryruler in the history of the ancient world. He workedwith great zeal and devotion to his mission andcahieved a lot, both at home and abroad.

Ashoka brought about the political unification ofthe country. He bound it further by one dharma,one language and practically one script calledBrahmi which was used in most of his inscriptions.In unifying the country he respected such scriptsas Brashmi, Kharoshthi, Aramaci and Greek.Evidently he also accommodated such languagesas Greek, Prakrit and Sanskrit and variousreligious sects. Ashoka follwed a tolerant religiouspolicy. He did not try to foist his buddhist faith onhis subjects. On the other hand he made gifts tonon-Buddhist and even anti-Buddhist sects.

Ashoka was fired with zeal for missionaryactivities. He deputed officials in the far-flung partsof the empire. This helped the cause of ad-ministration and also promoted cultural contactsbetween the developed Gangetic basin and thebackward distant provinces. The material culture,typical of the heart of the empire, spread to Kalingaand the lower Deccan and norther Bengal.

Above all ashoka is important in history for hispolicy of peace, non-aggression and culturalconquest. He had no model in early Indian historyfor pursuing such a policy; nor did such an exampleexist in any country except Egypt where Akhnatonhad pursued a pacific policy in the fourteenthcentury B.C. But it is obvious that Ashoka was notaware for his Egyptian predecessor.

However, Ashokas policy did not make any lastingimpression on his viceroys and vassals, whodeclared themselves independent in theirrespective areas after the retrirement of the kingin 232 B.C. Similarly, the policy could not converthis neighbours, who swooped on the north-westernfrontier of his empire within 30 years of Ashokasexit from power in 232 B.C.

THE RISE AND GROWTH OF THE GUPTA EMPIREBackgroundAFTER THE break-up of the Maurya empire, theSatavahanas and the Kushans emerged as twolarge political powers. The Satavahanas acted asa stablizing factor in the Deccan and south to whichthey gave political unity and economic prosperityon the strength of their trade with the Romanempire. The Kushans performed the same role inthe north. Both these empires came to an end inthe middle of the third, century A.D.

On the ruins of the Kushan empire arose a newempire, whiclvestablished its sway over a good partof the former dominious of both the Kushans andSatavahanas. This was the empire of the Guptas,



who may have been of vaishya origin. Althoughthe Gupta empire was not as large as the Mauryaempire, it kept north India politically united formore than a century from A.D. 335 to 455. Theoriginal kingdom of the Guptas comprised UttarPradesh and Bihar at the end of the third centuryA.D. Uttar Pradesh seems to have been a moreimportant province for the Guptas than Bihar,because early Gupta coins and inscriptions havebeen mainly found in that state. If we leave outsome feudatories and private individuals, whoseinscriptions have been mostly found in MadhyaPradesh, Uttar Pradesh will stand out as the mostimportant area in respect of the finds of the Guptaantiquitiews. Hence Uttar Pradesh seems to havebeen the place from where the Guptas operatedand fanned out in different directions. Probably withtheir centre of power at Prayag they spread in theneighbouring regions.

The Guptas were possibly the feudatories of theKushans in Uttar Pradesh and seems to havesucceeded them without any wide time-lag. Atmany places in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar theKushan antiquities are immediately followed bythe Gupta antiquities. It is likely that the Guptaslearnt the use of saddle, reins, but-toned-coats,trousers and boots from the Kushans. All these gavethem mobility and made them excellenthorsemen. In the Kushan scheme of things, horse-chariots and elephants had ceased to be important.Horsemen played the main part. This also seemsto have been the case with the Gupta on whosecoins horsemen are represented. Although someGupta kings are described as excellent andunrivailed chariot warriors, their basic strengthlay in the use of horses.

The Guptas enjoyed certain material advantages.The centre of their operations lay in the fertileland of Madhyadesha covering Bihar and UttarPradesh. They could exploit the iron ores of centralIndia and south Bihar. Further, they tookadvantage of their proximity to the areas in northIndia which carried on silk trade with the EasternRoman empire, also known as the Byzantineempire. On account of these favourable factors theGuptas set up their rule over Anuganga (the middleGangetic basin), Prayag (modern Allahabad), Saketa(modern Ayodhya) and Magadha. In course of timethis kingdom became an all-India empire. TheKushan power in north India came to an endaround A.D. 230 and then a good part of centralIndia fell under the rule of the Murundas, who werepossibly the kinsmen of the Kushans. The

Murundas continued to rule till A.D. 250. Twenty-five years later, in about A.D. 275, they dynasty ofthe Gupta came to power.

Chandragupta I (A.D. 319-334)The first important king of the Gupta dynasty wasChandragupta I. He married a Lichchhavi princessmost probably from Nepal, which strengthened hisposition. The Guptas were possibly vaishyas, andhence marriage in a kshtriya family gave themprestige. Chandragupta I seems to have been aruler of considerable importance because hestarted the Gupta era in A.D. 319-20, whichmarked the date of his accession. Later manyinscriptions came to be dated in the Gupta era.

Samudragupta (A.D. 335-380)The Gupta kingdom was enlarged enormously byChandragupta Is son and successor Samudragupta(A.D. 335-380). He was the opposite of Ashoka.Ashoka believed in a policy of peace and son-aggression, but Samudragupta delighted in violenceand conquest. His court poet Harishena wrote aglowing account of the military exploits of hispatron. In a long inscription the poet enumeratesthe peoples and countries that were conquered bySamudragupta. The inscription is engraved atAllahabad on the same pillar which carries theinscriptions of the peace-loving Ashoka. The placesand the countries conquered by Samudragupta canbe divided into five groups. Group one includesprinces of the Ganga-Yamuna doab who weredefeated and whose kingdoms were incorporatedinto the Gupta empire. Group two includes therulers of the eastern Himalayan states and somefrontier states such as princes of Nepal, Assam,Bengal, etc., who were made to feel states andsome frontier states such as princes of Nepal,Assam, Bengal, etc., who were made to feel theweight of Samudraguptas arms. It also covers somerepublics of Punjab, The republic, which flickeredon the ruins of the Maurya empire, were finallydestroyed by Samudragupta. Group three includesthe forest kingdoms situated in the Vindhya regionand known as Atavika raiyas; they were broughtunder the control of Samudragupta. Group fourincludes twelve rulers of the eastern. Deccan andsouth India, who were conquered and liberated.Samudraguptas arms reached as far as Kanchi inTamil Nadu, where the Pallavas were compelled torecognize his suzerainty. Group five includes thenames of the Sankas and Kushans, some of themruling in Afghanistan. It is said that Samudraguptaswept them out of power and received the



submission of the rulers of distant lands. Theprestige and influence of Samudragupa spreadeven outside India. According to a Chinese source,Meghavarman, the ruler of Sri Lanka, sent amissionary to Samudragupta for permission to builda Buddhist temple at Gay a This was granted, andthe temple was developed into a huge monasticestablishement. If we believe the eulogisticinscription from Allahabad, it would appear thatSamudragupta never knew any defeat, andbecause of his bravery and generalship he is calledthe Napoleon of India. There is no doubt thatSamudragupta forcibly unified the greater part ofIndia under him, and his power was felt in a muchlarger area.

Chandragupta II (A.D. 380-412)The reign of Chandragupta II saw the highwatermark of the Gupta empire. He extended thelimits of the empire by marriage alliance andconquests. Chandragupta married his daughterPrabhavati with a Vakataka prince who belongedto the brahmana caste and ruled in central India.The prince died, and was succeeded by his youngson. So Prabhavati became the virtual paler. Asshown by some of her land charters, which betraythe influence of the eastern Gupta writing, shepromoted the interests of her father Chandragupta.Thus Chandragupta exercised indirect control overthe Vakataka kingdom in central India. Thisafforded a-great advantage to him. With this greatinfluence in this area, Chandragupta II conqueredwestern Malwa and Gujarat, which had been underthe rule of the Shaka Kshtraps for about fourcenturies by that time. The conquest gaveChandragupta the wester sea coast, famous fortrade and commerce. This contributed to theprosperity of Malwa, and its chief city Ujjain. Ujjainseems to have been made the second capital byChandragupta II.

The exploits of a king called Chandra are glorifiedin an iron pillar inscription fixed near Qutb Minarin Delhi If Chandra is considered to be identicalwith Chandragupta II, it will appear that heestablished Gupta authority in north-western Indiaand in a good portion of Bengal. But the epigraphicaeulogy seems to be exggerated.

Chandragupta II adopted the title of Vikramaditya,which had been first used by an Ujjain ruler in 57B.C. as a mark of victory over the ShakaKshatrapas of western. India The court ofChandragupta II at Ujjain was adorned bynumerous scholars including Kalidasa and

Anairasimlia. It was in Chandraguptas time thatthe chinese pilgrim Fahsien (399-414) visited Indiaand wrote an elaborate account of the life of itspeople.

Fall of the EmpireThe successors of Chandragupta II had to face aninvashion by the Hunas from Central Asia in thesecond half of the fifth century A.D. Although inthe be-ginning the Gupta king Skandragupta triedeffectively to stem the march of the Hunas intoIndia, his successors proved to be weak and couldnot cope with the Huna invaders, who excelled inhorsemanship and possibly used strrups made ofmetal. They could move quickly and being ecellentarchiers they seem to have attained considerablesuccessor not only in Iran but also in India.

By 485 the Hunas occupied eastern Malwa and agood portion of central India where theirinscriptions have been found. The intermediateregions such as Punjab and Rajasthan also passedunder their possession. This must have drasticallyreduced the extent of the Gupta empire at thebeginning of the sixth century. Although the Hunapower was soon overthrown by Yashodharaman ofMalwa who belonged to the Aulikara feaudatoryfamily, the Malwas prince successfully chanllengedthe authority of the Gupta snd set up in 532, pillarsof victory commemorating his conquest of almostthe whole of northern India, Yashodharmans rulewas shortlived, but it meant a severe blow to theGupta empire.

The Gupta empire was further undermined by therise of the feudatories. The governors appointedby the Gupta kings in north. Bengal and theirfeudatories in Samatata or south-east Bengaltended to become independent. The late Guptas ofMagadha established their power in Bihar..Alongside them the Maukharis rose to power inBihar and Uttar Pradesh, and had their capital atKanauj. It seems that by 550 Bihar and UttarPradesh had passed out of Gupta hands. By thebeginning of the sixth century we find independentprinces issuing land grants in their own rights innorthern Madhya Pradesh, although they use theGupta era in dating their charaters. The rulers ofValabhi established their authority in Gujarat andwestern Malwa. After the reign of Skandagupta,i.e. A.D. 467, hardly any Gupta coin or inscriptionhas been found in western Malwa and Saurashtra.The loss of wester India, which seems to have beencomplete by the end of the fifth century, must havedeprived the Guptas of the rich revenues from trade



and commerce and cripppled them economically.In north India the princes of Thanesar establishedtheir power in haryana and then gradually movedon to Kanauj.

The Gupta state may have found it difficulut tomaintain a large professional army on account ofthe growing practice of land grants for religiousand other purposes, which was bound to reducetheir revenues. Their income may have furtherbeen affected by the decline of foreign trade. Themigration of a guild of silk-weavers from Gujaratto Malwa in A.D. 473 and their adoption ofnonproductive professions show that there was notmuch demand for cloth produced by them. Theadvantages from Gujarat trade graduallydisappeared. After the middle of the fifth centurythe Gupta kings made desperate attempts tomaintain their gold currency by reducing thecontent of pure gold in it. But this proved of no avail.Although the rule of the Imperial Guptas lingeredtill the middle of the sixth century A.D., theimperial glory had vanished a century earlier.

document1

Documents