The Kushan Empire was divided into small political powers after centuries of prosperity. Their dominance in northern India was replaced by the Gupta dynasty established by Chandragupta I.

The Gupta Dynasty was the first powerful dynasty in India after the Mauryan Dynasty and the last imperial regime established by the Indians , and is often considered the golden age of Indian classical culture .

Like the Mauryan dynasty, the Gupta dynasty originated in Magadha; its first monarchs were conquerors who did unite northern India, but did not expand too far in the south. Chandragupta II achieved a glorious victory over the Cypriots and is often considered the great hero of Indian legend, Chao Sun King.

The Chinese monk Faxian visited India during the reign of Chandragupta II, and he described the king’s wise rule as a way of life for the Indian people. The culture of the Gupta Dynasty was very prosperous. Brahmanism is resurgent, but by this time it has begun to transform into modern Hinduism; Buddhism and Jainism continue to have widespread adherents.

The religious policy of the Gupta monarchs was generally to allow all sects to spread. In literature, Kalidasa, the greatest poet of ancient India, appeared.

Samadhara Gupta (King Sea Protector, reigned about 330-380) adopted a policy of conquest by force and unified North India. In addition, the land and sea went south to conquer Orissa and the eastern Deccan, and reached Jianzhi, the capital of the Kingdom of Pallava.

Chandra Gupta II (King Chaori, reigned from 380 to 415) conquered Ujayana’s Sakura state and captured Malwa, Katiawa and Sindh. With the exception of Western Punjab and Kashmir, North India has entered the territory of the Gupta Dynasty, and the Gupta Dynasty has reached its heyday.

In the era of Kumarajiva I (reigned from 415 to 455), the Gupta Dynasty could still maintain the stability of North India.

During the reign of Sejendo Gupta (455-467), the Heda people invaded Gupta south for the first time. He mobilized his troops to repel the enemy and defend India from extinction. But after Buddha Gupta (about 500), there was an economic crisis, vassals from all over the country defected from the center, and the country fell into division. The Heida kings Toramana and Misila Kula made a comeback, annexed most of the territory of the Gupta Dynasty, severely damaged the political economy and culture of North India, and prompted it to disintegrate into many small feudal countries, and North India was once again in a political division.

The Gupta Dynasty was the golden age of India in the Middle Ages. During the Gupta Dynasty, Mahayana Buddhism prevailed and Hinduism emerged. There are three sects that believe in the three main gods, Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma. Although the Gupta kings all believed in Hinduism, in order to ease the contradictions between ethnic groups and sects, they adopted a policy of religious compatibility and allowed the free development of religions of all sects. The Nalanda Temple, the center of Mahayana Buddhism, became the religious and academic cultural center of India in the early Middle Ages.

During the Gupta period, agricultural production developed considerably. The progress of handicrafts is manifested in ironmaking, cotton spinning and shipbuilding. Foreign trade is relatively active. In addition, he has made remarkable achievements in Sanskrit literature, painting, sculpture, and architectural art.

The social organization of India during the Gupta Dynasty was still dominated by rural communes, while the long-established slave system was coming to an end and being replaced by the feudal system. In the “Political Affairs” in the first centuries AD, the requirement not to turn free people into slaves was mentioned, and the conditions for the release of slaves were formulated, including that slaves who could pay the ransom should be released, and the land should be rented out by others to cultivate and levy a portion. A share of the harvest replaced slavery.

Faxian, an eminent monk from China who went to India to seek Dharma, revealed the Indian feudal system in “Buddha Kingdom”, stating that kings, elders and laymen all owned a lot of land, and they donated land and movable property to monastic monks. This behavior is a legal procedure, thus producing religious landowners.

It is worth noting that Faxian mentioned that the households on the dependent land are all transferred with the land, which is different from ordinary slaves and has a feudal factor in a certain sense. There are also free peasants, who cultivate the king’s land, pay rent and taxes, and go wherever they want, in contrast to the civilian households who move with the land.

In terms of the political system, the Gupta Dynasty implemented a centralized system. The supreme ruler was the king, and the royal family and nobles and Brahmin monks served as important ministers and royal advisors. The country is divided into several provinces, and the provinces have counties. The governors of the provinces are mostly appointed by princes or other relatives. The county-level magistrates are appointed and governed by the governors.

The Gupta Dynasty (320-500) was the completion period of the feudal system. During the Gupta Dynasty, the fiefdoms granted by the king to officials, nobles, and monasteries gradually evolved into hereditary private territories, and the feudal fief system came into being. The feudal lords often subdivide the territories conferred by the monarch and give them rewards to their vassals. The fiefs were subdivided layer by layer to form a hierarchical vassal relationship.

During the process of feudalization, the caste system in India also changed. The status of free peasants in the village community, which originally belonged to the lower ranks of the Vaishyas, declined and became closer to Sudra. They, along with Sudras and Untouchables, were the main source of feudal-dependent peasants. The social system was gradually differentiated from the caste system and formed into a clan system similar to China.

That is, in the original caste, according to the different occupations, there are many surname classes, and they are hereditary. Between each surname and rank, no mutual marriage is allowed, so that the surname rank system is more consolidated. Moreover, the number of surnames increased, and there were thousands, which made the remnants of the rural communes unable to change for a long time.

For each commune was a self-sufficient economic unit with a whole set of handicrafts attached to it. This system has not changed much even after that.

The above changes had a certain impact on the culture at that time, such as religion, philosophy, etc.

Chaori King attaches great importance to water conservancy irrigation, especially strengthening the construction of water conservancy projects. Promote the development of agriculture in North India, promote the use of iron agricultural tools, and plant grains including barley, wheat, rice, millet, beans, sesame, etc. Cash crops include cotton, hemp, sugar cane, flax, ginger, and vegetable and fruit cultivation. Livestock industry includes cattle, buffalo, camels, donkeys, sheep and goats, and the famous cotton cultivation has been introduced to other neighboring countries.

The handicraft industry of the Gupta Dynasty was also developed, including cotton weaving, silk weaving, wool weaving, weapon manufacturing, metal manufacturing, jewelry, mining and metallurgy, etc. In addition, the shipbuilding industry was very prosperous, and it was famous for producing many galleys. Trade exchanges are mostly luxury goods for the nobles, and they communicate with many countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. Large amounts of Roman, Dasha (Bactrian) and Sassanid Persian currency are found in India. The main force of Chaori King developed westward, which was directly related to the competition for the western estuary and the control of the northwest trade route.

India is in the middle of Eurasia. To the east, the port of Tammo Sudi at the mouth of the Ganges (now the port of Tamluk in Midnapur County, West Bengal) is the outlet to the sea. Trade with Southeast Asian and East Asian countries, and establish commercial colonies in Indochina and the Malay Archipelago.

The West uses the port of Gujarat to trade with the countries of East Africa and the Persian Gulf from Arabia. The land route starts from the Indus River Basin in the northwest, connects to Central Asia in the north and connects with the Silk Road, and connects Europe in the west to China in the east. Export cotton, grain, muslin, tapestries, jewelry, spices, indigo, ivory, and more. Import rare items from various countries, silk, tea, cupronickel, china clay, cinnamon and yellow lotus, etc.

During the Gupta Dynasty, Hinduism arose, and Mahayana Buddhism prevailed. However, religions could develop freely. Some ministers and generals believed in Buddhism and Shiva. Nalanda Temple, the center of Mahayana Buddhism, was built by Kumaragupta I and later became the academic center of Gupta culture.

In the early days of the Gupta Dynasty, they believed in Brahmanism and did not pay much attention to Buddhism. At that time, the attitude of Buddhism towards rulers, as expressed in the Nirvana Sutra, only required the king to provide external protection.

From the Buddhist standpoint to talk about politics in the “King’s Fazheng Theory”, we only hope that rulers often consult with ascetic Brahmins on political affairs. The word ‘Sramana Brahman’ is used here, and Buddhism is not proposed separately, which is very different from the situation in Nagarjuna’s “Precious Xing Wang Zheng Lun”. At that time, Nagarjuna completely stood on the Buddhist stance and asked the king not to be close to worshipping heretics, because King Kandaro believed in Buddhism and respected Nagarjuna very much.

In the current situation, King Gupta only did not reject Buddhism, so he could not speak so hard. However, in the “Vasu Pandou Biography” translated by the true meaning, it is said that the relatives of the world have the faith of the two generations of Zhengqin Riwang and Xinriwang (in addition to the name of Gupta, the emperor of the Gupta Dynasty also used the name of Adedo-ri). ), especially when King Shinri received ordination with his relatives, and the concubine of King Zhengqinri left the family with his relatives. Later, King Shinri and his mother asked his relatives to live in Ayodhya.

In addition, Xuanzang went to India and recorded the history of the construction of Nalanda Temple according to rumors, saying that the history of the temple’s establishment was very early, starting with the Diri King of the Gupta Dynasty (that is, King Saijenta Gupta), and later King Juehu, King Yuri and other kings of all dynasties have been expanded (there are data available in the era of King Juehu, Diri is the previous generation of Juehu, which is probably equivalent to Sejian Tuogupta, which is calculated according to the lineage order, and there is no document. available).

Judging from the true meaning and the facts recorded by Xuanzang, when the Gupta Dynasty reached King Sejenda, they began to change their policies and began to pay more attention to Buddhism. This may be related to the decline of the country’s power. At first, King Sejenda was able to resist foreign aggression and won a victory. He built a big temple of Brahman belief to celebrate. Later, he had to change his religious policy to cheer up people’s hearts.

The Sanskrit poet and playwright Kalidasa has become one of the nine treasures in the Chaori King’s palace. Four poems and three plays have been passed down. “The Envoy of the Clouds” describes the beautiful landscapes of northern India in the form of a love letter to a lover; The Birth of Luo is a mythical story about Shiva and his wife and children; the play “Shakuntala” is a story about the love and misunderstanding between the beautiful and kind girl Shakuntala and the king Doshanda. In addition, the sacred epics of Hinduism “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata” were also compiled during this period.

In terms of architecture, the Ajanta Grottoes and the Aerola Grottoes are the classics. The former is located near the village of Ajanta in what is now Ophangabad County, Maharashtra.

Built between the first century BC and 650 BC, there are four Buddhist temples and twenty-five monks’ rooms, which fully express the Indian style. The door of the room is built according to the terrain, with flying eaves and carved lintels, stone pillars standing under it, and various wall carvings, which are mostly from Buddhist legends, but they are full of life. Ailora Grottoes is 16 kilometers away from Ao Pangabad. It was built in the third century and completed in 1300. It includes three religious temples of Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, and the incense is constantly burning.

In addition, he has made great achievements in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and metallurgy. The mathematician and astronomer of the late dynasty, Ariabada, calculated the number of pi to the last four digits, and identified the rotation of the earth.

The Gupta manuscript Bakhshali, discovered in 1881, includes arithmetic problems such as indefinite equations, inexhaustible approximation, etc. The Super Sun-Royal Calendar (Nukramadite Alexandria), which began in 57 BC, is the calendar of most Hindus.

During the period of King Chaori, the eminent Chinese monk Faxian traveled to India and wrote “Buddha Kingdom” (formerly known as “Journey to Tianzhu”), and some Indian monks also came to China at this time.