IV KĀLIDĀSA AND THE GUPTAS 1. The Guptas and the Brahmin Revival UTTER obscurity attends the decline of the power of the followers of Kanişka in India, but it is certain that in A.D. 320 Candragupta founded, as a result of a matrimonial alliance with a Licchavi princess, a dynasty with head-quarters at Pāṭaliputra, which under his son, Samudragupta (c. A.D. 330-75), stood out as the paramount power in northern India, while his grandson, Candragupta II, completed its success by overthrowing the Kṣatrapas and adding Malwā, Gujarāt, and Kāṭhiāwār to the empire. His son and successor, Kumāragupta (A.D. 413-55), seems to have reigned in unbroken prosperity, and Skandagupta, his son, shortly after his reign began, won a decided success over the Hūna invaders who were advancing from the north-west and menacing India. But between A.D. 465 and 470 the Hūna advance seems to have become irresistible, and at any rate after the death of Skandagupta about 480 the greatness of the empire was irretrievably departed, though the dynasty con- tinued to rule sadly diminished dominions for several genera- tions. By 499 Toramāṇa, leader of the Hūņas, was established as ruler of Malwā, while his successor, Mihiragula, had his capital at Sialkōt in the Panjab. The expulsion of the Huns seems to have been the result about 528 of a victory won by Yaço- dharman, a ruler of central India, and the Gupta Balāditya of Magadha, but the records are curiously unsatisfactory. At any rate Mihiragula retreated to Kashmir, where he won an unenvi- able reputation,2 and shortly after 550 the Turks conquered the Hun kingdom on the Oxus. There can be no doubt that the Gupta empire signified a distinct revival of Brahmanism and a reassertion of Indian ¹ Smith, EHI. chaps. x and xi; Bhandarkar, Early History of India, pp. 47 ff. 2 To him is ascribed the ruin of Gandhara and its art; Foucher, L'Art Gréco- Bouddhique, i1. 588 ff.
पृष्ठम्:Sanskrit Literature.djvu/१०६
एतत् पृष्ठम् अपरिष्कृतम् अस्ति
