POINTS TO REMEMBER

Samudra Gupta is known as the Indian Napoleon. . The Gupta era started in AD 320.
. The royal seal of the Guptas bore the emblem of the
garudas.
. The official language of the Guptas was Sanskrit.
. The narrative scenes of the Ajanta paintings of this
period mainly relate tq stories from the Jataka.
. The poet Harisena's inscription-known as Prayagaprasasti
and engraved on the Asokan pillar at Allahabad­
speaks of Samudragupta's accession and conquests. . According to Prayagaprasasti, 12 rulers from dakshinapatha
(South India) were defeated by Samudra Gupta.
. Gupta Kings adopted titles like Parambhattaraka,
Paramdaivata, Chakravarti, Parmeshwar, etc.
. Pratihara in the Gupta age regulated ceremonies and granted the necessary permits for admission to the royal presence. Dutakas were associated with the task of implementing land gifts to brahmans and others.
. Uparikara was a tax levied on cloth, oil etc. Sulka, a commercial tax, was imposed on the organisation of traders. The king had a right to forced labour (visthi), bali and many other types of contributions.
. The Gupta empire was divided into desas or rashtras, or bhuktis. The bhuktis were governed by uparikas (provin­cial governors) who were appointed directly by the king.
. The bhukti or province was divided into vishayas (dis­tricts) under an officer called ayuktaka and in other cases a vishayapati appointed by the uparika.
. The l)ead of the city Ip.erchants was called nagarsresthi, while the caravan leader was known as sarthavaha. . Pustapalas were the district level officials whose work
was to manage and keep records.
. Village under gramapati or gramadhyaksha was the lowest
unit of administration.
. Gupta inscriptions from Bengal mention different cat­
egories of villages such as gramikas, kutumbis and mahattaras.
. Lands under cultivation were usually called kshetra, while those not under cultivation were variously called as khila, aparahata, etc.
. Nivartana was the term used for a measure of land but, in the inscriptions of Bengal, terms like kulyavapa and dronavapa are used for measuring land.
. Irrigation through ghati-yantra, also known as araghatta, became more popular in the Gupta age. In ghati-yantra, a number of pots were tied to a chain. The chain and the pots were rotated to reach down to the water of the hull so that pots would continuously fill with water and empty the hull.
. Ordinary cultivators of the Gupta period were known by various terms such as krishihala, karshaka or kinass. They had low social and economic status.
. Kshauma and pattavastra were different varieties of silk
cloth produced in the Gupta age.
. An inscription of the fifth century AD from Mandasor (Malwa) refers to a guild of silk weavers who had migrated from South Gujarat and had settled in the Malwa region.
. Brahman settlements in the Gupta period were known
as brahmadiyas, agraharas, etc. '
. Various jatis (castes) originated in the Gupta age through
varna- samkara or inter-marriages between various varnas.
. Vratya kshatriyas or semi-KShatriyas were the terms used
for various pre-Gupta ruling families.
. The empire of the Guptas, feudatories of the Kushans in Uttar Pradesh, arose on the ruins of the Kushan empire. After the end of Kushan power around AD 230, central India fell under the rule of the Murundas, possibly the kinsmen of the Kushans. The Murundas were defeated by the Guptas in AD 275.
Harishena was a court poet of Samudragupta.
. Atarilca rajyas was the term used for forest kingdoms
situated in the Vindhya region.
. The victory of Chandra Gupta IT over western Malwa
and Gujarat gave the Gupta ruler the western sea coast,
which was famous for trade and commerce.
. Chandra Gupta II, who adopted the title of Vikramaditya,
made Ujjain his second capital.
. Skanda Gupta is credited with effectively stemming the march of the Hunas into India, but his successors could not cope with the Huna invaders who excelled in horsemanship and used stirrups made of metal.
. Yasodharman of Malwa successfully challenged the authority of the Guptas and set up, in AD 532, pillars of victory commemorating his conquest of almost the whole of northern India.
. Following the end of the Gupta rule in the sixth century, Maukharis, with their capital at Kanauj, rose to power in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
. Land tax in the Gupta period varied from one-fourth
to one-sixth of the produce.
. Kumaramatyas, appointed in the home provinces and
paid in cash, were the most important officers in the
Gupta empire.
. In the urban administration, organised professional bodies
were given considerable share.
. The grant of fiscal and administrative concessions to priests and officers was an important feudal develop­ment that surfaced under the Guptas. Religious func­tionaries were granted land (free of tax for ever) and they were authorised to collect from the peasants all taxes that could have otherwise gone to the king. Royal agents, retainers, etc. could not enter the granted vil­lages.
. The Guptas issued the largest number of gold coins,
called dinars in Gupta inscriptions, in ancient India.
. There were two main factors for the proliferation of numerous sub-castes in Indian society during the Gupta period: (i) assimilation of foreign invaders, mainly as kshatriyas, into the Indian society, and (ii) absorption of many tribal peoples into brahmanical society through the process of land grants.
. The position of shudras improved in this period. T were allowed to perform certain domestic sites i worship a new god, Krishna.
. The first example of sati appears from Eran (Mad
Pradesh) in Gupta times in AD 510.
. The status of women, particularly these belonginl
upper varnas, declined during the Gupta period.
. Bhagavatism or Vaishnavism overshadowed Mahay
Buddhism by the time of the Guptas.
. Samudra Gupta is represented on his coins playing I . There are 33 lines in Harisena's Prayagaprasasti. . The Gupta period is called the Golden Age of anc
India. .
. Samudra Gupta granted permission to the Bud~
king of Ceylon, Meghavarman, to build a monaste~
Bodh Gaya.
. Chandra Gupta IT married with the Naga pnnj
Kubernaga and allowed his daughter Prabhavat
marry with Rudrasena II, a Vakataka king.
. The Mehrauli iron pillar inscription near Qutab M
Delhi, enumerates the exploits of Chandra Gupta
. The Gupta empire extended from north Bengal ill
east to Kathiawar in the west and from the Himal
in the north to Narmada in the south.
. Ajanta, Ellora and Bagh are the famous centres of G
paintings.
. The Gupta era heralded the two important stylE
temples-Nagara (North India) and Dravida (Soutl
dia).
. An over two-metre high bronze image of the BUt
belonging to the Gupta period has been recovered
Sultanganj (Bihar).
. The best specimens of Hindu sculpture during the (
period are found in the Deogarh (Madhya Pra(
temple.
. 'The chief characteristics of Gupta art are refineI
simplicity of expression, and religious virtuosity.
. The Indian notational system was called Hindsa b:
Arabs who took it to the West.
. Aryabhatta is credited with calculating the value
and the length of a solar year.
. Vagabhatta was a renowned physician of the tin