SAMUDRA GUPTA (AD 335-380)

SAMUDRA GUPTA (AD 335-380)

It would seem that there was some trouble over succession to the throne after Chandra Gupta I, and the coins of an obscure prince Kacha suggest 'that Samudra Gupta had a rival whom he finally overcame. Samudra Gupta has been called the 'Indian Napoleon' by V.A. Smith because of his extensive military conquests about which we know from the eulogic inscription (Prayag Prasasti), com­posed by his minister and court-poet Harisena, on an old Asokan pillar at Allahabad. According to the inscription, all his life was spent in military campaigns. He subjugated five kingdoms in lower Bengal, upper Assam, Nepal and the, territories farther west, as well as a number of republican clans including the Malavas, the Yaudheyas, the Arjunayanas, the Abhiras in Punjab and Rajasthan, and several minor ones in Madhya Pradesh. They paid homage and taxes to the Gupta emperor but enjoyed internal autonomy.

Samudra ,Gupta also advanced through the forest tract of Madhya Pradesh to the coast of Orissa and then proceeded upto Kanchi, the capital of Pallavas. The inscription at Eran (Madhya Pradesh) is also a useful source of information about his campaigns.
It would appear that Samudra Gupta directly ruled over a vast territory in north India, extending roughly from the Brahmaputra to the Chambal, surrounded by a number of tributary states immediately to the north, east- and west. The Shakas and Kushans who ruled in Punjab and Gujarat, though independent, had to be 8ub­missive to him. Beyond the Vindhya range he exercised some sort of suzerainty over at least twelve states in the Deccan and South India. Harisena describes Samudra Gupta as the hero of a hundred battles.

Some of the coins of Samudra Gupta represent him as playing on the vina. He also performed Asvamedha sacrifice. Though a follower of the brahmanical religion, he was tolerant of other faiths-he granted permission to the Buddhist king of Ceylon, Meghavarman, to build a mon­astery at Bodh Gaya. He assumed the tiles of Vikramanka and Kaviraja.