Class 7 Social Science Chapter 7: The Gupta Era: An Age of Tireless Creativity Notes

What is this chapter about?

In Mehrauli, Delhi, stands an iron pillar more than 1,600 years old that has still not rusted. It was made in the reign of Chandragupta II, a Gupta king, and its inscription praises a ruler named ‘Chandra’. The chapter follows Bhavisha and Dhruv into his age, from about the 3rd to the 6th century CE, and asks three questions: who the Guptas were and why their time is called the ‘classical age’, what was happening in the rest of the subcontinent, and which great figures of this period still matter.

A new power emerges

The Kushana Empire in the north and north-west was weakening by the 3rd century CE, and new kingdoms appeared. The Guptas began as regional rulers somewhere near present-day Uttar Pradesh and grew into the most powerful empire of the age, with its capital at Pataliputra (present-day Patna). Around them were the Vakatakas in the centre, the Pallavas in the south and the Kamarupa kingdom in the northeast. Read the Gupta Empire.

The great Gupta kings

Chandragupta I laid the foundation with his coins and alliances; one gold coin shows him with his queen, Kumaradevi. His son Samudragupta is praised in the prayaga prashasti, a pillar inscription in Prayagraj written by the court poet Harisena. It says the king wanted dharani-bandha, to ‘unify the Earth’, and fought many wars; many defeated kings were given back their kingdoms and paid him tribute, while others gave in without a fight. He also supported art, learning and trade, and a coin shows him playing the veena. His son Chandragupta II, also called Vikramaditya, was a devotee of Vishnu. Historians add the ‘II’ because his grandfather had the same name. At its height, the empire reached across much of today’s northern and western India and into central and eastern India.

A traveller’s view

Faxian, a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, came in the early 5th century CE to visit sacred sites, learn from Indian scholars and take Buddhist texts home. In his travelogue he describes a large and contented population, people who did not have to register their households, farmers who gave part of their grain for royal land, salaried royal guards, rich cities on the Gangetic plains, and charity houses where the poor, orphans and the sick got food, medicine and care. He also records that the chandalas were treated harshly and kept outside the city. Such an account is precious, but it shows one writer’s view of one part of society, so historians check it against other sources.

Running and enriching the empire

Gupta kings took grand titles such as maharajadhiraja, samrat and chakravartin. They held their empire together by conquest, diplomacy and marriage alliances: Chandragupta II’s daughter Prabhavati Gupta married into the Vakataka family and later ruled that kingdom as regent. Instead of controlling everything from the centre, they split the empire into provinces and handed land to priests, chieftains and local rulers, recording the grants on copper plates. Land tax was the main source of revenue, with fines and taxes on mines, irrigation, trade and crafts. Trade reached the Mediterranean world, Southeast Asia and China, with textiles, spices, ivory and gemstones as exports; on Socotra Island in the Arabian Sea, pottery and Brahmi inscriptions show Indian traders living there for centuries.

The classical age

Peace and wealth allowed the Gupta rulers to support scholars and artists, and some historians call this India’s ‘classical age’. Aryabhata, at Kusumapura around 500 CE, suggested that the Earth turns on its axis, explained eclipses and gave the length of a year within minutes of the modern value. Varahamihira of Ujjayini wrote the Brihat Samhita on subjects from astronomy and weather to town planning and farming. Kalidasa wrote refined Sanskrit poetry, including Meghadutam, the Cloud Messenger. Ayurveda was codified in the Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita, and the rust-resistant Iron Pillar shows the skill of the metalworkers. Read the classical age: arts and sciences.

The quest for beauty

Gupta rulers created conditions in which art thrived. Sarnath, near Varanasi, became famous for sculptures of the Buddha; the Ajanta caves in Maharashtra were carved and painted with Gupta and Vakataka support; and Udayagiri in Madhya Pradesh has rock-cut caves with detailed carvings of deities. The Dashavatara temple at Deogarh and the terracotta river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna from Ahichchhatra are other examples of ‘Gupta art’, which set high standards for later times.

Decline, and the kingdoms around

By the 6th century CE, the Hunas from Central Asia attacked again and again, while powerful regional rulers rose inside the empire, and Gupta power declined. Meanwhile, the Pallavas ruled parts of what are now Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh from Kanchipuram, ‘the city of a thousand temples’, and the Kamarupa kingdom of the Varman dynasty ruled the Brahmaputra valley. Samudragupta had defeated rulers of both but let them keep their thrones in return for tribute. Read Vakatakas, Pallavas and Kamarupa.

Before we move on

The Guptas held their empire together through wars, land grants and marriage alliances; their age saw remarkable work in art, literature, science and mathematics; and the Vakatakas, Pallavas and Varmans made the period culturally rich beyond the Gupta lands. Answers to every question are in the NCERT solutions for Chapter 7.