Golden Period of Hindu Civilization in Gupta Dynasty

      If the period of 200 BC to turn of the millennium is termed as a period of consolidation, the next period of around five hundred years is acclaimed as the Golden Period of Indian Civilization. The area outside India was having presence of dynasties such as of The Achaemenids, Parthians, Sakas and Kushans and India had seen good presence of Mauraya Dynasty. All these contemporaries have developed similar characteristics of complex empires evident in good administration, professional armies, effective communications and political stability together with by and large tolerance of multiple religious faiths of the populace.

Gupta Dynasty

      India once again saw emergence of a very effective and successful dynasty in the form of Guptas ruling in between 320 to 550 CE and produced many great rulers like Chander Gupta I, Samudra Gupta, Rama Gupta and Chander Gupta II (also known as Chandragupta Vikramaditya—the sun of power), Kumar Gupta. The beginning of the dynasty has marriages within other great ruling families at its base (marital alliances) but once it was established, the first few rulers pursued highly aggressive expansion policy in all directions. At the height of this dynasty, the empire spanned from river Sindhu to Bay of Bengal in one direction and from Himalayan Mountains to Deccan Plateau on the other direction. Most of the well known Kings of this dynasty are credited with some major inclusions in their territories to the extent that at the time of Vikramaditya, this empire had become the most powerful in the world by completely liquidating forces of Sakas, Mlecchas, Kambojas, Yavana, Tusharas and Hunas. It was the time when Roman Empire was on the way down. Vikramaditya also created his second capital at Ujjain to ensure that his empire is better managed from the centre of the geographic spread of his empire.

      Samudra Gupta was a great lover of arts and literature besides being a strategist military leader. A firm believer of Hinduism, and is known to be worshipping God Vishnu and as a true Hindu with inclusivity, he is the one who allowed Sri Lankan Buddhist King to make the famous monastery at Bodh Gaya. These were not only great warriors and consolidated their boundaries by winning over many local kingdoms; they also expanded the boundary of their rule outside traditional Indian subcontinent. Besides, they were known as people giving a lot of encouragements to all forms of arts, literature, religion, natural sciences, music, paintings, sculpturing. All these developments resulted in good opportunities for cultural and economic exchanges across empires ranging from Romans on one side and China on the other side.

      Peace, Prosperity and Stability of this period enabled fantastic progress of scientific, literary, religious and artistic endeavours. As happens in most historical periods with such environments, extensive discoveries got achieved by numerous contributors in all diverse fields of Science, Technology; Engineering, arts, dialects, languages, literatures, yoga, astronomy; mathematics, theology, philosophy and what not. All these elements got crystallized into Indian Culture and greatly contributed for evolving the Hinduism that we are left to this day. Undoubtedly, there is no other period in history of such great progress on all these fronts.

      Sanskrit got recognized as major languages for the official work of the kingdom and for most compositions in religious spheres, major Shastras got compiled, both epics got reduced to their final shapes, number of tenets got fully absorbed in breadth and length of the society the personal Gods in the shape of Vishnu and Shiva evolved, people started idol worships replacing Vedic rites as symbol of religion, the castes got enlarged with the influx of major chunk under, the early Puranas got started giving rise to yet another type of mythology laden bulky scriptures meeting alternating aspirations from different parts of the country. So much got done during these five hundred years. Hinduism underwent a great transformation as it made its switch towards temple based religion.

      This period is credited for producing some great explorers of different branches of learning. The great astronomer and mathematician, Varahmihira whose treatise named Pancha-Siddhantika made great contribution in expanding scientific knowledge of his time. Other great luminaries of this time included, just to mention few names at random, Kalidasa, Aryabhatta, Vishnu Sharma and Vatsyayana. Kalidas is also known as the best dramatist and romantic composer of all times. It was the brightest spot in Indian history for Hindu Religious and Intellectual resurgence. Besides, it was a great time for developments of magnificent architecture, sculpture and paintings. The main accomplishments of this period are summarized as under:

• Concept of zero and introduction of decimal numeral system which changed the face of mathematics for all time to come.

• Establishing movement of earth around the Sun, Solar and Lunar eclipses got established.

• Sushruta Samhita, a great redaction of all major concepts of Ayurveda medicines got composed in this period along with a very innovative chapter on surgery; yet another first transformation in medical science.

• Chaturanga, the game which is now known as 'Chess' got devised in this period based on tactics perfected as war game involving tactical advancement or retrieving of infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots. Military conquests of this dynasty prove beyond doubt that Indian system of fighting wars was the best in class.

• Kama Sutra, the literature of every aspect of human sexual behaviour got composed during this time.

• The fundamental discovery that earth is not flat but round and rotates around its own axis got initiated in this very period.

• Discovery that moon does not have its own light but shines due to reflection of sunlight also got established in this period.

• Large size Hindu deity, Buddha statues and Jain Tirthankar statues got stone carved in this period from big centres at Mathura and Gandhar.

• Caves of Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta came up during late Gupta period.

• Dashavatara Vishnu temple at Deogarh, Parvati temple at Nachna, Kuthara and brick built Lakshmana temple at the banks of Mahanadi at Sirpur and Varsha sculptures in the rock cut cave at Udayagiri all came up in this period.

• The early Puranas started taking their final shape during this period.

• The system of minting Gold, Silver and Copper coins started first time showing India as the prolific minter with advanced progress in metallurgical sciences.

      These examples are not to be taken as stray cases of sparks but as the examples of all-round advancement in all knowledge fields. India had never seen such great intellectual advancements. Even diplomatically, this was the best time of history as Guptas are known to have harmonious trade and cultural relations with all powers in the west and with Sri Lanka, Burma, Malaysia and China on the east.

      But all good things must end too. The nomadic groups of Huns started invading the country from central Asia. While their initial attempts got failed, the Gupta Dynasty could not eventually recover back from the losses of facing Huns. After the decline of Gupta Dynasty, India again saw disintegration under numerous regional and smaller kingdoms, which ultimately resulted in decreased collective power to stand against aggressions from foreign lands.

      With end of Gupta dynasty, the shining Sun of Indian intellectual advancements went for sunset followed by a very long, dark, oppressive night where Indians went through a long period of nightmare, condensation and trampling forced under foreign invaders.