The Gupta Empire

The present work describes the material and moral progress which India had achieved during the paramount sovereignty of the Gupta emperors in the fourth and fifth centuries a.d. It traces the origin and rise of the ruling family to Srigupta (240-280 a.d.) and concludes with the reign of Kumaragupta III (543 a.d.). It discusses the spirit of the age and the various trends in the sphere of Religion, Economy, Society, Education, Administration, Art and Architecture. It seeks to bring together all the facts and data derivable from different sources--literary, epigraphic and numismatic, the accounts of foreign visitors, particularly of the Chinese pilgrim Fa-hien who has left a detached and valuable record of India's civilization during the reign of Chandragupta II. Herein we get an accurate picture of India's golden age, the growth of her various institutions, her activities of expansion, colonization and her intercourse with Indonesia, China and other countries. The work is divided into sixteen chapters. It has an index of proper names and an addenda on the hoard of new Imperial Gupta coins discovered at Bayana in Bharatpur. The work is very interesting and instructive and is designed to meet the requirements of the academic student of history and the general reader alike.

About the Author:

Noted historian and politician, Dr. Radhakumud Mookerji, started life as Professor of History in the Bengal National College under the Principalship of the late Sri Aurobindo. Subsequently, he joined the Mysore University where he was Professor of History from 1917 to 1921. Thereafter he became Professor and Head of the Department of History in the Lucknow University and remained there for an unbroken period of twenty-five years. After retirement he continued to be Emeritus where his friends had endowed a Lectureship in his name. He was a prolific author and had to his credit 15 books on different aspects of ancient India.