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Sec. 4. HISTORICAL FOSITION OF THE T.S.
Toramana of the Hūras whose conquest was entrusted to his son Skada gupta. When Skandagpta returned from his victorious war, King Kumaraguta I was dead and his legitimate son Purugupta was on the throne, thereby the former likely userped the seat of the latter. Skandagupta was then succeeded by the sons of Purugupta, i. e., Budhagupta and Narasimhagupta. This civil war of the struggle for the throne is explained by the historians to be the main cause which invited the later disintegration of the empire, because soon we learn that the suzerain states in the remote district such as Valabbi were on the way to set up independent kingdoms. Meanwhile the Hüqas whose advancement was once checked by Skandgupta enhanced their power as they just defeated Persia, and advanced to the heart of the Gupta empire, Pāțaliputra. It was around 500 A. D.,24 and with the destruction of this capital, the empire passed away in effect, even though the dynasty still lingered on.
Fa Hien who travelled around the Gupta empire during 405-411 A. D. briefly gives us an idea of the goneral peace, prosperity and contentment of people prevailed in the country. Currency was controlled by the central Government and the unit of gold was dipära which corresponded to denarius of Rome, suggesting a huge international economic block established in this hemisphere. No doubt the former ball of the 5th century enjoyed the political unity and economic prosperity, which bowever gradually want dowowards as it is corroborated by the numismatic evidence that the gold coins issued in the later part of this century suffered deterioration.
The Guptas patronized Sanskrit learning, which brought out the florescent age of the Sanskrit literature in all its branches. Sanskrit was established as the official, language, making a striking contrast to the previous Mauryan and Kusban. periods wherein the inscriptional documents spoke themselves in Prakrit or in the mixed dialect of Prakrit and Sanskrit. Responding to the social needs, the Buddhists had already adjusted themselves in writing in Sanskrit whereas the Jainas still continued to write in Prakrit. Umāsvāti's adoption of the Sanskrit language was doubtlessly a, responce to the call of time. North India in this age produced Kalidasa in literature, Varahamihira and Buddhagupta in astronomy, and Aryabhatı in mathematics. The purānas are mostly the products of this period, deliberately attempting to achieve reconciliation of the then flourishing heterodox cults such as Vaisnavism and Saivism with the orthodox Vedic rituals. The manner of displaying the long gencalogies of kings and dynasties as elsewhere noted in the puranas was not observed in the previous age, with which probably goes the practice of attaching a prajasti to the literary work as so done by Umāsvāti for the first time in the literary history of the Jaidas, The caste system based on heredity began to be rooted in during this Gupta age, and the commentarial activities on the Dharmasastra and Arthasastra were welcomed with a view to standardizing the social order on the basis of their principles.
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