History: Gupta Period

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History
Published
03-Apr-2020

Suranga Bawadi on World Monument Watch list

Context

Suranga Bawadi, an integral part of the ancient Karez system of supplying water through subterranean tunnels built during Adil Shahi era in Vijayapura, is now set to get funding for restoration.

About

The unique underground water system in Vijayapura will receive funds for restoration work.
A New York-based non-governmental organisation has included it in the World Monument Watch list for 2020 along with 24 other monuments from across the world.
The monument has been selected under the ‘Ancient Water System of the Deccan Plateau’.
Suranga Bawadi is expected to get funds for restoration within the next two years.
World Monuments Fund works in collaboration with the local stakeholders, including the district administration, the Archaeological Survey of India, and local explorers of ancient monuments, in highlighting the need for the restoration of ancient monuments.

Karez System

Ancient water system ‘Karez’ which is believed to be one of the best systems in the world.
Karez System is a method to harness water in which groundwater is brought to the surface by a tunnel.
No mechanical pump or lift is used in the system.
Karez system was built in the 16th century by Ali Adil Shah–I, his successor, Ibrahim Adil Shah–II, brought in several changes by adding more structures to strengthen it.
Adil Shahis built the magnificent underground system to supply water to the city.

World Monuments Watch

The World Monuments Watch is a global, nomination-based program that uses cultural heritage conservation to empower communities and improve human well-being.
Through heritage, the program seeks to improve the resilience of communities, enhance social inclusion, and build new capacities in the heritage conservation field and beyond.
Since its inception in 1996, the program has included 814 sites in 136 countries and territories.

How are the sites been selected?

Sites included on the Watch are in need of urgent or timely action.
To be selected for inclusion on the program, nominators must describe the major challenges that the stakeholders of a site are confronted with.
Those challenges are diverse, and they may include the risk that a place may be permanently altered or lost.

Funding for the sites

Inclusion on the Watch program results in various forms of assistance from World Monuments Fund, including financial support for interventions that use heritage conservation to deliver tangible social benefits.
World Monuments Fund is not a grant making institution, and no minimum or maximum amounts of funding are guaranteed.
Rather, through the Watch program, World Monuments Fund partners with local stakeholders to jointly design and implement targeted conservation programs, with budgets that vary.

Social reforms by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

Context

136th anniversary of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was celebrated recently on 28 May.

About

V D Savarkar:

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was commonly known as Veer Savarkar. He was a fearless freedom fighter, social reformer, writer, dramatist, poet, historian, political leader and philosopher.
He was born in 1883 in Bhagur, a tiny village in district Nasik, Maharashtra.
He went through 15 years of torturous imprisonment in Cellular jail of Andaman and Nicobar Islands for organising an armed revolt against the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909. After release from the jail, he focused on social reforms.

Social reforms:

According to him, the Hindu society was bound by seven shackles ( bandi ) viz. prohibition of touch (sparshabandi) of certain castes, prohibition of inter-dining (rotibandi) with certain castes, prohibition of inter-caste marriages (betibandi), prohibition of pursuing certain occupations(vyavasayabandi), prohibition of seafaring (sindhubandi), prohibition of rites sanctioned by the Vedas (vedoktabandi), prohibition of reconversion (shuddhibandi) to the Hindu fold. He appealed to society to break these shackles.
He was a strong critic of the caste system. He worked to ensure that children of lower castes attend school. He gave monetary incentives to their parents and distributed slate and chalk to children from these castes.
He asked the government to abandon the title ‘special schools for low caste children’ as this title creates a feeling of inferiority among children attending the school.
He would visit houses on festivals (like Dussehra and Makar Sakranti), accompanied by people from different castes, and distribute traditional sweets. He himself brought up a girl child from a former untouchable community and taught people from untouchable communities to read, write and recite the Gayatri mantra.
He started the first pan-Hindu Ganeshotsav in 1930. The festival was marked by “kirtans” by the untouchables. Listeners from the higher castes would garland those who rendered these devotional songs. Public lectures by women and inter-caste dining by women were special features of these festivities.
He wrote a song related to the entry of erstwhile untouchables into temples in 1931. It can be translated as “Let me see the idol of God, let me worship God.”
He supported many temple movements of Maharashtra, where the untouchables were encouraged to pray, recite Sanskrit hymns and conduct “abhishek” of the Vishnu idol.
He started a café in 1933 for Hindus of all castes, including untouchables. He had employed a person from the Mahar caste to serve food there.

Central Sanskrit Universities Bill, 2020

Context

The Central Sanskrit Universities Bill, 2020 has been passed by the Parliament after it was passed by Rajya Sabha.

About

This bill will convert thefollowinginto Central Sanskrit Universities:

Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi
Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, New Delhi
Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, Tirupati

These 3 universities will have more opportunities to spread the knowledge of Sanskrit language not only in India but also across the world in a better way.
The Universities will:

disseminate and advance knowledge for the promotion of Sanskrit
make special provisions for integrated courses in humanities, social sciences, and science
train manpower for the overall development and preservation of Sanskrit and allied subjects.

Functions of the Universities:

Key powers and functions of the University include:

prescribing courses of study and conducting training programmes
granting degrees, diplomas, and certificates
providing facilities through a distance education system
conferring autonomous status on a college or an institution
provide instructions for education in Sanskrit and allied subjects

Significance of the Bill:

This is one of the landmark Bills passed by the Parliament which has fulfilled the aspirations and long standing wish of many sanskrit lovers, scholars and Sanskrit speaking people in the country.
The Central University status awarded to these 3 Universities will enhance the status of these Universities and will give boost to Post Graduate, Doctoral and Post-doctoral education and Research in the field of Sanskrit and Shastraic education.
This will pave way for many people from abroad to learn Sanskrit and Shastraic lore from these prestigious Central Sanskrit Universities in our country.

Therefore creation of Central Sanskrit Universities will boost further research in Sanskrit with the deep route that may lead to many useful insights and offer solutions to some of the modern-day problems.

Gupta Period

After the break-up of the Maurya Empire the Satavahanas and the Kushans emerged as two large political powers. The Satavahanas acted as a stabilizing factor In the Deccan and south, to which they gave political unity and economic prosperity on the strength of their trade with the Roman Empire.
On the ruins of the Kushan empire arose a new empire, which established its sway over a good part of the former dominions of both the Kushans and Satavahanas. This was the power of the Guptas, who may have been of vaisya origin. Although the Gupta Empire was not as large as the Maurya Empire, it kept north India politically united for more than a century, from 335 to 455.
The original kingdom of the Guptas comprised Uttar Pradesh and Bihar at the end of the third century A.D. Uttar Pradesh seems to have been a. more important province for the Guptas than 'Bihar, because early Gupta coins and inscriptions have been mainly found in that .state.
It is likely that the Guptas learnt the use of saddle, reins, buttoned-; coats, trousers and boots from the Kushans. All these ga.ve them mobility and made them excellent horsemen.
In the Kushan scheme of things chariots and elephants had ceased to be important. Horses played the main part.
This also seems to have been the case with the Guptas on whose coins horsemen are represented. Although some Gupta kings are described as excellent and unrivalled chariot warriors, their basic strength lay in the use of horses.
The Guptas enjoyed certain material advantages. The centre of their operations lay in the fertile land of Madhyadesa covering Bihar and .Uttar Pradesh. They could exploit the Iron ore of central India and south Bihar. Further they took advantage of their proximity to the areas in north India which carried on silk trade With the Eastern Roman empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. On account of these favourable factors the Guptas set up their rule over Anuganga (the middle Gangetic basin), Prayag (modem Allahabad), Saketa (modern Ayodhya) and Magadha. In course of time this kingdom became an all-India empire.
The first important king of the Gupta dynasty was Chandragupta I. He married a Lichchhavi princess from Nepal, which strengthened his position. The Guptas were possibly vaisyas, and hence marriage to a kshatriya family gave them prestige. Chandragupta I seem to have been a ruler of considerable Importance because he started the Gupta era In A.D. 319-20, which marked the date of his accession. The Gupta kingdom was enlarged enormously by Chandragupta I's son and succesor Samudragupta (A.D. 335-380). He was the opposite of Asoka. Asoka believed in a policy of peace an4 non-aggression, but Samudragupta delighted in Violence and conquest. His court poet Harishena wrote a glowing account of the military explo1ts of his patron.
The reign of Chandragupta II saw the high watermark of the Gupta Empire. He extended the Iimits of the empire by marriage alliance and conquests.

Social and economic conditions

For a reconstruction of social conditions under the Guptas, we depend heavily on the contemporary legal texts, or smritis. A number of such texts, most of which took the Dharmasastra of Manu as their basis, were written during this period, the best-known being the Yajnavalkya , the Narada , the Brhaspati and the Katyayana . These smritis provide an ideal representation of society from the brahmanical point of view. Contemporary Sanskrit plays and prose literature, however, do not always corroborate this ideal and it may be safely assumed that the injunctions of the smrtis were not necessarily strictly enforced. This conclusion is supported by the inscriptions of the period and by the accounts of the Chinese pilgrims Fa-hsien and Hsüan-tsang. In the Gupta period, brahmanical reaction against Buddhism and Jainism became stronger. As a result, varna- (i.e. caste-) based social stratification and the supremacy of the brahmans (the highest caste) received much greater emphasis. It is difficult to ascertain the caste of the Guptas, but they were, in all probability, brahmans themselves and strongly supported the brahmanical social order. The brahmans were given land on a large scale and they claimed many privileges which are listed in the Narada.
The degeneration of the vaisyas (the third, or trader, caste), which had begun earlier, intensified during this period. Because of advanced agricultural techniques and developments in handicrafts, the condition of the sudras (the fourth, or menial, caste) improved and there was no great difference between a poor vaisya and a prosperous sudra. The vaisyas, however, retained their supremacy in industry and commerce and held important positions on the municipal boards. There are repeated references to the sudra peasantry in the contemporary sources as opposed to their status as agricultural labourers in earlier times. The smritis of the Gupta period make a clear distinction between the sudras and the slaves. This period saw the emergence of the untouchables, who were beyond the pale of the caste structure and lived outside the city boundaries.
From this cumulative evidence it appears that the significance of the traditional varna structure, based on colour and race, was being seriously undermined and the jati structure, based on occupational status, was becoming increasingly important. Like the varnas, the jati system was hereditary and the number of jatis gradually proliferated.
Although women were idealized in literature and art, in practice they had a distinctly subordinate social position. Education of a limited kind was permitted to upper-class women but they were not allowed to participate in public life. Early marriage was advocated and strict celibacy was recommended for widows. The attitude of the contemporary smritis towards women was one of contempt. Women were described as almost a consumer commodity, exclusively owned by their husbands. But there were exceptions to this norm in real life.
The social supremacy of the brahmans is also reflected in the economy of the period, as attested by the frequency of tax-free land-grants made to them. This was a period of partial decline in trade and consequently a greater concentration on land. There were four categories of land – fallow and waste land, state-owned land and privately owned land. Agriculture expanded with the reclamation of new land for cultivation. Contemporary texts reveal a more liberal and practical attitude towards waste land, with the state encouraging the peasantry to bring uncultivated and forest land under the plough. Those who reclaimed land on their own initiative and made arrangements for its irrigation were exempted from paying taxes until they started earning an income of twice their original investment.
Agricultural implements remained much the same, although iron was more widely used for their manufacture. Varhamihira, in his astrological work, the Brhat-samihita, refers to an instrument for measuring rainfall. Crops were grown twice a year. According to Hsüantsang, sugar cane and wheat were grown in the north-west and rice in Magadha and further east. Southern India was known for black pepper and spices. The Amarakosa, the Sanskrit lexicon belonging to this period, also refers to a large variety of fruit and vegetables. Despite overall growth, however, brahmanical and Buddhist religious injunctions were not conducive to the expansion of agriculture. The Brahaspati was unwilling to respect the income derived from agriculture and cultivation was prohibited for the Buddhist monks.
The manufacture of textiles of various kinds was one of the more important industries at this time. There was a vast domestic market, since textiles were a prime item of trade between northern and southern India. There was also a considerable demand in foreign markets.
Silk, muslin, calico, linen, wool and cotton were produced in great quantity. The production of silk decreased towards the end of the Gupta period since many members of an important guild of silver-weavers in western India abandoned their traditional occupation and took to other professions. This might have been due to the increasing use of the Silk Route and the Sea Route to China, which brought a large amount of Chinese silk to India or, more generally, to the decline in trade with the West.
Metalwork, particularly in copper, iron and lead, continued as one of the essential industries. The use of bronze increased and gold and silver ornaments were in constant demand. We have little clue as to the sources of the abundant supply of metals in the Gupta period and it seems that copper, lead and tin had to be imported from abroad. Gold may have been obtained from the Byzantine Empire in exchange for Indian products, although Hsüan-tsang mentions that it was also produced indigenously in huge quantities. The working of precious stones continued to maintain its high standard. Pottery remained a basic part of industrial production, although the elegant black polished ware of earlier times was now replaced by an ordinary red ware with a brownish slip.
The guild was the major institution in the manufacture of goods and in commercial enterprise. Some historians believe that the importance of the guilds declined in the Gupta period. India no longer participated in the long-distance trade in luxury goods. Instead a new kind of commercial network emerged on regional lines, based on the exchange of articles in daily use. In these changed circumstances, the powerful guilds of the earlier times disintegrated. Contemporary sources, particularly the seals found at Vaisali and Bhita, suggest nevertheless that both the activities and the significance of the guild remained during this period. Guilds sometimes acted as bankers and loaned money on interest, as did some of the Buddhist sanghas (communities). The rate of interest varied according to the purpose for which money was required.
The export of spices, pepper, sandalwood, pearls, precious stones, perfumes, indigo and herbs continued as before. Pepper was exported from the ports of the Malabar coast and sesame, copper and cotton garments from Kalyana. The Pandya area had an important role to play in the pearl trade. The commodities that were now being imported to India, however, differed from those in earlier times. Chinese silk came in greater quantity, as did ivory from Ethiopia. Imports of horses from Arabia, Iran and Tokharistan also increased. Copper came from the western Mediterranean region and sapphire from Simhala. The Gupta king issued special charters to merchants’ organizations which relieved them of government interference. Since this was the time when the law-makers declared it a great sin for a brahman to travel by sea, this may have resulted in reduced Indian participation in maritime trade.
The literary records of this period suggest an overall economic prosperity at least among the upper classes. Fa-hsien describes the people of Madhyadesha (the ‘middle country’) as prosperous and happy towards the beginning of the fifth century. Evidence of material conditions obtained from excavations also points to a high standard of living. The prosperous urbandwellers lived in luxury; and comfort, in the urban centres at least, was not confined to the upper classes. Yet it was a culture with wide variations. The untouchables lived on the outskirts of the opulent cities and the peasantry were being gradually impoverished. The maintenance of an imperial façade was a purposeless expense which must have been a drain on the economy. Indeed, the debased Later Gupta coinage indicates an economic crisis.

Administration

In many respects, the Gupta administration constitutes the watershed between India’s past and future traditions of polity and government. The most noticeable feature of the post-Mauryan administrative development was the gradual erosion of the government’s centralized power. First, the Satavahanas and the Kushans entered into feudatory relations with the smaller kingdoms. Second, land-grants, which began from this time, created administrative pockets in the countryside managed by the religious beneficiaries. A third factor which contributed to the process of decentralization was the existence of autonomous governments in several cities of northern India. Guilds of traders from these cities even issued coins, which was normally the prerogative of the sovereign power. At several points, however, the old centralized system of administration was continued and even strengthened by the accession of new elements.
The Guptas discarded the modest title of raja and adopted the high-sounding ones brought into vogue by the Kushans. The most typical example is maharajadhiraja which, along with its several variants, appears in Gupta inscriptions. The Gupta kings also claimed superhuman qualities for themselves. They continued the traditional machinery of bureaucratic administration with nomenclature that was mostly borrowed or adopted from earlier times. Thus the mantri (prime minister) stood at the head of the civil administration. Among other high officers were the mahabaladhikrta (commander-in-chief), mahadandanayaka (general) and mahapratihara (chief of the palace guards). A high ranking officer, encountered for the first time in the Gupta records but destined to have a long career, was the sandhivigrahika (foreign minister). The bhuktis (provinces) were usually governed by princes of royal blood and sometimes by a class of officers called uparikas. The link between the central and provincial administration was furnished by kumaramatyas and ayuktas who ruled over visayas (districts). The district officers were nominated by the provincial governors.
For the first time, the inscriptions give us an idea of systematic local administration in the Gupta period, which assumed many new dimensions. The series of northern Bengal epigraphs mentions the adhisthanadhikarana (municipal board), visayadhikarana (district office) and astakuladhikarana (possibly, rural board). The full adhisthanadhikarana is said to consist of four members, the nagarasresthi (guild president), the sarthavaha (chief merchant), the prathamakulika (chief artisan) and the prathamakayastha (chief scribe). The precise significance of the astakuladhikarana is unknown, but in one example it is said to be headed by the mahattaras (village elders) and also includes the gramika (village headman) and the kutumbins (householders).
The significant aspect of Gupta bureaucracy was that, since it was less organized and elaborate than the Mauryan administration of the third century b.c. (seen in Kautilya’s Arthasastra), it allowed several offices to be combined in the hands of the same person and posts tended to become hereditary. In the absence of close supervision by the state, village affairs were now managed by leading local elements who conducted land transactions without consulting the government.
Similarly in urban administration, organized professional bodies enjoyed considerable autonomy. The law-codes of the Gupta period, which provide detailed information about the functioning of the guilds, even entrusted these corporate bodies with an important share in the administration of justice. With the innumerable jatis (which were systematized and legalized during this period) governing a large part of the activities of their members, very little was left for central government. Finally, the Gupta kings had to take account of the brahman donees, who enjoyed absolute administrative privileges over the inhabitants of the donated villages. Thus in spite of the strength of the Gupta kings, institutional factors working for decentralization were far stronger during this period. This Gupta administration provided the model for the basic administrative structure, both in theory and in practice, throughout the early medieval period.

Religious life

The rise of the Guptas was analogous to the emergence of Puranic Hinduism. The vehicle for the propagation of this resurgent Hinduism was a set of texts called the Puranas, the earliest of which were composed in this period.
The Puranas, which began as the historical tradition recording the creation of the universe and detailed the genealogies of each dynasty, were originally composed by bards. During this period, however, they were rewritten by the brahmans in classical Sanskrit to include information on Hindu sects, rites and customs.
Before the coming of the Guptas, the ideal brahmanical social order had been disrupted to such an extent by rulers who patronized the heretical cults that we see an obsessive fear of the Kali, or Dark Age, in all the early Puranas.
All the major aspects of brahmanical religion, by which Puranic Hinduism came to be identified in later centuries, crystallized in this period.
The image of the deity emerged as the centre of worship and worship superceded sacrifice, although a sacrificial offering to the image remained central to the ritual. This in turn encouraged bhakti (devotionalism), which consisted of an intense personal attachment to the object of worship.
As a result, worship of a god became an individual concern and the priest ceased to be so dominant a figure as in the sacrifice.
Hindus became divided into two main sects, Vaishnava and Shaiva, claiming Vishnu and Shiva respectively as the supreme deity, just as each Purana extolled the superiority of one or the other. The worshippers of Vishnu were more prevalent in northern India, where they received active patronage from the Guptas; Chandragupta II called himself a paramabhagavata (devotee of Vishnu).
Shaivism took firm root in the south, although it was not confined to that region. The Huna king Mihirakula, Shashanka the ruler of Bengal, some kings of the Pushyabhutis of Kanauj and the Maitrakas of Valabhi were all followers of Shiva. Despite such sectarian preferences, at times expressed in acute rivalry, there was an underlying strain of monotheism in Puranic Hinduism which saw the various deities as manifestations of a unified whole. The social existence of a Hindu came to be defined in terms of a correct dharma (law), artha (economic well-being), kama (sensual pleasure) and moksa (salvation of the soul).
A notable feature of intellectual life in this period was provided by the lively philosophical disputations between the Buddhists and the brahmans, centring around six different schools of thought which came to be called the six systems of Hindu philosophy. Although their origin can be traced to the thinking of a much earlier period, some of their cardinal principles were enunciated at this time Vedanta is the most influential of the six systems.
The doctrines of Vedanta were based on the Upanisadas (books of the teaching of sages) and gave logical and organized form to their many mystical speculations. It postulated the existence of the ‘Absolute Soul’ and maintained that the final purpose of existence was the union of the individual and this ‘Absolute Soul’ after physical death.
Together these six systems constitute the core of Hindu philosophy and all subsequent developments are its ramifications. Although Buddhism was theoretically still a formidable rival of Hinduism, by the end of this period its influence was waning.

Science and Technology

In the field of mathematics we come across during this period a work called Aryabhathya Written by Aryabhata, who belonged to Pataliputra .It seems that this mathematician was well versed in various kinds of calculations.
A Gupta inscription of 448 from Allahabad district suggests that the decimal system was known in India at the beginning of the fifth century AD In the fields of astronomy a book called Romaka Sidhanta was compiled.
It was influenced by Greek ideas, as can be inferred from its name. The Gupta craftsmen distinguished themselves by their work in iron and bronze.
We know of several bronze Images of the Buddha, which began to be produced on a considerable scale because of the knowledge of advanced Iron technology In the case of iron objects the best example is the Iron pillar found at Delhi near Mehrauli.
Manufactured in the fourth century A.D., the pillar has not gathered any' rust in the subsequent 15 centuries, which IS a great tribute to the technological skill of the craftsmen It was impossible to produce such a pillar in any iron foundry in the West 'until about a century ago. It is a pity that the later craftsmen could not develop this knowledge further