L13 - Gupta Age - PART 2 | Complete course on Ancient History | UPSC IAS/IPS | Arti Chhawari

Hello everyone, welcome to UPSC Unstoppables. We are covering all the topics related to ancient history in the series of Ancient History. And if you remember, in the last episode, we started our discussion on Guptas. And not only that, we also talked about Chandragupt I, Samudragupt and Chandragupt II. Along with this, we also saw some amazing coins. We also saw how Chandragupt II did not become a king. Actually, Ramgupt got the power. But how does Chandragupt II get this power? When Ramgupt loses to Shah Krula Rudra Simhadev III, in return, in order to return Rudra Simhadev III to Pataliputra, he is asking for Ramgupt's wife, Dhruvadevi. But Chandragupt II is not ready for this. And in the end, Chandragupt II goes to Rudra Simhadev III's camp, attacks him and kills him. After returning, he kills his brother Ramgupt and marries Dhruvadevi. We discussed this whole story in our last episode. In today's episode, we will move ahead. We saw how Chandragupt II, because he defeated Rudra Simhadev III, is naming himself as Vikramaditya. He is naming himself as Sakari. So, Chandragupt II Vikramaditya or Chandragupt Vikramaditya. Chandragupt was known by this name. To know about Chandragupt, we have an amazing source here. And that is Iron Pillar of Mehrauli. If you go to Delhi, you will see Qutub Complex in Delhi. Qutub Minar is there. In that area, you will find an Iron Pillar which has not fought a war yet. This is from the time of Guptas. And the special thing about this is that we get information about military campaigns done by Chandragupt II. Here, Chandragupt II had another wife of Vikramaditya, Kuber Naga. And she gave birth to a daughter, Prabhavati. Prabhavati Gupta. Prabhavati Gupta played a very important role when Chandragupt II defeated Rudra Simhadev III. So, Prabhavati Gupta played a very important role in this entire game. How? Actually, Prabhavati Gupta was married to the contemporary of Guptas, the king of Deccan region, Rudra Sen. Rudra Sen died very early. And Prabhavati and Rudra Sen's son, who should be the next successor, should sit on the throne, is still very young. That is, he is a minor. Here, because of this, you will see that Prabhavati Gupta, we see her ruling on behalf of her son. She becomes a virtual ruler. So, in the Vakatak dynasty, Prabhavati Gupta's marriage, and her becoming a virtual ruler on behalf of her son, till the time her son does not grow up, these things, in a way, increase the importance of Prabhavati Gupta in the Vakatak dynasty. But even in the case of Chandragupt II, Vikramaditya, the Vakataks have a good influence on them to a great extent. And because of this, the western satrap that we see here on the map, was suppressed by Prabhavati Gupta's army on behalf of the Vakataks, and by Chandragupt Vikramaditya's army on behalf of the Guptas, and in this way, Rudra Sen III was defeated. So, Prabhavati Gupta plays a very important role here. As soon as the western satrap, i.e. Shaks, enters the territory of the Guptas, Chandragupt Vikramaditya creates another capital, which is Ujjain. That is, in the Gupta period, in the Gupta dynasty, we see that there were two capitals. The first one was Pataliputra, and the second one is Ujjain. Ujjain is also seen from where Chandragupt Vikramaditya ruled. Actually, during the time of Chandragupt II, a lot of good military campaigns took place. For example, Vanga, which means Bengal, there were some local chiefs here who defeated them and added their territory to the Gupta empire. Not only this, they also cross the Sindhu river here. And by crossing, the Kushans who were ruling here, some Indo-Greeks were left here, they also do the work of defeating them and also capture their territory. That is, we get to see a very, very big empire here. By Chandragupt I, Samudragupt and Chandragupt II Vikramaditya, a very good, a very big empire that covered India was established by the Guptas. Along with this, one more special thing that we get to see during the Guptas, and particularly during the time of Chandragupt II Vikramaditya, is the arrival of a Chinese traveler. A Chinese traveler, who is also a Buddhist, is coming from China to India. What to do? To visit all the important Buddhist sites, to pay hostage, to translate all the Buddhist texts here into Chinese and take them home with him. This traveler is Fahian. Fahian, this red mark you are seeing, he came on foot through this. He came on foot and with the help of this blue mark you are seeing, he returned to China by boat or ship. His entire journey was of about 9 years, of which 6 years he spent in the Gupta empire. Why is Fahian's visit to India so important here? We know that he is coming to visit Buddhist sites, to collect Buddhist manuscripts, that is true. But Fahian records his entire journey. That is why in the Gupta empire, he tells a lot about the grassroots people in his account book, in his book. He stayed in Pataliputra for about 3 years, learned Sanskrit, translated a lot of Buddhist texts into Chinese Mandarin, and this entire account book, which he used to write together, like any person writes a daily journal, any person writes about what happened in their daily life. Fahian was not very attached to the court, that is, in a way, he did not get to sit and get up with the kings, but he wandered a lot among the common people, because of which he tells a lot about the common people in his account book. And for this reason, his account book will tell us the grassroots reality of the Gupta empire, in which we get to know about religion, society, economy, there are different people here, the situation of women, the situation of untouchables, we get to know a lot of information from Fahian's account book. This is certainly true, no person can be unbiased. Here, when Fahian sees the Gupta empire, he will see it from the point of view of Buddhism, he himself would like that if there is any king, he should definitely support Buddhism. So, Buddhism seems to be declining at this time, and for this reason, Fahian writes a lot of content in this way, in which he criticizes the rulers of the Gupta dynasty, these rulers seem to be criticizing a little, that how the situation of Buddhism and Jainism is bad here. So, you cannot say that this content will be completely unbiased, obviously, there will be an inclination towards Buddhism, we will also get a lot of exaggerated content related to Buddhism, but still, despite Fahian's account book, it gives us a good information about religion, society, economy, common people. In fact, in the coming episodes, when we will understand the administration in detail, when we will understand the society, society of the Gupta empire in detail, then Fahian's account book will be very useful for us. Along with this, Chandragupta II, Vikramaditya was very popular for one more reason, in his time, we get to see a lot of developments in the field of art, culture, literature, in the court of Chandragupta II, Vikramaditya, you will see very good scholars here, like Amar Simha, Dhanvantri, Hari Sen, all these scholars whose names you are seeing on the screen right now, these are collectively called Navratna, i.e. nine gems, these were the nine scholars who used to be in the court of Chandragupta II, Vikramaditya, and they worked a lot in the field of art, literature, like Amar Simha, Amar Simha wrote the book Amarkosh, it is in Sanskrit language, Amarkosh, like you must have heard about Shabdakosh, Shabdakosh is a dictionary, which has a lot of words, similarly, you will find a lot of Sanskrit words in this Amarkosh. Then comes Dhanvantri, who was Dhanvantri? Dhanvantri was a doctor, he was a physician of Gupta's time, Hari Sen, Hari Sen is not a part of the nine gems, but Hari Sen is also an important scholar, we will see him in the court of Samudragupta and Chandragupta II, Vikramaditya. He has written Prayag Prashasti, you must remember, in the last episode, with the help of this Prayag Prashasti, we tried to understand Samudragupta. Then comes Kalidas, Kalidas is called an immortal poet, because his content, what he has written, it is still translated and read in different languages, his epics are there, he has written plays here, he has written poems here, about which we will know in detail, like Abhigyan Shakuntalam, Medha Doodam, Haritu Sanghara, Kumar Sambhav, all these examples are of Kalidas, but we will discuss this in more detail in our next episode. Kaha Pana, he was an astrologer, similarly we see Shanku, who works in the field of architecture, he is an architect. Then comes Varaha Mihir, you will see Varaha Mihir working in the field of astrology, you will see him working in the field of astronomy, you will see him studying hydrology, you will see him studying different kinds of flora and fauna, but his books, Pancha Siddhantika, Brihat Sangeeta, Brihat Jatak, are all about him, like if you see Pancha Siddhantika, in Pancha Siddhantika, different kinds of celestial bodies have been studied, it is a book related to astronomy, when we talk about Brihat Sangeeta, Brihat Jatak, these are the books in which we get information about hydrology, flora and fauna. In fact, Varaha Mihir has even mentioned in these books, that how different animals and birds behave on an earthquake, how they behave, or how they behave before an earthquake. Along with this, he also tells us that like for example, Varaha Mihir had said that where termites are found, there is a source of water around it. Similarly, different kinds of plants and other animals and birds, which are very close to the water source, and if you can see them, then there must be some water source nearby. Varaha Mihir gives such information in his books. Now, let's come to Vararuchi. The speciality of Vararuchi is that you will see Sanskrit language, you will see the grammar of Sanskrit language, you will see any grammar of any language, but the local natural languages spoken by people, these natural languages, were spoken by common people, so there is no step to write grammar on it. But Vararuchi is someone, who has also written the grammar of natural languages here. Then comes Vetal Bhatt, who is called a magician. So, if you see in a way, on the screen, you will find 8 Navratna. We do not count Hari Sen in Navratna. So, you can see here, 8 Navratna. Now, who was the 9th Navratna, who was he, and why was he popular, you will tell about it in the comment section, and I will also tell about it in the next session. Along with this, we see here that the period of 2nd Vikramaditya was very important, whether it is political advancement, whether it is art literature, but after his death, his son, Kumar Gupta, he had to face a lot of attacks here, like the attack of Huns from the North-West. After Kumar Gupta, Skanda Gupta also faced the attack of Huns, but we can say that both Kumar Gupta and Skanda Gupta have resisted the attack of Huns in a very good way. But we see Skanda Gupta as the last important ruler, because after Skanda Gupta, all the successors who came after him, were weak successors here, and they were not able to bear the attack of Huns, or the internal disturbance that was occurring in the Gupta Empire. You will see here, in the Malwa region, the local chiefs named Yashodharman, they are making themselves independent. All the feudal lords, they are gradually making themselves independent. In the Bihar-UP region, there is a tribe called Mokri. In Gujarat, Vallabhi, the local chiefs, who used to rule under the sovereignty of Gupta, but now they are making themselves independent. Not only this, we see a very good example here. If we go towards Haryana, in the Thanesar area, you will see a feudal lord, whose name was Pushyabhuti. When Pushyabhuti saw Gupta's decline, he made his Thanesar area independent, and started the Pushyabhuti dynasty. This Pushyabhuti dynasty, was ruled by the king of this dynasty, King Harshavardhan, who is considered to be a very important ruler of the ancient period. In fact, the period of Harshavardhan, is also considered to be the transition period, in which we enter from the ancient to the medieval period. So, after Chandragupt II, Vikramaditya, Kumargupt and Skandagupt, these two kings have been there, who have protected the Gupta empire. But the successors after them, will be called as weak. Kumargupt is considered to be very popular for another reason. Kumargupt is the one. So, you can see here, all these rulers mostly follow Hindu philosophy. You will see Hindu gods on their coins. Even on the coins of Kumargupt, we can see Lord Kartikeya. These rulers were tolerant rulers. You can see here, how these rulers have patronized Buddhism and Jainism to a great extent. Take for example, Kumargupt. He is the one, who started Nalanda Vishwa Vidyalaya in Bihar. Nalanda Vishwa Vidyalaya, which also became a Buddhist learning centre. By the way, it was a Buddhist learning centre, it was a residential university. But there, the knowledge of Vedas, was studied in astronomy, medicine and other fields. With this, let's end today's episode here. In our next episode, we are going to discuss here, about administration, we will discuss in detail about Gupta's administration. And with this, you will also see here, how the Vardhan dynasty gradually grew from Gupta. We will also learn about Vardhan dynasty in detail. That's all for today's session. But there is a very important information, which I have to give you here. This offer has never come on Unacademy Plus before. You are not only getting 50% off on the subscription of Unacademy Plus, but also 12 months free extension. You understand, if you get a free extension of a whole year, this offer is ending here, today itself, at 12 o'clock. So you can use it. You can use the referral code ARTI1702. Along with this, you will be able to join 9 months UPSC prelims 2024 UPSC Prayas batch. And along with all the top educators of Unacademy, you will also be able to cover your syllabus here. This batch has been live since September 29. Not only this, optional series on Unacademy Plus, optional subjects are also available. Some optionals will be visible on the screen here. If the optional you have chosen is present on the screen, then you can prepare for your optional by subscribing to the optional category here. Unacademy Plus subscription is available here at 0% EMI. And along with this, do not forget 2 October, that is, Gandhi Jayanti will have a very good quiz here, which will be on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, on his legacy. There will be 15 questions, MCQs, you will get 20 minutes. The rank holders who will be here, they are getting some Amazon vouchers here. Like when you come to rank 1, you are getting an Amazon voucher of 5000, with the help of which you can buy good books, etc. Similarly, the children from rank 2 to 10, they will get a voucher of 1000 rupees. And those who come from rank 11 to 50, they will get a voucher of 500 rupees. So definitely participate in this, involve it. This test is going to be on 2 October, at 8 o'clock at night. Thank you so much. Take care.