Gupta Empire (320­550 CE)
Krishna Menon
Period 3
The Gupta Empire was an empire that was formed during the classical period of 320­
550 CE. and were considered the Golden Age of India. After the fall of the Mauryan Empire and the Kushan’s unsuccessful attempt to rule India, a new line of kings called Guptas were brought to the throne and managed to unify India once again. They managed to do this by negotiating with the local princes, alonging with intermarrying their families. The Guptas were able to avoid fighting for the most part while still continue expanding, which was different from their predecessor, the Mauryan Empire.
The Guptas were able to claim the throne, using a variety of tricks. This included the rulers claiming themselves to be appointed by the gods and favored Hinduism. To ensure loyalty to the king, the Gupta Empire established a personal representative at every prince’s court. The Guptas created a taxation system in which the empire would receive ⅙ of the agricultural products. The Guptas did not create a social bureaucracy, but instead, allowed the defeated princes to continue ruling as long they followed under Gupta rule. This was later practiced by the British when they took over India in the late 19th­century.
The Guptas did provide social services, including road building. Guptas were also patrons of art and promoted education by creating universities on art and literature. They promoted Sanskrit as the national language, but did not change the regional languages as they were too popular to be removed. The caste system began to become more complex as subdivisions were created. Ultimately, it led to almost 300 classes. It was also now possible for people to marry others outside of their caste along with falling into a lower caste by doing work not appointed to them. An example would be the Kshatriyas sweeping the road and

collecting the trash, as that’s considered the job of the untouchables. This immediately makes him into an untouchable. Strangely, the caste system was able to provide tolerance as many lower­caste people believed they will end up in higher castes in their next lives.
Indian literature was finally being written and this included epic poems like
Panchatantra. Indian literature usually included the Hindu gods and these stories were emphasised for imagination. Because of the Gupta empire pushing for education, they were able to make important contributions to medicine and astronomy. For medicine,