RISE AND FALL OF THE GUPTA EMPIRE
With the coming of the Buddha in early 4th century A.D. historical data
becomes more reliable. Starting from 4th century A.D. till the latter
half of the 6th century AD the facts of the day enable us to come to
firm conclusions.
How exactly the Guptas rose to power is difficult to be portrayed. With
the collapse of the Indo-Scythian or Kushan empire some tie during the
3rd century A.D. the political pictures for northern Indian began to
transformed. In all likelihood, a large number of independent states
must have been formed. The lichachhavis of Vaisali of the days of Buddha
re-emerged again. It appears that they obtained possession of
Pataliputara and probably ruled as tributaries of the Kushans who had
their headquarters at Peshawar.
Very little is known of the early rulers of the Gupta dynasty. The
founder of the dynasty was Sri Gupta who bore the titles raja and
maharaja. Historically, as can be gleaned from a few Gupta
inscriptions, the history of dynasty really starts with king Ghatokacha,
the son of Sri Gupta. Unfortunately, the original borders of the Gupta
possession are not known. A number of historians feels that these must
have coincided with the borders of Magadha, while others include parts
of present day west Bengal as well. The vagueness of the answers of this
question is because of lack of precise epigraphic data. One of the main
written sources available is the writing of the Chinese Pilgrim,
T-Tsing.
