It was with the destruction of the Kushana Empire due to political imbalance, the emergence of the Gupta Empire by Sri Gupta took place in India. Gupta Empire ruled India between 3rd century and 6th century CE. Gupta Dynasty mainly covered the huge area of Northern part of India. This period was known as the golden age of India due to its remarkable achievement in astronomy, mathematics, religion, philosophy and science. They had an effective administrative and economic system and an impressive political history. In the literary circle also there were many developments enriching the cultural and social history of India.

The kings of Gupta Empire were in origin probably a family of wealthy landowners who gradually attained both economic power and political status. Unlike the founder of the Maurya Dynasty, who is described as an adventurous young man with no significant antecedents, the founder of the Gupta Empire, also called Chandra Gupta, belonged to a family which had established its power at a local level in Magadha. A judicious marriage with a Licchavi princess gave him additional prestige, the Licchavis claiming a long-established respectability. Following his coronation as king of Magadha in A.D. 319-320 Chandra Gupta took the title of ‘maharajadhiraja’, Great King of Kings. Chandragupta was the first of the Guptas to be referred to as ‘Maharajadhiraja’ or ‘King of Kings’, ‘maharajadhiraja paramabhat taraka’ Great King of Kings, the Supreme Lord.

The Gupta period is often described as a period of Hindu renaissance. Gupta Empire was patrons of sculpture, art and music, architecture, and this cultural was at its zenith during their rule. The Guptas prevailed in most of the northern India. In about A.D. 335, Samudra Gupta, the son to Chandra Gupta, inherited the kingdom of Magadha. He conquered the kingdom of Shichchhatra and Padmavati, stretching from the Himalayas to Narmada River and Brahmaputra River, and gradually included twenty kingdoms into his realm. He issued a series of beautifully executed gold coins in which he is depicted both as a conqueror and as a musician, a strange combination of interests. Fortunately for later historians a lengthy panegyric on him was composed by one of his high officials and engraved on an Ashokan pillar which has since been brought to Allahabad. The inscription refers among other things to the martial exploits of Samudra Gupta; to the kings uprooted and the territory annexed in the northern part of the subcontinent. It mentions also the long march which Samudra Gupta undertook in the south, reaching as far as Kanchipuram. Nor are the tributes from foreign kingdoms omitted. Mention is made of the Sakas, Ceylon, various Iranian rulers of the north-west and the inhabitants of all the islands. The latter may refer to Indian trading stations on the islands of South-East Asia and in the Indian Ocean.

The nucleus of the Gupta kingdom, as of the Mauryan Empire, was the Ganga heartland. This and the adjoining territory to the west were the only regions over which Samudra Gupta had absolute and unchallenged control. Gupta control of the Deccan was uncertain and had to be propped up with a matrimonial alliance, a Gupta princess marrying a prince of the Vakataka Dynasty of the Deccan, the successors to the Satavahana power. This secured a friendly southern frontier for the Guptas, which was necessary to Samudra Gupta’s successor, Chandra Gupta II, when he led a campaign against the Sakas in western India.

It was during the reign of Chandra Gupta II that Gupta ascendancy was at its peak. His successful campaign against the Sakas, resulting in the annexation of western India, was, however, not his only achievement. Like his predecessor, he was a patron of poets, philosophers, scientists, musicians, and sculptors. This period saw the crystallization of what came to be the classical norm in ancient India on both the political and the cultural levels. Grammar, logic, astronomy, metaphysics, mathematics, and medicine became highly specialized during the reigning period of Gupta kings. Sanskrit literature reached at its highest glory during this period which produced works like Mrichchakatika by Shudraka, Panchatantra, along with Kalidasa, Bhasa and others. Buddhist and Jain literature also began to be produced in Sanskrit language. In architecture and art it was splendid with the Ajanta caves, Sarnath Buddha, the panels of Dashavatara Temple in Deogarh and the Udaygiri Varaha Cave. In mathematics, Aryabhata brought the concept of ‘zero’ or infinity. In astronomy too it was brilliantly discovered hat the earth was not flat. Several medical advancements also took place and overall the Gupta period is marked for its overall development in art and culture.

In case of administration, it has been observed that superficially Gupta administration was similar to that of the Mauryas. The king was the highest authority and the kingdom was divided into a hierarchy of administrative units like the provinces, districts, and groups of villages had their own range of officers responsible to the most senior officer in the unit. During the Gupta period there was far greater stress on local administration and far less direct control from the centre. There was an efficient administration and political unity in India under the Guptas. The vast empire was divided into provinces, which were under the control of the governors who were from the royal family. The provinces were divided into Vishayas or districts. Lowest unit of administration was the village administered by a local chief. The standing army was laced with cavalry and horse archery. The Gupta judicial system was developed with a differentiation between civil and criminal laws. There were land taxes and excise duties that was collected.

The Guptas were tolerant to any religious tradition and they continued worshipping their family deity of Lord Vishnu. They were active participants in the bhakti devotional movement centered on Vishnu. Hinduism was revived along with its components: major deities, image worship, the importance of the temple and devotionalism.

Even in urban administration, the City Boards consisted opinion and interest (such as the heads of guilds bodies) rather than officers of state. A parallel tendency was developing in the agrarian system, particularly in the sphere of land revenue. The revenue was still collected by the king’s officers, but they retained a certain predetermined percentage in lieu of a regular cash salary. This procedure of payment to officers came to be adopted with increasing frequency. On occasion the king would even grant the revenue from an area of land or a village to non-officials, such as Brahmans renowned for their learning. Inscriptions recording such grants are known from the early centuries A.D. onwards. Since a major part of the state revenue came from the land, grants of revenue were gradually to cause a radical change in the agrarian system. Although it was the revenue alone which was granted, it became customary to treat the land itself as part of the grant. Technically the king could resume the grant, but in fact he seldom did so. The lessening of central control in any case weakened the authority of the king and emphasized local independence, an emphasis which increased in times of political trouble. The recipient of the grant came to be regarded as the lord of the land and the local patron, and he attracted local loyalty towards himself. The more obvious shift in emphasis from central to local power took place later, but its origin can be traced to the Gupta period. However, the more forceful of the Gupta kings still kept authority in their hands and continued to be regarded as the lords of the land par excellence.

The commercial system of the Gupta Empire was engineered in a very proper way. The steady stream of revenue from the land was augmented by income from commercial activity. Indian trading stations were dotted throughout the islands of South-East Asia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand. The gradual acceptance of many features of Indian culture in these areas must doubtless have been facilitated by activities such as commerce. Goods were transported by pack animals and ox-drawn carts and by water when rivers were navigable. The literature of the period is replete with descriptions of the marvels and wonders witnessed by sailors and merchants in distant lands. The textile guilds had a vast market, both domestic and foreign. Ivory-workers, stone-workers, metal-workers, and jewellers all prospered in the economic boom. Spices, pepper, sandalwood, pearls, precious stones, perfume, indigo, herbs, and textiles were exported in large quantities. Amongst the more lucrative imports were silk from China and horses from Central Asia and Arabia.

Some of the wealth of merchants and princes was donated to religious causes: Large endowments had made the Buddhist temples extremely powerful, and provided comfortable if not luxurious living for many Buddhist monks in the more important monasteries. These endowments enabled the monasteries to own land and to employ labour to work it. The superfluous income from such sources was invested in commercial enterprises which at times were so successful that monasteries could even act as bankers. Monastic establishments built in splendid isolation, like the one at Ajanta, were embellished with some of the most magnificent murals known to the ancient world. The growth of centres of Buddhist teaching led to devoted scholars spending many hours on theology and philosophical speculation, thus sharpening the intellectual challenge which the Buddhists presented to the Brahmans.

Some certain reasons are responsible for the demolition of Gupta dynasty. The supremacy of Gupta power in northern India did not remain unchallenged. The challenge came from the unexpected invasion of northwestern India by a distinctly barbaric people, the Hunas. The name is etymologically related to the late classical Himni or Huns, but they were probably only remotely connected with the barbarian hordes of Attila. The threat was felt during the reign of Chandra Gupta’s son and successor Kumara Gupta (A.D. 415- A.D. 454) when a tribe of Hunas, branching away from the main Central Asian hordes, had settled in Bactria, and gradually moved over the mountains into north-western India. Slowly the trickles became streams as the Hunas thrust further into India. The successor of Kumara Gupta, Skanda Gupta (A.D. 454- A.D. 467) had to bear the brunt of the Huna attacks, which were by now regular invasions. Gupta power weakened rapidly. By the early sixth century the Huna rulers Toramana and Mihirakula claimed the Punjab and Kashmir as part of their kingdom.

The Gupta dynasty was the period of “Greater India,” a period of cultural activity in India, also influencing the neighboring countries. The Guptas not only enriched the Indian culture but also had a global impact. Scientific discoveries that were made were helpful not only to India but also the rest of the world. The specimens of art and architecture that flourished were an inspiration for the following dynasties and the legacy continued with more exceptional work of art in the future. The golden rule had enormous impact on religion as well and the Gupta rulers stand apart with their liberal attitude towards it.

The coming of the Hunas not only created political disorder but also put into motion new currents whose momentum was felt for centuries to come. The migration of the Hunas and other Central Asian tribes accompanying them and their settling in northern India resulted in displacements of population. This disturbance led in turn to changes in the caste structure, with the emergence of new sub-castes. The rise of many small kingdoms was also due to the general; confusion prevalent during this period.

With the decline of the Guptas the northern half of the subcontinent splintered into warring kingdoms, each seeking to establish itself as a sovereign power. The successors of the Guptas attempted to recreate an empire, but the political fabric was such that an empire was no longer practicable, a possible exception being the Pratihara kingdom in limited periods. The ability to create large kingdoms and empires moved south to the powers of the peninsula, the kingdoms of the Deccan and the Tamil country. In the centuries that followed the Gupta period it was in the kingdoms of the Chalukya Dynasty, Rashtrakutas, Pallavas, and Chola Dynasty that Indian civilization showed its greatest vitality.